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Backpacking on a budget or flashpacking in style, being a backpacker in New Zealand means you can make the most of your travel experience without spending all your cash on accommodation.
It goes without saying - the biggest, best and foremost benefit of backpacking is that it's cheap. Backpacking is a perfect style of travel for those who seek independence, freedom, and even fitness - since hauling a backpack around the urban labyrinths of Wellington or the dense bush of the Abel Tasman National Park is an inadvertent workout!
The backpacking lifestyle is enviable in many ways. With the liberty to be as nomadic or as settled as they like, backpackers can pick and choose where they travel, what they do there, and how long they stay in each place - decisions that can be made on the spot. It's the 'play it by ear' attitude that really defines the Kiwi backpacking experience, and it's a freedom more travellers are beginning to crave. After all, we're slaves to our watches and schedules during the working week - so why should our holidays be dictated in the same way? Travel at your own pace, make up your own mind, and maybe even meet others who share the same outlook. The backpacking experience caters to your emotional, spiritual, physical and social wellbeing in a way that no other travel style can.
By and large, there are two main ways you can backpack in New Zealand, depending on the location. If you're heading to the main centres of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch or Dunedin, chances are it's the urban experience you're after - art and culture, social networking, concerts, bars and nightlife, shows and theatre. Most backpackers and hostels in these larger cities pride themselves on being central - and it's a good thing too. Being close to public transport, bars, restaurants and event centres means you're never far from entertainment on your travels. In fact, lots of backpackers in New Zealand have on-site bars, with food and drink specials, competitions, quiz nights and karaoke.
The facilities in New Zealand are second to none, and if communal living in a hark back to your school camp days is not your idea of fun, a new travel phenomenon that's sweeping the globe is bound to get you donning a backpack - flashpacking! Flashpacking is for people travelling on a budget who can't live without their laptop, Blackberry, iPod, hair straightener and/or electric toothbrush. Flashpacker accommodation often includes ensuite rooms and some self-contained cabins or tourist flats (complete with plenty of power sockets) for the Inspector Gadgets among you.
If it's the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the backpacker you're after, though, New Zealand's bounty of small beach/lake/cave/mountain-side hostels and backpackers will be just the ticket. Small beach towns such as Paihia, Whitianga and Mount Maunganui; lake settlements such as Te Anau and Lake Tekapo; and isolated locales such as Waitomo, Hokitika and Kaikoura offer a different style of backpacking altogether.
You might be lucky to find a café in these places, let alone an internet café, the concrete jungle gives way to real jungle, and you won't be woken up by trains, buses or beeping rubbish trucks. Backpacking the back-skirts of New Zealand is all about the R's. Retreat, relaxation, recreation, rejuvenation... the list is endless, and so too can your holiday be if you choose to travel in traditional backpacker style.
Tourists who visit these small coastal villages and remote townships appreciate the serenity of nature and the time to read, reflect and recover from the rat race that overcomes us in our otherwise busy lives. Spending time outdoors can be a huge breath of fresh air - literally. Not to mention the opportunity to meet other free spirits while staying in your hostel or backpacker accommodation. Take the time to talk and share with fellow guests and you might just realise the meaning of 'down-to-earth' that we Kiwis tout so often as our travel trademark.
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