Christchurch Travel Forum

How long can a Tourist Travel on a visa to NZ. Anyone got info on South Island Abel Tasman National Park. I'm hoping to go Backpacking late Feb/ March.

Abel Tasman National Park: see my page

I went sea kayaking at abel tasman march 06, saw bottlenose dolphins swim under the kayak and the water is blue blue blue, see the split rock aswell.
It was quite hard work, we did the long trip which was all day.
I never went hiking in the park.
But i did *** loads in NZ and it was superb.
I could give you more info i you want it on NZ.
One highlight that i bet youve not looked at is Karamea AWESOME (south island west of abel tasman)

Aaah I see you're from the UK, we're lucky, we get 6 months on a tourist visa, most other nationalities get 3 months.

With a visa, 9 months, see http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migrant/stream/visit/.
However, if you are a UK citizen as seems likely from your profile, you can go for up to 6 months without a visa anyway; while for citizens of many other countries it is up to 3.

Oh yes, sorry, that's what I meant, didn't make it clear though!
We can be there for 6 months without a visa, they just stamp your passport with the six months 'allowed'.
If you wanted to stay any longer than that or work (within any time period) you would need to apply for a visa.

We posted at virtually the same time, I wasn't trying to correct you!

Haha, no need to apologise, I just realised that what I wrote sounded like I was saying people from the UK can get a 'tourist visa' for 6 months, we get 6 months entry to NZ without needing a visa.
You just put it better than I did :-)