Travel and Visa Information
The conference will be held on campus at the University of Auckland. The campus is a 5 minute walk from the center of Auckland city, and is conveniently located for hotels, restaurants, bars and attractions.
Basic Facts
The language in New Zealand is English, but you will find many restaurants in the city where the staff are fluent in Korean, Cantonese or Mandarin. Dress is casual and informal in New Zealand. The currency is the New Zealand dollar. Credit cards (Visa or Mastercard) are accepted almost everywhere. Tipping in taxis, bars, restaurants is not necessary. New Zealand uses the same electrical plugs as Australia and China (see image).
Climate
The conference dates are in late-Spring/early-Summer for New Zealand. Daytime temperatures in Auckland at this time are likely to be between 15 and 25 degrees Celcius (about 60-75 Fahrenheit). It is very likely to be windy and rainy at some point. The rain can be extremely heavy, so you should bring a rain-proof jacket or umbrella, and good shoes. Also, due to the hole in the Ozone layer and other factors, it takes a very short time to be sunburned in Auckland. So you should bring sunblock and a hat if you plan to spend any time outside.
Flights
There are direct flights to Auckland from many cities in North America (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver) and Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Tokyo, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing) and also flights through Dubai that stop in Australia. Flights to New Zealand can become rather expensive as the travel date gets closer to the Christmas holiday, so I encourage conference participants to book their flights as early as possible.
Visas
Conference participants who hold passports from Europe, USA, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and many other countries do not need a Visa to enter New Zealand as long as they have a return air ticket (make sure you have a paper copy of your ticket to show to the Immigration official) to depart within 3 months of arriving. For more details see information about New Zealand immigration.
If you need an invitation letter for your visa application then you must register for the conference online and pay the registration fee. Once the payment has cleared then you should email the conference general chair who will write a letter for you. If you are the student author of an accepted paper then it is not necessary to pay the registration fee.
Things to do
New Zealand is a wonderful country for sightseeing. Some highlights:
- The geothermal attractions of Rotorua (about 3 hours drive from Auckland).
- Visit the movie location of Hobbiton (about 2 hours drive from Auckland).
- Go sailing/fishing in the Bay of Islands (about 3 hours drive from Auckland).
- See the Waitomo glow-worm caves (about 2.5 hours drive from Auckland).
- Fly to the South Island and see the magnificent Alpine scenery of Queenstown or the glaciers.
- The Skytower.
- Auckland Museum.
- Auckland Art Gallery.
- The vinyards of Waiheke Island.
- Rangitoto Island.
- Tiritiri Matangi bird sanctuary.
- The west coast beaches of Piha, Muriwai and more.
- Wynyard quarter.
- Ponsonby.
- Devonport.
- Mission Bay.
- Auckland Botanic Gardens.