Over a dozen airlines compete to fly you from Britain to New Zealand for as little as £450-1000, remarkably cheap considering the distances involved but prices depend upon the time of year and rocket around Christmas. Going for the cheapest flight typically means sacrificing some comfort, which you may regret, given that your journey will last at least 24 hours, longer if your flight makes more than the obligatory refuelling stop. There are no direct flights to New Zealand from Ireland, and prices are proportionately higher, since the short hop to London (around £75 return) has to be added on to the fare.

No matter how keen you are to arrive in New Zealand, it makes sense to break the journey, and most scheduled flights allow multiple stopovers either in North America and the Pacific, or Asia and Australia. The vast majority of direct scheduled flights to New Zealand depart from London's Heathrow, though Garuda Indonesia fly from London Gatwick (1 weekly), and Singapore Airlines use Manchester (5 weekly) as well as Heathrow. There are few overseas flights into Wellington, so the only real choice is between the main international airport at Auckland , in the north of the North Island, and the second airport at Christchurch , midway down the South Island. Christchurch receives fewer direct flights, but most scheduled airlines have a code-share shuttle from Auckland at no extra cost The most desirable option, an open-jaw ticket (flying into one and out of the other), usually costs no more than an ordinary return and means not retracing your steps to get out of the country.

Charter flights to Auckland and Christchurch from London Gatwick with Britannia are currently suspended, but may subsequently be reinstated. Contact Austravel for latest details.

If you are planning on doing a lot of travelling within New Zealand , especially between the North and South islands, it may be worth looking into air passes offered by both Air New Zealand and Ansett Australia . In addition, if you are combining Australia and New Zealand , there are handy airpasses covering internal travel in each country and the joining flight. Qantas's Boomerang Pass is available to all international travellers (not just Qantas ticket holders), and comprises between two and ten coupons, each valid for a flight within Australasia: a one-zone coupon to fly within New Zealand or short hops in Oz costs £100, a two-zone trans-Tasman coupon costs £125. Air New Zealand/Ansett's G'day Pass is fundamentally the same, but has a larger number of travel zones and a wider range of prices: within single zones in New Zealand and Australia, £95; multi zones, £120; and mega zones (New Zealand to Perth or Cairns), £215.