Using the Kiwi Experience

The Kiwi experience is a great way to travel New Zealand without the worry of finding transport along the way. The bus journey covers the whole two islands (depending on which route you purchase) and makes sure you stop at all the best bits New Zealand has to offer. They also give you a really handy guide free of charge, that has a description of every place you visit, and things you can do there. It also has interesting facts and ideas of things you can do if you are on a budget, plus a little calendar which you can use to help organise your trip.

Once on the bus, the driver will send round clipboards for you to fill in about how many nights stays you want in one of the compulsory night stops. These are often large cities, and it is up to you how long you stay there, although the drivers will usually recommend an amount of time.

Here is the map that is in the guide. As you can see, the different passes are all colour coded for you to see which bits you want to add on, and the large green circles are the compulsory overnight stops.

With Kiwi experience, you are guaranteed one nights stay in their chosen hostel, which is good as you don't have to worry about booking anything unless you want to stay elsewhere or stay for a longer amount of time. The hostel they choose is usually a Base hostel, or sometimes a special location that is a bit different. You usually spend $30 a night which was slightly expensive, and some people found rooms for cheaper on websites, but often couldn't stay in the same rooms together so it may be better for lone travelers.

The drivers do need days off, so sometimes you may not be able to leave on the day you want, as it is a day where no busses leave or arrive. You can by all means make your own way to somewhere, and rejoin the bus at a later date, however Kiwi Experience asks that you complete the full journey with them, in order for you to reuse the pass again. 

For example, we started our pass at Auckland so we would have to travel back to Auckland with kiwi to use the pass again. Due to lack of time, we flew from Christchurch to Auckland, so if we wanted to use our passes again, we would have to start at Christchurch and complete the rest of the stops back up to Auckland in order to do the whole trip again within a year. This is a nice idea, as it means you can go back and do anything you missed, which is something we would like to do, however after Kaikoura, the places you stop are places you have stopped before.

Adding on locations is possible at all times. Things like the Milford Explorer, the Deep South and The Cape Reinga trip are add ons you can purchase at anytime, should your pass not cover it already. Most of the time the kiwi experience website will have one pass on sale, so it's best to snap it up, and then tailor make your add ons later on in the trip. The process is very easy and the driver will take your payment and explain everything to you.

For example, our pass did not include the day trip to Milford sound, whereas our friend Mark's did, so we just purchased that add on and were able to go the same day as him with no problems.

The final condition of the pass, is that you cannot go back on yourself. Once you have left a location, you cannot go back to the last place with the Kiwi bus, you must make your own way there. After Christchurch, we went to Kaikoura to see the whales, however we had to book a bus back to Christchurch in order to catch a flight, as the kiwi bus was heading back north to Wellington.

As well as a guaranteed night stay with Kiwi, you are also guaranteed the cheapest quotes to do activities, and a guaranteed spot for those as well. This is perfect for people who want to do the exciting yet expensive activities such as sky diving, bungee jumping and white water rafting, which are some of the NZ must dos. Again, the driver will send round a clipboard and you simply pop down your name, and pay the money and that is it, you are officially booked to do it.

As we said earlier, the kiwi experience passes always have at least one on sale so snap it up fast if your thinking of doing this exciting trip. It's such an easy way to travel, book activities as well as meet fellow travellers. The general age range of our bus was 18 years old gap year students to about our age (25) however this could change from bus to bus. Unlike some other bus tours such a contiki, which is known as more of a party bus, the kiwi experience aim is to make sure you see the best New Zealand has to offer.