Travelling with Pets in New Zealand with Tegan

People have been asking me about travelling with pets, and I've had no idea what to tell them. So I went to the person I know who does it all the time.

Tegan travels around Aotearoa with Gatsby, a very fluffy and very bossy cat, and Senna, a Bernese mountain dog. She's a born and bred New Zealander who grew up in Whangārei, spent years living and travelling overseas, and went to 62 countries before she ever set foot in the South Island (I know!). Now she's making up for it, mostly on weekends, often with a cat in a backpack.

And she's so so practical about it. We talk about getting a cat used to the car, what "pet friendly" really means when you book a place, everything you need to pack (cats do not travel light), and the places her pets love most. Plus how she fell for travel in the first place, how she fits it around a job as a lawyer, and her two favourite parts of the country.

In this episode

• How Tegan got the travel bug
• Meet Gatsby the cat and Senna the dog
• Getting cats and dogs used to the car
• Finding pet-friendly accommodation in New Zealand
• Weekends away and what to pack for pets
• Pet-friendly places Tegan loves
• Weekend travel around a full-time job
• Tegan's favourites: Northland and Kaikōura

How Tegan got the travel bug

Living overseas

Tegan has lived in San Francisco, where she picked up lots of ideas about green living. She did two ski seasons in the French Alps as a chalet host, snowboarding every day (and cleaning toilets). She lived in Italy and Sardinia, where she learned to go with the flow, and in London a few times, a great launching pad: at some points she was travelling every weekend.

A late start

She didn't grow up travelling much. After uni, keen to start her career, she did a six-month round-the-world trip, which sparked passions for travel, photography, new cultures and new foods. But she still wasn't bitten by the bug.

That came later, during a really difficult time in her life. She was back in New Zealand, and something in her knew she needed to go and be off on her own. Everyone thought she was crazy. She went anyway: back to Italy for her things, then London, a friend's couch, and a solo trip around Europe visiting people she'd met on earlier travels. That's when she realised travel was part of her identity.

She moved back to New Zealand afterwards, managed about 15 months, then quit her job and moved to the French Alps, having snowboarded three times in her life.

Coming home to see New Zealand

Tegan came back at the end of 2018, with the goal of seeing more of New Zealand and travelling locally, something she'd never really done. Now she makes the most of her weekends the way she did in London: glamping trips, a couple of days off to explore a new region, a hike. Because we're so isolated, she thinks New Zealanders tend to look outwards.

Meet Gatsby the cat and Senna the dog

Gatsby

Gatsby is a chinchilla Burmilla cross, mostly chinchilla Persian, and he's very fluffy, very vocal and very bossy. He arrived right after the first lockdown, from his breeders in Greytown near Wellington.

He came up on the pet bus, which transports all kinds of animals around the country (Tegan didn't know it was a thing either). At pick-up, the driver was very distracted: she'd lost a lizard somewhere in the bus among the cats, dogs and chickens. Gatsby had to come away two weeks early, so he was tiny, but he's had the same confident, bossy personality from day one.

Senna

Tegan has wanted a Bernese mountain dog for many, many years. Most New Zealand breeders have waitlists of two to three years, so about three months after Gatsby arrived, they got in touch. The breeders took a liking to them, and within six months they had Senna.

They were renovating at the time, which she does not recommend with a kitten (they eat everything, the same way a dog does). But having a puppy and a kitten grow up together was really cool, because they've developed a bond they might not have had otherwise.

Getting cats and dogs used to the car

Cats in the car

It depends on the cat's personality, and cats are a lot less trainable than dogs. Tegan has been lucky: both her cats have been super chill in the car.

When we had a kitten, he cried the whole way home from the SPCA and absolutely hated the car, so we only tried taking him once more. We'd hoped he'd be an adventure cat, but he wasn't the personality for it.

Tegan's tips:

• Start as early as you can. Get them used to being in the car young.
• Start slow. They drove Gatsby to the supermarket, around town, or just for a drive and home again, then worked up to longer trips.
• Go somewhere familiar first. Their early longer trips were up to Whangārei, where the people and the place were familiar to him.
• Use a soft crate with a rigid frame. Hard crates freak cats out. A soft one with a frame gives some protection in a minor incident, keeps them from being a nuisance to the driver, and gives them a sense of security. In his crate, Gatsby lies down and goes to sleep.

Dogs in the car

Senna got used to the car very quickly, because they took her everywhere from when she was a puppy. Her breed is docile and wants to please everyone.

The biggest struggle is that they share the back seat, and as Senna got bigger there was a lot of "he's touching me", with meowing and barking. Now they're older, they respect each other's space. On really windy roads Senna can get a bit of motion sickness, so they're careful with that.

Finding pet-friendly accommodation in New Zealand

New Zealand is getting better for travelling with pets, and sites like Airbnb have pet-friendly filters. But "pet friendly" covers different rules. It might mean your pets can sleep inside with you, or it might mean they have to be tied up on the deck all night. Depending on what kind of pet owner you are, you might be fine with that or horrified. (Tying Gatsby up on the deck is not an option, even though he's leash trained.)

Another one to look out for: a lot of pet-friendly places aren't fully fenced. That doesn't bother Tegan, because they have good control over Senna, but some people expect pet friendly to mean a fully fenced property. She's read so many disappointed reviews, and her take is simple:

"if you've got certain expectations of a pet friendly place. It's up to you to make sure that those expectations are going to be met"

Check they take cats

Tegan has found that a lot of places are happy to accept dogs but not cats. So she always contacts places first to check a cat is okay, because the last thing she wants is to show up and be told to leave.

