Can I access mobile internet while on holiday in New Zealand?

Q I will be going to the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand this year and thought I would take my Apple iPad to keep in touch with home.

Recent stories suggest this could be expensive. How can I avoid incurring large bills? My internet service provider (ISP) is BT Yahoo.
Bill Robertson

A Your ISP is largely irrelevant for data roaming – you need an account with a mobile 3G broadband provider for this, along with a 3G iPad.

Assuming you have the latter, it will work on the New Zealand 3G mobile phone network with no further changes, but data-roaming costs will be expensive.

To our knowledge, no UK mobile broadband provider offers a preferential roaming deal with New Zealand, so your best bet is to obtain a suitable micro-SIM once there (this assumes your iPad is not tied by contract to a mobile phone company).

Vodafone is New Zealand’s largest mobile network operator and its iPad data plans start at NZ$20 (about £10) for 250MB of data on a rolling monthly basis.

Just don’t forget to cancel the contract (using the appropriate iPad setting) when leaving New Zealand. Alternatively, you could just use Wifi hotspots in cafés or hotels, which could be cheaper than relying on 3G roaming.