What was the cost of our New Zealand trip?

Lot of people have posed this question to me. Everyone knew that the trip to New Zealand is expensive and they were curious to know about the actual cost. But when I told them about the expense, most of them were surprised. I thought it would be a good idea to put some details into the expenses we had during our trip. Rarely I share the details about the cost of a trip. But there are exceptions.

Edmund Hillary in New Zealand currency
The conversion rate I considered 1 NZD = 48 INR. Cost shown below is per person.

Particulars Cost (INR)
Return flight from Bengaluru to Christchurch 74,182
Visa 5,000
Taxi in Bengaluru 500
Car rental 14,400
Rides - Gondola, helicopter, boat etc 22,440
Fuel 4,968
Food and groceries 3,888
Stay 37,500
Mobile and Internet 420
   
Total 1,63,298

The expense was lower than my budget (I had estimated 2 lakhs per person). Some reasons were:


How could I have reduced it even further with the same plan?



The way I travel is by first deciding on destination and then planning for the same. I try to book early or try to find time when the flight rates are low. Or plan my finances to meet the budget. For New Zealand I did all of them!!

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