Weekends away and what to pack for pets

A weekend with the pets

When the pets come, it's usually more about chilling at the place, so they look for accommodation with things to do around it.

Gatsby is leash trained, but it isn't safe to walk him on his lead in public, because they don't know whose dog might be reactive, and they don't expect other people's dogs to be fine with cats. So Gatsby goes out in a little backpack. He's been to pet-friendly cafes and fish and chip shops, sitting on a chair in his backpack, chilling. (He'd rather be walking, to be fair.)

In February they spent their summer holiday at Mangōnui, up in the Far North. During the day they took Senna out on the boat, and Gatsby chilled at the bach. He's always a bit annoyed when they get back that they didn't take him.

What to pack

Cats do not travel light. For Gatsby, the list goes on: his crate, a hooded litter tray (enormous, but he doesn't kick litter all over the place), food bowls, treats, toys, leads and some medication, just in case. When Senna was younger, they brought her whole crate, because they weren't sure she could be trusted on her own. Now she's older and chill, she needs far less.

Their travel towels live in a backpack ready to go. Brushes, scissors and food get packed each time, and Tegan ticks everything off the same list every trip.

Settling in

When they arrive somewhere new, Gatsby inspects every single inch before he settles. So they cat-proof it first: no exit routes, and nothing he can get stuck in, destroy or push off a shelf. Senna gets put in the room and falls asleep on the floor.

Pet-friendly places Tegan loves

The easiest part

The easiest part is their personalities. Once, coming back from the Karikari Peninsula, State Highway 1 was closed after an accident, and the detour went through the rural middle of nowhere, over countless one-way bridges. A four-hour trip turned into a very long day. Tegan was going stir crazy, but the pets sat calmly in the back seat the whole time and took roadside toilet breaks in their stride.

The best part is seeing them get excited and run like crazy around somewhere new.

A farm cabin in the Waikato

There's a farm in the Waikato with three cabins that they've stayed in, and they keep going back. The pets adore it. When they left last time, Gatsby hid under the bed and had to be dragged out, and on the way to the car he grabbed hold of the outside wall with his claws and screamed. Tegan had to pluck his claws off the wall one by one.

Orakei Korako and Taupō

One of Tegan's favourite dog-friendly places is Orakei Korako, a geothermal park just out of Taupō. She's been twice and loved it. Try to stop them drinking the thermal water (not speaking from experience).

I knew Huka Falls River Cruise was pet friendly too, and Tegan says there's a steamboat that goes to the Māori rock carvings. She rates Taupō as one of the most dog-friendly regions she's been to, with lots of pet-friendly accommodation.

Responsible pet owners keep places open

For activities, research the same as any travel: you can usually assume dog friendly means cat friendly, but check. Above all, be a responsible pet owner. New Zealand has so many conservation issues, and when people let dogs off lead in on-lead places and incidents happen, everyone loses access. If you want an off-lead place, go to one.

"just don't don't ruin it for yourself and don't ruin for anyone else"

Weekend travel around a full-time job

Tegan is a lawyer. A number of years ago she moved from law firms to working for companies, so her hours are more reasonable and her weekends are her own. She can also work from home, which means anywhere: she once worked from a glamping spot in Raglan. Power and wi-fi, and she's sorted.

Her partner isn't a big traveller (unless there's fishing involved), so she also goes on solo trips, and he usually stays home with the pets. He hates leaving them, so when they go away together, the pets come too.

Tegan's favourites: Northland and Kaikōura

Northland

Tegan can't pick one favourite, so she picked two. The first is Northland, because she's from there. She used to think of it as the end of New Zealand with nothing going on. As she's got older, she's grown to appreciate how underrated and untouched so much of it is, with great centres and tourist spots too, and the beaches and the people. Part of her wants it to stay that way.

I don't think many things beat a Northland summer.

Kaikōura

The second is Kaikōura, which stole her heart. After they moved back, she and her partner did a campervan trip and decided at the last minute to drive up from Tekapo for one night. They arrived soon after sunset:

"we drove around the corner and this is just mountains like with snow on them just cascading into these oceans and we're like what what is this place. This is crazy beautiful."

They knew they had to go back, and returned in summer, again without the pets. Her partner, being into fishing and diving, thinks it's the be-all and end-all of New Zealand.

I've only ever passed through Kaikōura, between Picton and Christchurch: grab a pie and keep going. It needs a proper trip.

Snow for Senna

They haven't taken the pets to the South Island, because flying with pets is a whole other story. But Tegan would love Senna to see snow, so they're going to try their luck around Ruapehu in September. You can't take dogs into the national park, but sometimes it falls on the ground there.

Places from this episode

• Whangārei
• Greytown
• Mangōnui
• Karikari Peninsula
• Waikato
• Orakei Korako
• Taupō
• Huka Falls
• Raglan
• Northland
• Kaikōura
• Tekapo
• Ruapehu

Follow Tegan

Gatsby and Senna have their own Instagram pages too, so Tegan doesn't spam people with cat and dog photos, and she also runs an account about outdoor baths and hot tubs in New Zealand, including pet-friendly ones.

More like this

• Travelling the South Island with Dogs with Courtney Mellow
• Getting the Most out of Local Weekend Trips with Ashley Elliott
• House Sitting across New Zealand with Travel Writer Jessica Lockhart

Until then, keep adventuring :)