Rugby world cup 2011!!!

afatbollix

So its nearly a year away... I think I might get ahead of the ques and book soon to maybe go.

Flights whats the adverage price booking 12 months in advance?
I was thinking of booking a campervan. Its prob the best way of getting about / cheap accom and when there isent a match on he can feck off to look else where..
Anyone have any websites to rent a camper? or a priceish to rent one for a month..

There is websites offering flights / camper for 6 / tickets at €3500 each.. Sounds expensive.. Stupid expensive..

Tigerandahalf

World cup time in NZ will be crowded and expensive. The weather in October/November wouldn't be great either...Dec and Jan would be the best months. Would be good craic though

Why Should I

afatbollix wrote: »

So its nearly a year away... I think I might get ahead of the ques and book soon to maybe go.

Flights whats the adverage price booking 12 months in advance?
I was thinking of booking a campervan. Its prob the best way of getting about / cheap accom and when there isent a match on he can feck off to look else where..
Anyone have any websites to rent a camper? or a priceish to rent one for a month..

There is websites offering flights / camper for 6 / tickets at €3500 each.. Sounds expensive.. Stupid expensive..

I am heading over this weekend to get the party started

Claasman

381 EUR for tickets for the 4 pool games...
I'd say you will be better off organizing it yourself...

http://tickets.rugbyworldcup.com/shows/show.aspx?sh=RWC10TP11&view=rwcpt&ep=rwc

earnyourturns

I live in Dunedin now and have tickets to all the games here (including the Ireland-Italy one) so let me know if anyone is passing through!

testicle

afatbollix wrote: »

I was thinking of booking a campervan. Its prob the best way of getting about / cheap accom and when there isent a match on he can feck off to look else where..
Anyone have any websites to rent a camper? or a priceish to rent one for a month..

You're leaving it a bit late, they all sold out about 6 weeks ago, for the most part. Try Maui/Britz etc. Google is your friend. kikistyletravel or campertravel are agencies.

earnyourturns wrote: »

I live in Dunedin now and have tickets to all the games here (including the Ireland-Italy one) so let me know if anyone is passing through!

I'll be there, no tickets yet.

C0N0R

Ill be in nz somewhere, heading out to Christchurch now in oct for a year or maybe a bit more. Not sure where I'll be for the rwc so I haven't even looked about tickets, atmosphere will do me just fine if needs be!

GEKKO135

Seriously thinking of going down myself! For campervans and rentals I hear Britz are good...

http://www.britz.com/

and tickets are going back on sale soon as well for individual matches, another 400,000 so it says.

http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/destinationnewzealand/news/newsid=2039888.html#phase+ticket+applications+open+sept

gonna be awesome!

DKIL1979

Hi there

We have booked a spaceship car/camper thing so far and have our names in the draw for individual games (ireland v australia/russia/italy) and are hoping to get tickets. booked the ferry between the two islands last night, couldn't believe how booked the ferry was so for all looking to use it don't delay. cannot sort flights yet as return flight not available as yet. was trying to estimate and coming in and out in sept from london and they were crazy money e2500 :eek:, anyone else having better luck getting flights sorted. we are looking to go mid-sept to mid-oct.

SligoL

And there was me thinking I was super organised - tickets sorted, camper van booked and booking flights as part of my RTW trip but ferry crossing never occurred to me. Would u mind posting link to book it? What sort of price are we talking?? Thanks a mill!!

PhiliousPhogg

http://www.interislander.co.nz/

Takes 3 hours or so and give yourself time to check in. Nice boat trip though.

Vorsprung

Applied for tickets for the USA/Oz matches, didn't get either. Disappointed to say the least!

M three

4 of us going, 2 of us entered the lottery and applied for the full 4 sets of tickets per application. Both of us were successful in the lottery so we had 4 spare tickets to each of the 4 pool games, 2 are already gone, if anyone else is going and needs the other 2 sets let me know

Thinspired

Two of us also applied for individual tickets to the pool games excluding USA, got Italy and Russia but not Oz so we're absolutely gutted. Hopefully we'll get lucky in this last chance round that's coming up at the end of this month - it's first come first served so I'll be ready!

Have flights, hostel for Auckland, campervan and most campsites booked so I was feeling quite happy with myself... but I COMPLETELY forgot about the ferry until i saw this thread.

M three

Thinspired wrote: »

Two of us also applied for individual tickets to the pool games excluding USA, got Italy and Russia but not Oz so we're absolutely gutted. Hopefully we'll get lucky in this last chance round that's coming up at the end of this month - it's first come first served so I'll be ready!

