New Zealand - getting around and house sitting

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
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If you go in visa-free for the 90 days then you must have an onward ticket. You can get an dummy ticket or a refundable ticket if you aren’t sure of your departure date or location yet. Several people on this forum have used onward travel ticket services as a placeholder for an actual ticket, including me.
If you apply for the visa, you can get up to 6 months and you do not have to have a return ticket. I discovered this the last time I went in. The visa is free but doe require some time filling out the form online.

Most of the sits we did in New Zealand were through Kiwi HS. There just wasn’t enough on Trusted. We also spent a fair amount on accommodation, as there weren’t always sits where we wanted to visit, but it is possible to find more affordable accommodation if you are driving. I posted a blog further up in this post that talks a bit about buying and selling a car in NZ. I highly recommend it. (Also we took the Picton ferry and it was great, but a few weeks later it was delayed for thousands of people, so it’s definitely hit or miss!)

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We use The Housesitting Company in NZ (I am a Kiwi). We have had plenty of good sits with them and while they require a Criminal Record Report when applying for membership, we are impressed with their service and insurance coverage, not to mention their reasonable membership fee. They respond quickly to any emails I send and because I don’t return to New Zealand every year, they allow me to carry over my initial application and I only need to pay my annual fee at the time I want to access their listings for housesits.

Edited to remove link in line with Forum guidelines

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@BunnyCat - Didn’t realise I wasn’t allowed to post a web address - guess it is done to protect THS from competition. I only did it because THS do not have a lot of choices of sits in NZ. Google the name and you will find their contact details

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