Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Long Distance Calls & Area Codes
NZ uses regional two-digit area codes for long-distance calls, which can be made from
any payphone. If you're making a local call (ie to someone else in the same town), you
don't need to dial the area code. But if you're dialling within a region (even if it's to a
nearby town with the same area code), you do have to dial the area code.
Information & Toll-Free Calls
Numbers starting with 0900 are usually recorded information services, charging up-
wards of $1 per minute (more from mobiles); these numbers cannot be dialled from
payphones.
Toll-free numbers in NZ have the prefix 0800 or 0508 and can be called free of
charge from anywhere in the country, though they may not be accessible from certain
areas or from mobile phones. Telephone numbers beginning with
0508,
0800 or
0900 cannot be dialled from outside NZ.
Phonecards
NZ has a wide range of phonecards available, which can be bought at hostels, newsagen-
cies and post offices for a fixed-dollar value (usually $5, $10, $20 and $50). These can be
used with any public or private phone by dialling a toll-free access number and then the
PIN on the card. Shop around - rates vary from company to company.
Time
NZ is 12 hours ahead of GMT/UTC and two hours ahead of Australian Eastern Standard
Time. The Chathams are 45 minutes ahead of NZ's main islands.
In summer, NZ observes daylight-saving time, where clocks are wound forward by one
hour on the last Sunday in September; clocks are wound back on the first Sunday of the
following April.
Toilets
Toilets in NZ are sit-down Western style. Public toilets are plentiful, and are usually fairly
clean with working locks and plenty of toilet paper.
See
www.toiletmap.co.nz
for public toilet locations around the country.
