Compare New Zealand travel insurance
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- Cover for pre-existing medical conditions
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Key things to know about travel insurance for New Zealand
- Reciprocal Health Limits: While a mutual agreement exists, it only covers urgent public hospital care; you are still liable for prescriptions, non-emergency treatment, and the staggering cost of medical repatriation to the UK, which can exceed £200,0001.
- Adventure Activity Cover: New Zealand is a hub for high-risk sports like bungee jumping, skydiving, and white-water rafting, which are typically excluded from standard policies; you must add specific "adventure packs" and check altitude/depth limits to ensure full cover.
- Remote Rescue & Disruption: Comprehensive insurance is vital for the cost of private helicopter search and rescue in remote areas like the Southern Alps, as well as for food and lodging expenses caused by disruptions during the lengthy 23-hour multi-leg journey.
- Personalised Protection: Using a travel insurance comparison site like PayingTooMuch helps you navigate factors like medical history, age, and trip length to find a tailored policy, with the unique advantage of being able to speak to a human expert for complex travel needs.
New Zealand travel insurance at a glance
Having the right travel insurance for New Zealand can help make what can be a magical trip even more so. Because while you're spoilt for choice on whether to:
- Go hiking in South Island’s Fiordland and Aoraki/Mt Cook National Parks
- Go kayaking in the Bay of Islands or on the Coromandel Peninsula
- Visit the Hobbiton set from the Lord of The Rings
You’ll also have more peace of mind knowing that if an accident happened while you were there, you’d be covered.
Finding the right travel insurance can be difficult; fortunately, PayingTooMuch makes it easy by allowing you to compare policy options so you can choose the right one for your trip.
Why do I need travel insurance for New Zealand?
While New Zealand and the UK share a reciprocal health agreement, it only covers emergency treatment in public hospitals for everyone and emergency dental treatments for anyone under 19. This is why travel insurance can still be very important, as it covers the following:
- Repatriation costs – Because New Zealand is over 11,000 miles away from the UK any medical repatriation will be very costly. If you are seriously injured, a medical flight back to the UK can cost over £200,0002, a cost never covered by reciprocal agreements.
- High-risk activities – New Zealand has a lot to offer when it comes to adrenaline-filled adventures. You can go bungee jumping, skydiving, or white-water rafting here. But both the reciprocal agreement and a standard policy are unlikely to be enough to cover these activities. You’d have to get an activity-specific add-on to make sure you’re covered.
- Rescue in remote areas – If you get into trouble while hiking in the Southern Alps, the cost of a private helicopter search and rescue can be astronomical without a policy.
- Trip disruption – It takes a minimum of about 23 hours to fly to New Zealand, and there are no direct flights from the UK. So, you’ll need to make at least one stopover in places like Shanghai, San Francisco or Doha. These stopovers can increase the risk of your journey being disrupted. Travel insurance can help you pay for any additional food and accommodation needed if this happens.
- Theft and loss – Replacing stolen, lost or damaged items can be even more difficult when you’re travelling abroad. Travel insurance can help cover the cost of doing that.
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What does travel insurance for New Zealand cover?
Medical Emergencies | Covers unexpected illness or injury. |
Repatriation | Pays for medical transit back to the UK if you are severely injured. |
Trip Cancellation | Reimburses non-refundable flights and accommodation if you need to cancel before departure due to illness or bereavement. |
Personal Belongings | Covers the cost to replace lost, stolen, or damaged luggage, gadgets, and vital documents. |
Travel Delays | Compensates for emergency food and lodging during severe transit disruptions. |
Adventure activities and sports cover for New Zealand
If you love thrill-seeking, New Zealand may be the place for you. There is so much to do, including:
- Bungee jumping off the Auckland Harbour Bridge or Kawaru Bridge
- Skydiving in Wanaka or Lake Taupo
- Whitewater Rafting in the Mohaka or Tarawera River
- Jet boating in Hanmer Springs or in the Dart River
- Canyoning in Waitomo or Haast Pass
As exciting as these activities are, they can be even more fun knowing that, on the off chance that something goes wrong, you'll be covered. You wouldn't have to pay an unexpected medical bill of tens of thousands of pounds.
