Buying a SIM Card or eSIM in New Zealand

The home of bungy jumping, hobbits, and the famous All Blacks, New Zealand’s laid-back culture and stunning natural beauty make it a huge hit with overseas visitors. Until fairly recently, though, those visitors were less impressed when it came time to get online.

Staying connected in the country used to be a costly, frustrating exercise. Wi-Fi was slow and rarely free, even in hotels, and most cell plans had high prices and tiny data allowances.

I grew up in New Zealand, but it wasn’t until I returned as a tourist that I noticed how much more expensive it was to get online there at the time than, well, almost anywhere else I’d been.

Things have thankfully changed since then, however. The rollout of fibre networks and unlimited broadband plans in the last few years has dramatically improved the Wi-Fi situation, and a little competition has helped bring prices down in the cellular market as well.

While you still won’t be amazed by the cost or coverage, things are much better for international visitors than they used to be. Here’s what you need to know.

There are three mobile networks in New Zealand. Spark and One (formerly Vodafone) have the largest networks, both covering around 98% of the population. 2degrees has a smaller coverage area, but customers roam for free on the One network as needed.

Don’t expect to get service everywhere regardless of which network you’re on, however. The country’s geography and lack of population density leave plenty of blank spots on all networks.

Competition is limited between the three companies, with similar, fairly-expensive prices across the board. Little differences help swing the balance one way or another.

If you’re flying in from overseas, you may be able to save money by buying your SIM in the duty-free area. At Christchurch, Auckland, and potentially other airports, you can pick up travel SIMs from One or Spark at tax-free prices. This means you won’t pay the 15% GST on whichever package you go for.

Spark’s call, text, and data offering for tourists is similar to One’s, but it also throws in 1GB/day of free Wi-Fi from its 750+ hotspots around the country. Mostly found in phone boxes in tourist areas, and with decent free Wi-Fi not always available, you may find yourself using those hotspots more than you expect.

That said, Spark is decommissioning large chunks of its public phone box network, and the Wi-Fi hotspots that go with it. I still saw a few of the distinctive pink phone boxes on my last trip, but they won’t be around forever.

Spark also owns the Skinny brand, which has competitive pricing for prepaid users, especially those who use a lot of data. With a slick website and app that makes life unusually easy for international visitors, it’s definitely a good option.

Because I return to New Zealand regularly to visit family, I’ve used SIMs from all of the providers at various times. I’ve mostly gone with One and Skinny in the past, but switched to a travel eSIM for my last trip.

It saved both money and time, so it’s what I’ll be doing for future trips as well, especially if I’m only visiting for a few days or weeks.

On my most recent trip a few months ago, I was only in the country for a bit under two weeks. The physical tourist SIM options (above) weren’t great for a shorter trip like this, so needing to be up and running straight away, I decided to see what aloSIM had to offer instead.

It’s my go-to option for travel eSIMs at the moment, and didn’t disappoint. After confirming it’d be cheaper for my needs than anything on offer at the airport, I used the airport Wi-Fi to select, buy, and activate my eSIM while waiting in line to buy duty-free alcohol. An equally-important purchase, apparently.

If you’re new to eSIMs, they offer big benefits to travelers in terms of how quickly, easily, and (often) cheaply you can get connected when you arrive in a new country. Most recent phones support them.

Skinny

If you’ve got a New Zealand address to use, you can order a Skinny SIM online and have it delivered within a day or two. If not, you can pick one up at most supermarkets, large stationery and electronics stores, and other retail chains in every decent-sized town throughout the country.

With family in New Zealand, I opted for the online ordering option. I needed to pick a call and data package along with the SIM when placing the order, and the kit arrived the following day. After inserting the SIM, I dialled ‘456’ to activate it. No passport or other identification was needed.

The Skinny website is slick and easy to use, and in a welcome (and rare) move, lets you top up using an international credit card without issue. There’s also a comprehensive app that lets you quickly choose prepaid bundles and monitor your usage.