Have flights, hostel for Auckland, campervan and most campsites booked so I was feeling quite happy with myself... but I COMPLETELY forgot about the ferry until i saw this thread.

good work. Havent even looked at campsites, any pointers?

Just in case anyone is looking for tickets we have 2 spare tickets for each of irelands 4 pool games thank to the lottery!

Thinspired

A word of warning - some of the campsites we looked at have jacked up their prices unbelievably! One, I think it's called the capital motor inn outside Wellington, quoted us $125 a night for a single powered site! Needless to say we went elsewhere. For matches there's good camping choice in Rotorua and Dunedin, think we paid around $30 a night. Auckland we have a hostel booked.

To save money we're going half nice posh campsites with pools etc and half Department of Conservation campsites which have showers, loos and not much else but are usually only about $10 a night.

This site has I think all of the major sites on it

http://www.nzcamping.co.nz/index.php

and this one is just for DOC sites

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-stay/conservation-campsites-by-region/

If you're wondering about drive times and distances etc this is a pretty useful link:
http://www.newzealand.com/travel/getting-to-around-nz/travel-times-and-distances/travel-times-and-distances-home.cfm

And if you want to nerd it up and plan out your itinerary already (like me) then this is a useful starting point, as well as just a general search on the Lonely Planet's thorntree forum.
http://www.nzonline.org.nz/itinerariesstandard.htm#7Day

Also (this is totally nerdy I know) for anyone who's driving around NZ and wants to do the Milford Sound trek (it's three or four days) and is freaking out about where to park up for the few days without your camper/car being robbed or trashed, I found this site
http://www.saferparking.co.nz/faq.html

Happy planning!

DKIL1979

We are paying for flights this Fri. Cost €1281 including all taxes and charges from Dublin to Auckland thro Hong Kong with Cathay. Just querying if anyone has any better deal before we hand over the credit card?

Thinspired

Can't say for sure whether that's a good deal as we're heading over from Oz so haven't been looking for flights from here.

Check ebookers and also skyscanner is pretty good. You might be landed with multiple airlines but your journey is still counted as all in one for the purposes of delays and transferring luggage etc.

Thinspired

M Three - Do you mean you're selling tickets to each of the pool games individually? Or are you selling the four tickets in one package? If you're selling individually I'd defo be interested for Ireland v Oz.

journo gal

DKIL1979 wrote: »

We are paying for flights this Fri. Cost €1281 including all taxes and charges from Dublin to Auckland thro Hong Kong with Cathay. Just querying if anyone has any better deal before we hand over the credit card?

Seems like a pretty reasonable deal to me. I'm paying €700 one way to travel in late March (start of the low season) so I reckon €1281 is fairly reasonable- esp. if you are travelling in late August/September, when people will be flocking to the country.

tomb24

hi, anyone with either Irelands group game package or individual tickets to get rid of I would be interested in buying a set, message me. I'm currently in NZ south island if anyone has any questions about things here

DKIL1979

Just booked the flights. Actually got a better deal and got return flights for €1172 with Travelpath. Heading out 22/9 and returning 18/10 with Ethiad/Air NZ via Dublin-Abu Dhabi-Sydney-Auckland. Thought flight was pretty good value, bring it on now!:D:D:D

C0N0R

If anyone has spare tickets for Ireland Italy I would be more than happy to take them. Going to grab a few tickets for the Christchurch games Argentina england and a few others.

Thinspired

Got our Ireland Oz tickets tonight, paid a good bit for them but hey, it'll be worth it (and they weren't much more than what the Aviva is charging for this month's games!) Happy days! Just 10 months to wait now...

Gijoe

Has anyone fully booked campervans etc. for the World Cup? What type of prices for campervans were you getting? I'm going for 3 weeks and seems to be around NZ$2000 for 21 days, 4 berth van.

Bank account is guna hate me in October

purcela

Gijoe, I contacted a campervan rental company about getting a 6 berth van for 3 weeks and they quoted me around €4k which I think is ridiculously overpriced. Your quote sounds far more reasonable even if it is a smaller van. What company did you get your quote from? Mine was from www.autorentals.co.nz

Tigerandahalf

Below is a good article written by Peter Bills, the rugby commentator, on how expensive NZ has become. I've never been but it's a good read. It's not just us who have problems re overcharging.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10659094

Thinspired

We booked last September and got a 2 berth camper with kitchen/wardrobe etc but no toilet for NZD$2,100 for 35 days which I think was pretty good. We used earlybookers.com, cheapest options are gone but they still have 2 berths for a similar length of time for under $3,000 as far as I know. Comes with all linen and kitchen supplies etc. And free 24-hour roadside assistance in case the whole thing breaks down!

