Every travel health guide gives the same instruction. Carry a letter from your doctor describing your conditions, your medicines and your allergies. Bring your prescriptions. Keep everything in its original packaging.
It is good advice. What it usually leaves out is the part that matters:
- What New Zealand’s health agreements with Australia and the UK will and will not pay for.
- How much of your medicine you can bring back through Customs.
- What you do at two in the morning in a country where nobody reads English.
This is the New Zealand version of that checklist.
Disclosure
I am a doctor, and I founded exora, a personal health record app. It appears once, near the end, and I am explicit there about what it is not. Everything before that works whatever you use, including paper.
Start with SafeTravel
SafeTravel is the New Zealand Government’s travel advice website. Two things on it are worth doing before anything else.
Read the page for your destination. SafeTravel publishes advice for each country, and some pages flag local rules that catch travellers out, including strict rules on bringing in prescription medicines. Your insurer reads this advice too: SafeTravel says your provider may use it to decide whether to provide or pay out insurance, and many policies will not cover travel to places the government advises against visiting.
Register your trip. Registering with SafeTravel lets it send you travel updates about the places you are going, and contact you if there is an emergency there. You can register yourself, a family group, or a group such as a tour or a sports team.
Travel insurance is not optional
SafeTravel’s advice on travel insurance is about as blunt as government writing gets: “Are you thinking of travelling outside of New Zealand without insurance? Don’t.” It warns that “even minor medical treatment can be expensive”, and that “the New Zealand Government will not pay these costs.”
If you have a condition, the important part is declaring it. SafeTravel’s health advice says to declare pre-existing and mental health conditions when you buy travel insurance so that they are covered, and its insurance page says to check that your needs are covered by the policy you buy. An undeclared condition is the most reliable way to have a claim refused at exactly the moment it matters.
It also helps to know what happens if you do get sick. SafeTravel’s page on being sick or injured overseas says to be prepared to pay: you may have to pay upfront, or give your insurance details, before you are treated, even in a life-threatening situation. Contact your insurer as soon as you can, and keep receipts and documents.
A New Zealand consular officer can help you find a hospital and contact your family and your insurer, but cannot pay medical expenses or give medical advice. The emergency contact numbers are on that page; save them in your phone before you go.
The agreements with Australia and the UK
New Zealand has reciprocal health agreements with two countries: Australia and the United Kingdom. Health New Zealand’s page on reciprocal health agreements (last updated 15 October 2026) says plainly that “neither agreement covers everything”, and that travellers should have comprehensive travel insurance that includes health care.
For New Zealanders going overseas, it says to contact the consulates about which publicly funded services you would be eligible for and what they might cost, because “there are significant differences”.
Australia
Services Australia’s page for visitors from New Zealand sets out what the agreement covers there:
- Medically necessary care as a public patient in a public hospital, both inpatient and outpatient.
- Some medicines on Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, at the general rate.
- Not GP visits or other care outside hospital.
You do not enrol in Medicare and you will not get a Medicare card. At a public hospital, you ask the staff to treat you under the agreement, and a New Zealand citizen shows a current New Zealand passport.
One gap is worth knowing in advance. Health New Zealand warns that ambulance services in Australia may not be publicly funded, and can be very expensive.
The United Kingdom
In England, the Department of Health and Social Care’s guidance for NHS providers lists New Zealand’s arrangement as covering “necessary healthcare” for New Zealand citizens who live in New Zealand. The evidence it asks for is a passport showing your nationality and proof that you live in New Zealand, so carry something with your New Zealand address on it as well as your passport. That guidance is for England, so if you are visiting Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, check their arrangements before you go.
If you are going to the UK for longer than six months, Health New Zealand notes that you will still have access to the NHS, but you will pay an immigration health surcharge as part of your visa application.
Do not count on either agreement to get you home. SafeTravel describes a medical evacuation as something consular staff can help coordinate, paid for by you or your insurer.
See your doctor early
Health New Zealand’s travel health advice is to check with your healthcare provider or a travel doctor “6 to 8 weeks before you leave”. Some vaccines need more than one dose, and some take time to work.
