Hi All.
Heading to New Zealand for a family stint in about a month and would like to have phone working like it does here.
I am on a Telstra plan. I have heard that international roaming is very expensive.
What do you do when travelling?
Cheers Billy
Buy a local carriers SIM card when you arrive in NZ.
International roaming is very expensive particularly for Internet access with Telstra. I have been caught before.
I was overseas recently for8 weeks, I brought a local vodafone SIMcard at local rates with heaps of included calls.
Only way Togo in my opinion.
ET. 
Easy, my stepson is in NZ on a tour at the moment, he also has a Telstra plan. Telstra with a plan the phones are not locked so what you need to do is get a International sim from a phone kiosk stand in the International Departure area of the airport (vodaphone seems to be best carrier in NZ) and swap out the Telstra sim with the new one. Make sure switch off roaming on your phone & put in flight mode before you leave. He spent $40 on his sim which gave him about 8gig & call & text which was quite reasonable and is using wifi which is available most places.
as above.
Other tips:
If you have friends or family at the destination, find out what carrier they are with and get a sim from the same carrier. Usually calls, txts etc are free within the same carrier.
If you have cheap international calls at home (Or add the appropriate pack for the time you're gone), you can also put a diversion in place after you've left** to the new number. Any calls to your number at home will go to your NZ number cheaply. **May require a call to your home carrier to setup for you.
Depending on how many are going in your group, and the carrier options, you may be able to pool the sims you buy. Share data etc
If you can live without coverage for a day, I found going to a high street shop when you get there a bit easier. More options and way less stress than at the airport.
Leave the partner & kids getting coffee or sightseeing while you sort it in a less frazzled frame of mind.
I believe most phones are no longer network locked anyways. At least iPhones anyway so just whack in whatever sim u like.
Cool cheers. After a bit of youtubeing i find that my galaxy isnt locked so i think buying a local sim over there sounds sweet ass bro. Cheers Billy.
I've tried a few different ways (travelsim, country dims etc) but i've found the easiest way is to get a spare quad band phone (i dont use a smart phone, just a strong nokia) and a telstra prepaid card. No fuss and just top it up before you leave. You'll have no issues with service unless you're in a fairly sketchy or a remote country (but 95% of tourists will never visit). Some countries i've found are $3-$5 per minute but most common countries are $1.50-$2.50 and i think a sms costs 75c for all places.
I use my normal phone or tablet for wifi only.
In today's news: www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/02/vodafone-is-axing-its-5-daily-roaming-charge-for-nz-travellers/
I've used World phone overseas. Download it from ishop or google shop.
get free wifi somewhere, buy some minutes and it's like a real phone.
it uses the phone lines somehow, anyway it was cheap n easy for me.
Select to expand quotefingerbone said..
Hi All.
Heading to New Zealand for a family stint in about a month and would like to have phone working like it does here.
I am on a Telstra plan. I have heard that international roaming is very expensive.
What do you do when travelling?
Cheers Billy
Telstra have pretty good International plans if you buy an International Travel Pass. You get to use your own number then.
NZ is about $5 a day for unlimited calls and texts to standard numbers. Plus about 70mb a day in data....