If you want a Skinny SIM as soon as you land, you can get them from the Paper Plus store at Queenstown airport, but I haven’t come across them at any other New Zealand airports.

One

After arriving on an international flight at Christchurch Airport, you’ll find kiosks selling One and Spark tourist SIMs in a sad little corner prior to baggage reclaim. They were there in early 2020, disappeared during the pandemic, but are now back again in the same place. It’s like they never left.

Because you technically haven’t arrived in the country yet, you get tax-free pricing if you buy your SIM card here. That saves 15%, but you only can only buy the tourist-focused packages: they may suit your needs, but if not, you’ll need to wait until you get into town.

The staff at the One kiosk have always been very efficient, taking payment and switching SIMs for me within a couple of minutes. They only sell physical SIMs there, but you can buy eSIMs from the One website in advance if you want to. You don’t benefit from tax-free pricing that way, however.

One stores are also available in the duty-free area at Auckland airport, plus the main arrivals area at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown airports, and in towns and cities around the country.

Spark

As well as that kiosk at Christchurch Airport, Spark has one at the airport in Auckland as well, and you’ll also find them in towns and cities all over the country.

On a previous trip, to ensure at least one of us would have coverage in most parts of the country, my partner bought a Spark SIM at Christchurch Airport while I was buying my One version. The process was near-identical, and took almost exactly the same length of time.

New on my most recent trip was the option of buying both eSIM and physical SIMs at the Spark kiosk. The price doesn’t change, just the process of installing it, but it was still good to see.

Online ordering to a New Zealand address is available with both Spark and One, and you’ll also often see their SIMs being sold in supermarkets, petrol stations, and elsewhere. You’re not going to have a hard time getting hold of one!

One

One and Spark’s travel SIMs are quite similar, although you’ll get longer validity with the Spark plans: they all last three months, versus 1-2 months with One.

For $29 with One, you get 2GB of data, plus 200 minutes and texts to New Zealand and several other countries, valid for a month. Paying $49 pushes the data allowance to 10GB, increases the validity period to two months, and gives unlimited domestic calls and texts plus 200 minutes.

A $69 package is also available, which give 40GB of data, unlimited domestic calls and texts, and 200 minutes/texts to those selected international destinations. Bump it up to $99, and you’ll get 100GB and 250 minutes/texts to those overseas countries.

Like I mentioned earlier, you’ll be able to save 15% on a One tourist SIM if you buy it before clearing immigration and baggage reclaim. You can see that discount reflected in the photo above.

Spark

With Spark, $29 gives you 2GB of data, 200 minutes and texts within New Zealand, plus 100 international calls and texts to various countries, valid for 90 days.

The $49 package ups the data allowance to 10GB, adds more international calls and texts, and is valid for 90 days.

You’ll get 50GB of data for $79, again valid for three months. This gives unlimited domestic calls and texts as well, plus 200 international minutes/texts to certain countries.

Finally, there’s an unlimited data plan for $129 that lasts three months: your speeds drop dramatically after the first 100GB, however. You’ll also get unlimited domestic calls and texts, and 300 international minutes/texts.

While most of the included international calling and text destinations are the same for both companies, there are a few differences. Check the exact details beforehand if you plan to call or text back home.

As with One, you’ll save 15% if you buy your Spark SIM while still airside (shown above), and you’ll get that 1GB of free Wi-Fi per day from what’s left of Spark’s branded hotspots around the country.

Both companies have apps to track usage and more, although neither is particularly good.

Skinny

Just like Spark and One, Skinny offers a travel SIM option. For $24, you get 2GB of data, 200 texts and minutes to NZ, Australia, and several other countries, valid for 28 days.

Pay $48, and you’ll get 6GB of data, and validity of 60 days. There’s also an $88 version that provides 20GB of data with no calls or texts, again valid for 60 days.

If you don’t want to go with the travel SIM, Skinny’s standard call, data and text packages renew every seven or 28 days. While you can get a basic monthly package for as little as $9 NZD, the best value is in the larger packs.

