analyzing the option of leaving our current life in Sydney and embrace a journey to New Zealand, and we've just bumped into this article and I couldn't thank you enough. You just made our whole decision so much easier. Thing is, we've been trying to figure out things financially and we couldn't come up with an estimative mainly because we're not so experience when it comes to backpacking. We are thinking of mainly camping, not so much spending nights in hostels, and to walk or take the bus and hitchhiking, not so much owning or renting a van. So it would be amazing if you could tell me how much would we spend (estimative) on those standards if staying for a month. Thank you once again for boosting our confidence on doing this. We sure need life changing experiences, and you made us believe this is going to be just that. @Madalena Thanks heaps for the compliments on the post -- VERY glad you've found it useful and 'good on ya' for considering a go at New Zealand. If you were camping, doing your own meal and getting around via hitchhiking or bus, I'd say you could get by on $50NZD or less. This would go up depending on what you'll do by way of activities -- ie bungy jumping, skydiving etc! Shoot any more questions to matt at backpackingmatt dot com. I havent booked it yet, but it looks like Ill only have 12 days in Nov 2012 in