To do this, you’d most likely need to get activity-specific cover for each activity, e.g., ‘skydiving cover', ‘bungee jumping cover', etc.
When checking your policy documents, keep an eye out for specific limits related to some activities, such as:
- Altitude limits for hiking/mountain climbing – Many standard policies only cover hiking up to 2,000 or 3,000 metres.
- Diving limits for scuba diving/snorkelling – The depth limit for many standard policies is 18m for beginner divers.
So if you’re planning to hike higher than 3,000m or dive deeper than 18m, you’d need a policy with higher limits for those things.
How much is travel insurance for New Zealand?
The cost of a travel insurance policy depends on your individual circumstances, mainly:
- Medical history – If you’re fit and healthy and have no pre-existing medical conditions, your premium may be lower. But, if you have a pre-existing condition, you may find that the cost of your policy is higher, as you’re seen as a higher risk by insurers.
- Adventure activities – Adding cover for New Zealand’s famous bungee jumps or skydives usually requires a higher premium to account for the physical risks involved.
- Length of trip – The longer you’re abroad, the more likely it is that you’ll make a claim. So you may find that the longer your trip to New Zealand is, the more you may have to pay for your travel insurance.
- Age – When you reach the age of 65, it’s likely that the price of your travel insurance may increase, as insurers see you as a higher-risk customer.
- Destination – Different places have different healthcare systems and medical costs. For example, a trip to the USA can increase the price of your policy, as the USA has the highest healthcare costs in the world2.
- Level of cover – Comprehensive policies provide more cover but will likely cost more than basic policies.
- Currency fluctuation – Depending on the country you plan to visit, a change in the value of a currency compared to the British pound can affect your policy.
What’s the best travel insurance for New Zealand?
There isn’t an objective ‘best’ travel insurance policy because not all holidays look the same. It may benefit you more to think about what the right policy for your specific trip is. This can depend on the following:
- How many times do you travel in a year? – If New Zealand is your only trip this year, a single-trip policy might be the right choice for you. If you plan to travel multiple times in a year, the annual multi-trip policy may be better value for money and save you time.
- The length of your trip – If you’re only going to Auckland for 2 weeks, you won’t need Long Stay Insurance. A standard annual policy would be enough, as it will usually have a 31 day trip duration limit. For a single trip policy, just tell us the dates you need cover for, and we’ll show you a list of products that work for your trip length.
- Health – If you’re fit and healthy, you're unlikely to look for an insurer that specialises in cover for people with pre-existing conditions.
- Your planned activities – Are you just doing wine tasting on Waiheke Island? Or soaking in geothermal pools at the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua? You probably won’t need to have a skydiving activity add-on.
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Long-stay travel insurance for New Zealand
Long-stay travel insurance can be a great policy if you’re thinking about travelling for longer than a month and through multiple countries in one trip. This makes it ideal if you’re planning a backpacking trip through New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia. These policies also usually come with some high-risk activity cover, so depending on the type of activities covered in your policy, you may not need to get an activity-specific add-on.
Compare New Zealand travel insurance with PayingTooMuch
PayingTooMuch gives you access to an easy-to-use comparison tool, which helps you find the right travel insurance policy for your trip to New Zealand. We only ever use trusted providers, so whichever provider you choose, you can be confident you’ll have a good experience with them.
You can compare and buy your travel insurance through us in 3 easy steps:
- Step 1 – Tell us what type of cover you need, who is travelling, your name and contact details and declare any pre-existing medical conditions, if you have them.
- Step 2 – Compare all the options available to you using our comparison tool. It’s important to read the Insurance Product Information Documents (IPIDs) to see exactly what each policy covers in full detail.
- Step 3 – After careful consideration, choose the right one for your trip and enjoy the peace of mind.