Hello all,

My parents and I are travelling to New Zealand from Australia for 9 to 10 days. Like any geek, I would love if it if I can have Internet access wherever I am. I was hoping to get some local advice about getting mobile phone Internet access in New Zealand for a short period of time. I have an iPad (fourth generation) and my mum and I both have iPhone 5s. I am travelling with family and we don't really need to retain our Australian numbers while we are there - the main thing I think is Internet access to be able to use Maps, Safari and send iMessages to friends back home. The ability to make phone calls between us (not internationally) would be good too.

Last time I was in New Zealand we purchased a pre-paid sim from Telstra and loaded some data and calls to it. I felt like we got a bit ripped off though, because it wasn't that cheap to initially buy the SIM card, there were limitations as to where we could use our data, and a few folks told us Telstra's coverage (or TelstraClear as it seems to be called - just Googled them now) wasn't that great. When we fell outside of the range, we actually ended up purchasing another prepaid SIM card from a company I can't remember the name of. But they were very nice and it seemed much more cost effective. 

So I was just wondering what you would do if you were a temporary resident to NZ and wanted to get Internet access to your iPhone or iPads. And if there's any particularly good deals or ways to do this. Thanks! 

PS if it helps, we are going to Auckland, then Rotorua, then Wellington over the course of this week and a half. 

:)