Our Pick Of The Best Travel Insurance For New Zealand (2024)

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We used data from our quotation journey to review ‘single trip’ policies for New Zealand. Our research is based on a trip for a family of four (two adults, both aged in their forties and two teenagers) travelling to New Zealand for 14 days.

We’ve assumed no members of the family have any pre-existing medical conditions.

All policies include at least £2 million in medical and repatriation cover and £2,000 in cancellation cover, which both extend to Covid-related risks. They also offer a minimum of £1,500 in baggage and belongings cover. We ranked each policy on the following factors:

Price: The premium (one-off payment) charged for cover

Excess: The amount deducted from any successful claims payout. (Some policies charge an excess for each person named on the policy while others charge it only once).

Excess waiver: Whether policyholders were offered the option to waive the excess levied on claims by paying an additional premium.

The scores for each policy were totalled, and converted into a Forbes Advisor star rating out of a potential five stars.

A travel insurance policy for New Zealand may be one that covers all countries worldwide, except the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, or one that covers Australia and New Zealand specifically.

There are two other types of policy covering:

• Europe only
• Worldwide including the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Travel insurance for New Zealand is typically more expensive than a policy for Europe but less costly than one that includes the US and surrounding countries. The high price of the latter reflects the high costs of medical treatment.

Travellers can choose between three main types of travel insurance policy for New Zealand:

• Single trip: for a one-off trip in the space of 12 months
• Annual multi-trip: for more than one trip in the space of 12 months
• Long-stay/backpacker: for an extended stay of 60 or 90 days or 12 or 18 months, and occasionally 24 months, depending on the provider.

An annual multi-trip policy can work out more cost-effective than purchasing multiple single trip policies, but not always, so it can help to compare both types of policy. Remember to check if a policy will only cover trips to New Zealand and Australia or worldwide destinations excluding the US and surrounding countries.

While travel insurance for New Zealand isn’t compulsory, it’s well worth considering.

Good travel insurance will cover lost expenses should the policyholder need to cancel their trip due to an emergency, such as illness or bereavement. It will also pay out for damaged, lost or stolen baggage.

The total amount of baggage cover should reflect the value of all the belongings the policyholders are taking with them. There’s also a single item limit which dictates how much the policyholder can claim per item.

Another key component of travel insurance is medical-associated cover. New Zealand and the UK share a reciprocal health agreement which entitles Brits to medical care on the same terms as a local while in New Zealand should they fall ill. This includes the services of a road or air ambulance.

As with locals, Brits also are entitled to cover through the country’s Accident Compensation Corporation’s no-fault scheme, which assists those who are injured in an accident by helping pay for treatment.

However, visitors may be left at a loss if they need repatriation to the UK. Travel insurance for New Zealand can cover this.

In addition to the above, most policies for New Zealand cover travel delay and missed departures.

For those planning to take advantage of the country’s vast offering of adventure sports and activities, it is worth checking which are covered by a policy. While Brits will be automatically covered for emergency treatment, caused by a sports injury, a policy could pay out for trip curtailment, should the policyholder need to cut the holiday short.

Often a policy covers around a hundred low-risk sports as standard. These include cricket, football and rugby. However, cover for bungee jumping, scuba diving and kite surfing among other higher risk activities, are likely to require an extra premium payment.

There is also likely to be cover for work abroad, though it may not extend to manual labour, or working above a certain number of storeys.

In any case, insurers usually only accept claims where the appropriate safety gear was worn, such as a helmet or harness. For activities such as scuba diving, policyholders will likely need to dive with a qualified instructor and follow official guidelines for any associated claims to be accepted.

An easy way to compare travel insurance policies for New Zealand is to use an online comparison tool.

Travellers can enter a few details about themselves and their trip, including their age, trip destination and duration. The tool will then show the cheapest deals to meet their stated requirements.