SafeTravel says your doctor can advise on your health and on whether you should travel, especially if you are older, have a pre-existing condition, are immunocompromised or are pregnant. For a mental health condition, it suggests a plan for staying well, shared with whānau or the people you travel with.
Which vaccines you need is your GP’s, nurse’s or travel doctor’s call, not mine. Take your vaccination history to the appointment. Our guide to getting your immunisation records in New Zealand covers where to find it.
The doctor’s letter, and what it has to say
SafeTravel notes that your healthcare professional can give you a letter explaining your conditions and medicines. Having written a few, here is what makes one useful abroad rather than decorative.
It needs your diagnoses in plain clinical terms, not abbreviations. “IHD, AF, T2DM” means nothing to a triage nurse in Bangkok. “Ischaemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes” can at least be looked up or translated.
It needs your medicines by their generic names, with doses and how often you take them. Brand names are national. Paracetamol is acetaminophen in the United States, and the same drug. A letter that names only a New Zealand brand may mean nothing to a pharmacist elsewhere.
It needs your allergies, and what the reaction was. “Allergic to penicillin” gets you a different antibiotic. “Penicillin: rash aged 12, no swelling or breathing difficulty” lets a doctor make an actual decision.
It needs any devices or implants, such as a pacemaker, stent, joint replacement or insulin pump, with the model if you have it.
And it needs to be dated and signed. If you carry a controlled drug, Customs asks for the medicine’s name and strength in the letter, which is covered below.
Taking medicines out of New Zealand
The rule that catches people out is simple. A medicine being legal in New Zealand tells you nothing about whether it is legal where you are going. SafeTravel says so directly: “Not all medications that are legal in New Zealand are legal in other countries.” Medsafe makes the same point from the other side: “Every country has a different system for classifying medicines.”
So check the destination before you pack, not at the airport. Read SafeTravel’s page for the country, and ask its embassy or consulate in New Zealand about anything that is a controlled drug, a strong painkiller, a sleeping tablet, a stimulant or a cold and flu medicine. SafeTravel also suggests checking whether you need a medical certificate to travel with your prescription medicine.
The practical steps:
- Keep everything in its original packaging, with the pharmacy label. Decanting tablets into a pill organiser for the flight is exactly the situation in which you cannot prove what they are.
- Carry a copy of your prescription as well as the letter. They do different jobs: one shows the medicine was dispensed to you, the other explains why you need it.
- Pack essential medicines in your hand luggage, which SafeTravel recommends in case your checked bag gets lost.
- Take enough for delays. SafeTravel’s advice is to take plenty of your essential medicines and supplies.
Bringing medicines back into New Zealand
The same Customs rules apply to you on the way home as to any traveller arriving in New Zealand, including medicine you bought or were prescribed overseas. From the New Zealand Customs Service page on medicines:
Prescription medicines (not controlled drugs):
- Bring a copy of your prescription, or a letter from your doctor confirming you are being treated with the medicine.
- Keep it in its original packaging.
- Bring no more than three months’ supply, or six months for oral contraceptives.
- Declare it if you have more than three months’ supply, or if it is not prescribed to you or a family member.
Controlled drugs:
- Declare all of them on your New Zealand Traveller Declaration.
- Keep them in their original packaging.
- Bring no more than one month’s supply.
- Bring a copy of your prescription, or a letter from your doctor confirming you are being treated with them and stating their name and strength.
Medsafe’s page on importing medicines sets the same limits: three months’ supply for prescription medicines, and one month’s for controlled drugs.
One that surprises people: Customs says all medicines containing pseudoephedrine are controlled drugs, the decongestant in some cold and flu medicines. Follow the controlled drug rules, keep it in your hand luggage, and do not bring it back for friends or family.
If you are not sure whether something you take is a controlled drug, ask your GP or pharmacist before a long trip.
What happens when you actually need care
This is the scenario all the preparation is for. You are unwell somewhere unfamiliar, possibly in a language you do not speak, and a clinician is asking what you take and what you have had.
What they need, in order:
- Your current medicines.
- Your allergies.
- Your main diagnoses.
- Any recent results or procedures relevant to why you are there.
That is the same list as the letter. It is why the letter exists.