On an earlier trip, I went for the $27 NZD 4-week ‘Ultra Combo’, with 300 calling minutes and unlimited texts to New Zealand and Australian numbers, plus 3GB of data that rolled over to the following month if not used.

If you need more data, you can buy add-ons: an extra 1GB costs $10 NZD, or 2GB for $15. Skinny also has an interesting “binge” option, where for a few bucks, you can buy up to 12 hours of unlimited data on top of whatever package you’re using.

That’s particularly useful when you find yourself somewhere with no, unusable, or expensive Wi-Fi, which still happens more often than you’d hope. If you’re a heavy data user, Skinny also has “unlimited” plans, ranging in price from $40-70. Data speeds will be reduced after a certain threshold, however.

The long and the short of it is that you’ll often get more for your money with Skinny than other providers. It’s also worth checking the site for promotional offers, as they change regularly.

aloSIM

For my most recent two-week trip, aloSIM had the cheapest pricing for a useful amount of data. I paid $8.50 USD (a bit under $15 NZD) for 2GB of data, valid for 15 days.

If I’d needed more, I could have bought anything up to 20GB valid for a month, but at that point I wouldn’t have been saving anything versus the local providers.

As usual with most travel eSIMs, it was data-only: you don’t get a local number, although there is the option of a free US or Canadian number if you want it (I didn’t).

I just used WhatsApp, Skype, and Google Voice for all of my texting and calling needs instead, but if you want a New Zealand phone number, you’ll need to buy from one of the local companies mentioned above.

Service with aloSIM was on the One network, and was fast and reliable throughout my stay.

I’ve generally found aloSIM to have faster speeds than other eSIM providers, but it’s not the only game in town. Here’s how the best of them stack up price-wise in New Zealand. Nomad is the best option if you need a lot of data.

Topping Up

Skinny

You can top up using a voucher, or with a credit card on the Skinny site or app. As mentioned, international cards work fine, so this is likely the easiest way to do it.

If that doesn’t work for you, top-up vouchers are available anywhere you see the Skinny logo. There are thousands of retail outlets across the country, so you’ll find one almost anywhere you’re likely to be.

Once you’ve got a voucher in hand, you can add the credit via the app, website, calling 204, or dialling *888#.

One and Spark

Since most visitor SIM packages last two months, you may not need to top up unless you’re on a particularly long trip, or burn through your data, call, or text allowance.

If you do, you’ll need to choose an add-on pack containing more of whatever you need. To do so, add credit either by purchasing a voucher from anywhere displaying the company logo or via the One or Spark website.

Once you’ve loaded credit onto your account or pre-registered a debit or credit card, you can then select an (overpriced) add-on via the app or by texting a specific code.

As an example, you can buy 2GB of data for $20 NZD with One by texting ‘BUY EXTRADATA’ to 756, or for $25 with Spark by texting ‘BUY 25DATA’ to 258.

Note that once the initial validity period is up, you can’t renew the call/text/data packages with either company. The SIM card is still active, however, and you can buy add-ons to keep you going a bit longer.

Check out the list of available add-ons for Spark here, or for One here.

aloSIM

Topping up with aloSIM is done through logging into the website or app. You just select your New Zealand eSIM, hit the top-up button, and pick anything from 1-20GB. All of the top-up packs have exactly the same pricing and duration as the original eSIMs.

Data speeds were good, even in relatively small towns. With Skinny, I consistently saw LTE download speeds of over 50MB/sec. With One, that jumped to over 100Mbps at times.

My aloSIM eSIM used the One network, with similar download speeds to a physical SIM. Upload speeds were a bit more hit and miss: sometimes they were about the same as a One SIM, other times they were quite a bit slower.

On all networks, though, cell service often disappeared while driving between smaller destinations and when hiking on several trails throughout the South Island. As mentioned, you won’t get 100% coverage with any provider in New Zealand, especially in more remote areas.

Check the network maps (Spark, One, 2degrees) if you’re concerned about having service in specific locations.