I (Canadian) travelled to NZ in 2004. Some comments:
1) I took both US$ and Cdn$ traveller's cheques, and also used my credit
cards. Very easy to exchange traveller's cheques in both currencies,
although I pretty much did it only at banks, not stores, hotels etc. There
are lots of bank branches around, so this was no problem, as long as you
take note of weekends and holidays. Shop around...the rates can vary. But
shopping around is usually easy, since the rates for all major currrencies
(including Cdn $) are often posted in the windows. I found it best to avoid
the "specialty" foreign exchange places in tourist offices etc if you can. I
was amazed that they would offer significantly worse rates (and be doing a
brisk business), even when right around the corner a bank with better rates
was readily available.
Re: credit cards, check with your credit card issuer(s) to see how they do
the conversion and what fees they tack on. For example, some Canadian
issuers may convert foreign currency transactions first to US$, then to
Cdn$, depending on the foreign currency involved. And re: traveller's
cheques, check into what fees the banks in Aus and NZ (and elsewhere) may
charge to cash them. For Visa and Mastercard cheques, you can check that at
<a rel="nofollow" style='text-decoration: none;' href="http://www.cashmycheques.com/" target="_blank">http://www.cashmycheques.com/</a> . In NZ, I never paid a fee to cash a
traveller's cheque, but it seems that in Australia, they often do charge
fees (even the banks that charge no fees in NZ). In general, I seemed to get
better rates on traveller's cheques than on credit card transactions,
although it was a bit hard to say for sure since the exchange rates
fluctuated a fair bit over the time I was there, and I didn't have many
direct comparison data points (i.e. transactions using tc's and credit cards
on the same day).
And before leaving, I picked up some local (NZ) currency through a Canadian
bank, just to have some cash handy upon arrival so I wouldn't have to worry
about changing money at the airport immediately if it wasn't convenient.
However, the exchange rate wasn't particularly good, so I wouldn't suggest
getting a lot of cash in advance.
2) I picked up a combo multi-country electrical adapter/voltage converter at
Radio Shack before going. Didn't need to use it a lot, but it wasn't very
expensive. If your appliances (e.g. shaver) have dual voltage controls, you
wouldn' t need a converter, but may need an adapter. (Many motels etc in NZ
have North American style plugs specifically for electric razors, but you
may not want to count on that.) With or without the converter, electrical
razors (in my experience at least) will run a bit slower than you're used
to, due to the lower current frequency (50Hz vs 60Hz). Similarly, plug-in
digital clocks may (in my case did) lose (significant) time for the same
reason.
R
"Barry Lee" wrote in message
> My wife and I are going to Australia and NZ for a few weeks this April.
> We've never been. We've done some reading and research and chatted with
> some
> people who have gone, but we would appreciate any advice that you could
> share.
>
> Is it relatively easy to exchange Canadian money to local currency in
> either
> country? Where can we get the best exchange rates? Will our battery
> charger
> and razor run on the local 50 Hz voltage?
>
> Thanx~!
>
> BL
>
> >> Stay informed about: Travel Advice Needed 
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