Staying connected

Cell phone service is generally good in New Zealand unless you are out tramping in the bush. Internet is fairly easy to find at coffee shops and what have you. So, if for some unknown reason, you really needed to know how your stock portfolio was doing you will not have a problem getting connected.

Cell Phones

Most US providers offer some kind of international plan, but it can be pretty pricey and have some big limits on data usage that might end up costing you more than the B-class ticket to fly here.

There are several viable options to get around this if you don’t have an international plan

NZ Sim card

Heaps of places sell New Zealand SIM cards that you can plug into your phone and get connected via a New Zealand number. The only caveat here is that, the US being the US, most US phones are locked by the provider unless you specifically get them unlocked. If they are locked, the whole SIM card thing won’t work. If you are on a payment plan they will not unlock it. They will grumble when you ask to get it unlocked, but they have to do it.

E Sim card

Newer phone (iPhone 14 and later) will accept e-sim cards which are an electronic SIM card that can be used as if you plugged in a New Zealand SIM card. There are a bunch of companies the offer them and we have had some success with it. Just google e-sim and see what pops up.

Cheap NZ phone

If you are going to be here a long time you can try and get a cheap unlocked phone in the US and then plug a NZ SIM into it. This is probably an option of last resort though.