Where to buy the Queenstown Airport Buscard and how to use the prepaid chip

Queenstown Bus Card (Bee Card)

If you're traveling by bus within Queenstown, you can pay cash, but it's much cheaper to buy and use a Bee Card.

There are two ways to purchase a Bee Card: you can apply and receive one online, or you can go to a physical location to pay for and pick up the card in person. You can learn more about the Bee Card by following the links below.

However, the simplest way is to buy and top up your BeeCard right inside Queenstown Airport.

Traveling by bus is the cheapest way to get around, but it's only as cheap as the bus ride itself, so we highly recommend getting a Bee Card.

It's expensive to pay cash to get from the airport to wherever you're going and back to the airport again, which is why we recommend you buy your Queenstown Airport Buscard as soon as you arrive in Queenstown.

Where to buy a Queenstown Airport Buscard

I knew there was a place to buy buscards at Queenstown Airport, but I didn't know where in the airport they were located - until today.

You can buy the Queenstown Airport Buscard at the PaperPlus store. You'll see it right away when you come out to Domestic Arrivals.

Think of PaperPlus as a store that sells books, magazines, and cute New Zealand souvenirs. I didn't know they sold cards because the store didn't have a sign about it, but when I asked the staff, they told me they sell Bee cards.

The BeeCard itself costs NZD $5 and can be reloaded from as little as NZD $5. If you're arriving at Queenstown Airport and traveling by bus, it's probably a good idea to buy it right here.

As a side note, PaperPlus also sells skinny (carrier) SIM chips, which you can purchase with your bus card, so you might want to consider that.

Skinny is one of the most popular carriers used by New Zealanders, along with One NZ and Spark.

However, with the likes of One NZ and Spark competing for your business, there are plenty of affordable plans available, so it's worth checking out.

Where to get a bus outside Queenstown Airport

Now that you've purchased your BeeCard from where to buy Queenstown Airport buscards, it's time to figure out where to catch the bus.

Queenstown Airport is very small. Whether you're flying internationally or domestically, there's only one bus stop right outside the airport.

There is only bus number 1, so just take it. If you board at the airport, the bus will make a brief stop at the hub before heading back to the center of town. If you have a destination along the way, you can press the stop button and get off the bus.

The bus schedule is below, and don't worry if you don't look it up, some will tell you the bus will be here in a few minutes.

• Bus schedules
• Time alert table

Here's a video of me walking from the airport to the bus stop.

• Queenstown Airport bus stopsWhere to get there

The fare is $2 if you use a Bee Card, or $10 if you pay cash. Note that with the Bee Card, you'll only pay $2 to travel anywhere in Queenstown.

However, if you pay cash, you'll pay $4 outside of the airport, and $10 whenever you leave or return from the airport, so you're much better off with a Bee card.

How to use a prepaid chip at the airport

Inside Queenstown Airport, you'll see a variety of car rental companies, but there's one thing you'll always see on a nearby wall. It's a free traveling SIM card.

In New Zealand, the popular One.nz carrier has a free SIM inside a pamphlet they hand out.

Simply insert the SIM card into your phone, power it back on, charge it, select a plan, and start using it.

Just walk out of the airport, grab the pamphlet, and use it to top up and choose a plan when you get to your hotel. The phone numbers you can use in New Zealand are in the center of the brochure.

You can top up and select a plan by going to one.nz/mytravel, and there is no data consumption to access the page.

You can charge $30, $50, $70, or $100, with the pricing plans shown below.

The countries you are from are listed in the bottom left corner of the photo above, and your country is included.

For example, if you choose the $49 plan, you'll get 10GB of data for 60 days and 200 minutes of calls and texts in your home country and unlimited calls and texts in New Zealand.

Finalize

Today we talked about where to buy a Queenstown Airport Buscard, where to board the buses, and how to use a prepaid chip. We hope you found it useful if you're traveling to Queenstown. Thank you for reading this article.