UKC

Hi travelling to NZ in March where we'll stay for a year with the intention of alpine/rock climbing and maybe some skiing. Can anyone recommend insurance to take out for such a trip?

Thanks

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

cant say for sure, but i think NZ has its own special insurance thing that covers all travellers, being that so many of them partake in outdoor sports.

i could be wrong tho.

In reply to Liam Dangerfield: Where in NZ are you heading? (Not relevant to your insurance question, just interested!!!)

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:
Google it, there are loads out there! Look at Moneysavingexpert. Most will cover you for bungy jumping etc but you might need to specify snowboarding.
We used Trailfinders.

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

These should be able to tailor-make something for you, I use them all the time (well, never had to USE them in the sense of making a claim, but they are straightforward and well reviewed and inexpensive)
http://www.travelinsuranceweb.com/

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

Don't know if they're any good, but the NZ Alpine Club do insurance, which one would hope should cover you for the activities listed.

The NZAC is worth joining anyway as you get discounted rates at their huts, money off at most outdoor retailers and access to guidebook libraries and the like. Going along to their meets is a good way of finding climbing buddies and getting obscure mountain beta too.

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

Details of their insurance here: https://alpineclub.org.nz/climb/insurance

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

The Kiwis are very tourist friendly

http://www.acc.co.nz/index.htm

The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) provides comprehensive, no-fault personal injury cover for all New Zealand residents and visitors to New Zealand

In reply to Liam Dangerfield: ACC will cover you if you're unfortunate enough to hurt yourself. The fantastic flip side to this is that it's almost impossible to sue anybody for personal injury in NZ. You may have to pay a $80 excess in most practices (Foreigner ACC surcharge), so you may want to buy basic backpacker insurance (£10-15 a month or so). I don't think NZAC will cover non NZ nationals, and anyway it's aimed at expeditions 'abroad'.

Unless you do something stupid, when the police are entitled to ask you to pay for your rescue, they will generally foot the bill. Very professional rescue team run by DOC in the Mount Cook area. Seriously consider buying or renting ($30 for 3 days) a personal GPS locator beacon,even when tramping as phone coverage is very patchy in rural areas.

Thank you all for your replies I will make like a fence maker and invest-in-gates

We are flying to Christchurch and will be moving around the country volunteering, working and getting chased by Keas to fly out at the end of the year from Auckland assuming we don't run out of money beforehand and my wife has to sell me.

The hope is to climb and ski during our stay and we wondered if the acc sorts you if you get hurt whilst on piste or do they put a shotgun to your head and put you down. I am like a naive child when it comes to insurance so please patronise me.

In reply to Liam Dangerfield: There are lots of people with shotguns in NZ so doubtless that could be arranged. But I don't believe it's very common.

ACC is a pretty good system and they'll sort you out if you have an accident doing just about anything. It's entirely possible I'm a little slack on this point but I climb & ski heaps in NZ and have never bothered with insurance. Plenty of friends have collected assorted injuries over the years and I don't know of anyone who has had trouble getting ACC to cover their costs. You might want to investigate a bit more about repatriation insurance, though?

Drop me a line if you're in Wanaka!

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

Skifield injuries are covered by ACC, but not broken wrists if you're snowboarding without writstguards. The ED docs know this rule is nonsense though so you'll have a conversation that goes 'You were wearing wristguards when you fell, right? No, you WERE wearing them, that's what it says on my form'.

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

As you wanted to be patronised...

Travel insurance can cover a wide range of things including (but not limited to) personal accident, personal liability, repatriation, cancellation, delays, personal possessions (including replacement passport) and sometimes accidental death etc blah blah.

As others have said, NZ care for visitors very well, the flip side is it's impossible to sue people if they don't. For example, if the jet boat driver only has his RYA level 2 rib handler and flips it across a narrow river permanently maiming you forever.

YOU need to decide whether you want to take the risk on these things and whether you want cover for them. Consider that repatriation if you were seriously injured is very, very expensive and NZ is a very, very long way away. I wouldn't want to spend 18 months recuperating from a massive spinal injury 48 hours away from my nearest and dearest for example. That is the very real benefit to travel insurance IMO. I have a rule, only insure what you can't afford to replace, or pay for. Money, bags, passport - all easy to replace, especially in a friendly country who speak English. Getting home without the use of your legs? Difficult. We're talking hundreds of thousands of pounds, at least. I've seen claims of nearly 2 million. (Obviously, chances are TINY)

When buying it, make sure you read the small print. Look for a policy that covers the WHOLE duration of your trip and covers you for work. People often look to make sure bungee jumping is covered, but many insurers won't cover you if you're going out to work there.

STA are quite good for this sort of thing (no personal connection, I worked for a cheapo, budget provider) but there are others. I would personally consider repatriation insurance at the very least.

HTH?

Thank you all again this is great informations to me I learn insurance using bear.

AdrianC: We are hoping to be Wananananaka over the winter so I would very much like to drop you a line thank you!

Eric the Red: Excellent! Thank you that's helped alot and I like your approach to insurance STA do seem to be comprehensive, out of interest does your budget provider offer anything worth considering?

Everyone else: You rock!

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

My other rule of insurance is never buy the cheapest one so no, I can't say they did do anything worth considering! (They did use to underwrite a backpacker policy but they don't seem to do it anymore.)

Google backpacker insurance and go from there.

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:
As most people have said ACC is fantastic. My girlfiend has injured her wrist ? fractured scaphoid in Wanaka 4 weeks ago and as well as covering the medical costs they also cover loss of earnings which is great. I would consider a standard travel insurance policy as well to cover for other non accident emergencies, such as a year long traveller policy. the advantage is that you dont need to get a special outdoors travel insurance policy that covers climbing and winter sports etc as the ACC will cover most of that. You will love it down here as there is so much to do.
If you need advice or someone to climb with in southland/otago (Invercargill based) contact me as im always keen to get out and play.
Mark

In reply to B_Mark_W:

1) Good point. Healthcare for illness is another bonus of insurance. Obviously flu meds and immodium aren't worth buying insurance for but appendicitis and emergency surgery?

2) Bad point. Not true, get one that covers all these things if it's the 'purpose of your trip' otherwise you MAY not be covered for anything and your policy would be void. There is a grey area between going to ski and climb (like the op) and going skiing whilst you're out there. Sometimes it's defined by number of days but often it isn't. They can be quite sneaky about wordings. Any generic policy definitely wouldn't cover repatriation following a skiing accident.

In reply to Liam Dangerfield:

ACC may cover you in NZ but you have to cover the journey out and back. E.g tripping over and breaking your wrist changing planes in Dubai!

ACC only covers injuries not medical problems, or pre existing conditions.

Thank you all again for taking the time to offer me some great advice

disturbed_one51: I will certainly get in touch as we will be travelling around although your profile suggests you crush climbs on a regular occasion using awesome power of the climbing ninja so I would probably be ok as a belay bunny