Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is really a must have for Backpacking in New Zealnd. You can expect to get emergency medical assistance for free, (for Brits, otherwise check), but ongoing costs, GP visits, dental care etc is your responsibility.
Standard travel insurance will not cut it if you are going to be out there for a while - most cheap policys for unlimited travel put a limit on each trip of 3-4 weeks. Therefore you will need to take out a policy with a specialist insurer.
World Nomads
World nomads offer a policy for around £230 per year - which covers you for most things, including working. It covers the whole world except the US Canada and Japan. THis is a popular policy and can be extended online as well. The only ommisions on it are things like the following activies:
- Sky Diving
- Rock Climbing
- Mountaineering
- BASE Jumping
Basically any activities that
- ‘deliberately put your life in danger’
- ‘involve alcohol or drugs’
- ‘parachuting or skydiving’
- ‘any racing activity other than on foot’
I would say that it covers the important stuff - the only activity that I would think is common is sky diving. If you can live without cover for this, then its a good deal.
World Nomads also offer a plus service which can be used to add cover for valuables - such as iPods, digital cameras etc. There is a limit of £400 per item, which will cover most reasonable items - it just covers my Nikon D50 for example.
Please use the banner above if you want to take out a world nomads policy - they have an affiliate scheme which helps pay for the hosting of the website 
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