We still have a few campsites left to book but apart from a few ridiculous quotes we've managed to stay on budget. Until I get there and completely blow my budget on ridiculous things like skydiving and bungee jumping, that is

SligoL

Hi guys - my boyfriend and I have a campervan booked for the duration of the RWC, ferry crossing booked also. We haven't as yet looked into campsites and hadn't planned to [lot of travelling to be done before then so trying to organise that at the moment!]. Do you guys think booking campsites is necessary or will it be possible to wing it and hope for the best - not liking the sound of paying $125 per night for 6 weeks!!

M three

SligoL wrote: »

Hi guys - my boyfriend and I have a campervan booked for the duration of the RWC, ferry crossing booked also. We haven't as yet looked into campsites and hadn't planned to [lot of travelling to be done before then so trying to organise that at the moment!]. Do you guys think booking campsites is necessary or will it be possible to wing it and hope for the best - not liking the sound of paying $125 per night for 6 weeks!!

At the moment we're planning to play the campsites by ear. I reckon its just a few campsites that have set up a website for the purpose of getting advance bookings and screwing people. Always better to leave that kind of thing alone till you're actually on the ground

SligoL

M three wrote: »

At the moment we're planning to play the campsites by ear. I reckon its just a few campsites that have set up a website for the purpose of getting advance bookings and screwing people. Always better to leave that kind of thing alone till you're actually on the ground

I agree, was getting a bit concerned when saw the above posts, hopefully we're not being too laid back and we get places easily enough at the time.

Thinspired

M three wrote: »

At the moment we're planning to play the campsites by ear. I reckon its just a few campsites that have set up a website for the purpose of getting advance bookings and screwing people. Always better to leave that kind of thing alone till you're actually on the ground

To be honest although you might ok leaving booking until you arrive for most places around NZ I'd recommend booking ahead for the likes of Auckland, Rotorua, Dunedin etc where matches are on. Considering they're planning on berthing cruise ships in the harbour to accommodate visitors I imagine accommodation will be tough to find, especially on a budget. We booked campsites in Rotorua for NZD$42 a night and Dunedin for $30 a night which is grand. In Wellington there are no hostels left for the dates we wanted and after lots of searching we got a campsite that charged $45 for the first night and $65 for the second.

With Auckland I'd say book your accommodation as soon as possible. We're staying in a hostel there, it's $300 for four nights which I suppose isn't too bad considering some of the quotes I was given.

Some places such as the YHA are only letting you book if you book a minimum of three consecutive nights, which is a joke.

Oh and one last thing - there are loads of Department of Conservation (DOC) campsites around NZ so we've kind of compensated for the more expensive campsites by opting to stay in these every third or fourth night. You won't pay more than $20 and the majority have water and toilets. Grand for a night where you're only stopping off en route to somewhere else.

purcela

Thinspired,

Are you just googling for campsites in those cities or have you a link that compares different ones? No harm in getting those places booked this early if it's that cheap.

M three

Were planning on doing the whole thailand, phuket thing on the way out for 4/5 days but its seems that sept is the worst of the monsoon season there. Looked at kuala lumpur but it doesnt look like the kind of chilled out place we need.

Anyone else stopping on a beach somewhere on the way out or back?

Thinspired

This site http://www.nzcamping.co.nz/index.php seems to have all the main ones on it as well as some DOC ones. Ya it's no harm booking for the cities, just to be on the safe side for matches. Outside of that we're kind of just checking availability, because it's impossible to plan an exact itinerary this far ahead!

M Three as far as I know (the Asian monsoons really confuse me) the east coast of Thailand gets the most rain falls between September and December. On the west coast it's April to October, so the east coast would be your best bet ( I think????)

Maybe check out Fiji and Bali as possible beach resorts for a beach break. Not too sure about Fiji but if you fly New Zealand to Gold Coast, Sydney or Melbourne you can choose from Air Asia (super cheap but you have to book your own connecting flights from Kuala Lumpur to Bali) Jetstar (very cheap), Malaysian Airlines (reasonable if you book early), Quantas, Virgin Blue etc to get you to Indonesia.

jank

I have tickets to 3 out of the 4 Irish games. Flights over from Sydney wont be too bad but the accommodation will be the killer imo.

testicle

What's the deal with just parking your camper at the side of the road?

I've 4 spare tickets for Ireland v Italy in Dunedin if anyone's interested.

Thinspired

You can camp at the side of the road as long as there isn't a sign saying you can't, as far as I know. Google freedom camping New Zealand and you'll get plenty of options. This travel blog http://www.travelblog.org/Topics/3553-1.html also has quite a few mentioned, although I'm not sure how up to date it is.

earnyourturns

I'm living in Dunedin and will be going to all the Dunedin games. Plenty of parking space on the street outside our house if anyone ends up needing to park their camper van anywhere for a night.