Two things make this go badly: paper you did not bring, because the folder is in the hotel safe, and a language gap at the worst moment. A printed English letter is better than nothing, but it is not the same as something the clinician can read. Our guide to translating medical records in New Zealand covers when a translation needs to be certified and when one for reading is enough.
And in Australia or the UK, keep your passport with you when you are treated. It is the document that gets you care under the agreement.
Where exora fits, and where it does not
Everything above works on paper, which needs no battery or signal. Carry the letter. But it is out of date the day after it is written, and the person most likely to need it is the person least likely to have it on them.
exora is a personal health record app, free to start, with an optional membership. You upload documents you already have, such as PDFs, photos or scans of letters and results, and exora reads them for you, with a reading system built for medical records. It builds one record from them: conditions, medicines, allergies, operations and vaccinations, each with a date, each linked back to the document it came from. Three parts are for this trip:
- Medical names change with where you are, so the record that says paracetamol at home says acetaminophen in the United States. The record can also read in English, Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese, with the original wording one tap away.
- It can be handed to a clinician who has no account, from any browser, with nothing to install, and you end the access when you are done.
- A travel health planner. Tell it where you are going and it checks official travel health sources against each traveller’s vaccines, naming the source for every line, so you have something to take to your GP or travel doctor. They decide what you need.
Where it does not help, plainly:
- It is not your insurance or your passport. It does not replace declaring a condition, following Customs rules or checking whether your medicine is legal where you are going.
- It is not a signed letter. A border official may want a letter from your prescriber, and only your prescriber can write one.
- It can misread. The reading is automated, so check anything that matters against the original. That is why every fact links back to it.
- No connection to Health New Zealand. exora has no link to My Health Record, My Health Account, your GP’s portal or any Health New Zealand system, and no New Zealand health-data certification.
- Your data is stored in Sydney, Australia, outside New Zealand. How we handle it is on our security page; read it before you upload anything.
- It is not medical advice. It organises your information. It does not tell you what vaccines or care you need.
If you are travelling with children or an older parent, my guide to family health records in New Zealand covers keeping a record for each person. And if you are not visiting but moving countries permanently, the job is a different one and worth its own read.
The short version
Read SafeTravel’s page for your destination and register your trip. Buy travel insurance and declare every condition: the New Zealand Government will not pay your medical bills, and the agreements with Australia and the UK cover only some public care. See your GP 6 to 8 weeks before you leave. Carry a dated letter with generic drug names, real diagnoses and what your allergy actually did. Keep medicines in original packaging, in your hand luggage. Coming home, Customs allows three months of a prescription medicine and one month of a controlled drug, declared.
Sources
- SafeTravel: travel insurance (do not travel without it, the Government will not pay, insurers may use travel advice)
- SafeTravel: register your travel
- SafeTravel: staying healthy while travelling (see your doctor, declare conditions, a letter from your health professional, hand luggage, medical certificate, plenty of essential medicines)
- SafeTravel: you’re sick or injured (paying upfront, contacting your insurer, what consular staff can and cannot do)
- SafeTravel: travelling with children (medicines legal in New Zealand may not be legal elsewhere)
- Health New Zealand: reciprocal health agreements (Australia and the UK, neither covers everything, contact consulates, ambulances in Australia, immigration health surcharge; last updated 15 October 2026)
- Services Australia: Reciprocal Health Care Agreements, visiting from New Zealand (public hospital care, some PBS medicines, no out-of-hospital care, passport, no Medicare enrolment)
- Department of Health and Social Care: charging overseas visitors in England, guidance for providers (Annex H, arrangements with New Zealand)
- Health New Zealand: travel health (see your provider 6 to 8 weeks before you leave)
- New Zealand Customs Service: medicines (prescription medicines, controlled drugs, pseudoephedrine)
- Medsafe: importing medicines (three months and one month limits, different classification systems)
Claims about travel insurance, the reciprocal health agreements, medicines and controlled drugs are sourced to SafeTravel, Health New Zealand, Services Australia, the UK Department of Health and Social Care, the New Zealand Customs Service and Medsafe, linked inline, and were checked on 9 November 2026. Rules and guidance change, and other countries’ rules are theirs to set; this page will be updated as New Zealand guidance changes. This article is general information, not medical, legal or travel advice. How exora handles your information is in our privacy policy.