(Good Jaysus, I hope I don't regret putting this out there...)

earnyourturns

Also Couchsurfing is really quite big over here so people might want to consider joining that!

Thinspired

earnyourturns wrote: »

I'm living in Dunedin and will be going to all the Dunedin games. Plenty of parking space on the street outside our house if anyone ends up needing to park their camper van anywhere for a night.

(Good Jaysus, I hope I don't regret putting this out there...)

You are very brave:) (as well as generous)

M three

earnyourturns wrote: »

I'm living in Dunedin and will be going to all the Dunedin games. Plenty of parking space on the street outside our house if anyone ends up needing to park their camper van anywhere for a night.

(Good Jaysus, I hope I don't regret putting this out there...)

Might need to take you up on that one! we'll be in dunedin for the irl italy game. we'll buy the pints!

C0N0R

My local rugby club (darfield 35 kms south east of christchurch) are setting up a campsite for the rwc, there hoping to have big screens and stuff and I can't see it been to expensive to stay in and should be mighty craic and cheap beer to, will let you guys know closer to the time. If needs be I'm sure we could let someone camp on the farm, anything for a fellow countryman! Even have two free sofa's, but I'm out in the countryside so might not be any use to people.

Have my tickets for Ireland Italy and I've made a few friends over here who are joining me for the game and one of their parents are from Dunedin and live right in the centre so that's my accomodation sorted, really can't wait now, just wish it would come sooner!

Also my cousin is the head teacher in a primary school and I THINK the Irish team are going to be visiting her school to, might make an appearance there to! 8 months to go :-)

earnyourturns

M three wrote: »

Might need to take you up on that one! we'll be in dunedin for the irl italy game. we'll buy the pints!

Grand so! I live out by the beach at St Kilda so we might even be able to get a mass knacker drinking session or something going just to really like up the reputation of the Irish abroad...

tt GalIrl

Has any1used

Www.campervanhiresalefinder.co.nz

The prices are much cheaper than Maui & Britz campers ( which are sold out!)

Thks

purcela

Just after booking the flights now. Got the campervan sorted earlier in the week and have had the match tickets for a while now. Just the campsite in the cities Ireland are playing in, and the ferry to sort out now.

Roll on September!

patsy mulcaghy

purcela wrote: »

Just after booking the flights now. Got the campervan sorted earlier in the week and have had the match tickets for a while now. Just the campsite in the cities Ireland are playing in, and the ferry to sort out now.

Roll on September!

*bump*

Same here purcela, fairly excited already :pac:

Anybody still on the lookout for campers, these were the absolute best vaule going; may not have many left at this stage - http://www.econocampers.co.nz/

Can anybody share some links to campsites? I've heard the Department of Conservation ones are allover the place, but do they fill up quite quickly? Would I be better booking them now or just waiting till we get over?

Vorsprung

Tried to book my flights earlier tonight, the airline's site was down !

Had a look at a few of the camp sites around Taupo and a few hours from it in every direction, prices pretty good and places look amazing!

kiwipower

testicle wrote: »

What's the deal with just parking your camper at the side of the road?

Take it from a Kiwi:

This practice is SERIOUSLY discouraged for the SAFETY of tourists. There have been many incidences of Tourists parked at local beauty spots or in parking lots for bush walks. YOU instantly become a target for gangs and violence!

There has only recently been a court case in Christchurch, of a gang of youths who beaten and robbed a French tourist who was planning on sleeping in his car in a brightly light carpark.

In some places if you do try sleeping on the road side you will be moved on by the local authorities. There are loads of campgrounds all over the country and most Kiwis will happily give a bed to those in need. (Play up the being Irish bit, every Kiwi likes to think that having a great-great-great grandfather with an Irish wolfhound makes them a full on Paddie!)

consie16

Alright lads.. were the same have a camper van booked but after seeing those links i think were after really payin over the odds... thinking about cancelling ours now but dont know what the cancellation fee is or if they'll take the deposit...

We have match tickets sorted for the 3 games, booking flights tomorrow with Usit as were going to America for a few weeks beforehand...
With the campsites, i spent hours googling them yesterday but was getting nothing... if someone could post some links or something it would be appreciated...

eire1987

howdy all,

Im planning a trip to NZ for the world cup this year.... Ive my flights and tickets for all the ireland matches sorted:D, its just the accomadation is nearly impossible to get:(.... does anyone have any recoomdations???? I heard that campervans aren't bad, but i will be going solo, so i find it hard to justify getting one just for myself..

Any help/ideas I will be grateful for them...
Thanks.