Simple travel plug adapter: Where to get in AKL?

[emka]

I am preparing for my holiday in NZ and will need to buy a travel adapter plug for my camera and mobile phone charger. All I can find here are super-duper, expensive (15-20 EUR), bulky multi-way plugs with all sorts of pins for use just anywhere in the world. But all I need is a simple plug converter, not a high-tech gadget.
I’m looking for a small piece of plastic with a two- or three-pin NZ end (male) and two round holes at the other end (continental European, female), like this: http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=h...26tbs%3Disch:1

Where in Auckland, preferably CBD, can I get this? Once there used to be an electronics shop on Upper Queen Street, on the left side when walking up from the bottom, almost at the corner of K-Road. Is it still there? It used to be a smallish outlet, nothing like Dick Smith or the like. I found a shop called Surplustronics on 520 Queen Street in the Yellow Pages but I’m not sure whether they carry such mundane stuff.

[baldi]

We had so many things that needed recharging, it became a nightmare with the adaptors, so I put a NZ plug onto a compact UK 4 gang socket and made it into a cheap adaptor that charges 4 items overnight. Total cost was about £7.

Hope this helps,

Kevin.

I am preparing for my holiday in NZ and will need to buy a travel adapter plug for my camera and mobile phone charger. All I can find here are super-duper, expensive (15-20 EUR), bulky multi-way plugs with all sorts of pins for use just anywhere in the world. But all I need is a simple plug converter, not a high-tech gadget.
I’m looking for a small piece of plastic with a two- or three-pin NZ end (male) and two round holes at the other end (continental European, female), like this: http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=h...26tbs%3Disch:1

Where in Auckland, preferably CBD, can I get this? Once there used to be an electronics shop on Upper Queen Street, on the left side when walking up from the bottom, almost at the corner of K-Road. Is it still there? It used to be a smallish outlet, nothing like Dick Smith or the like. I found a shop called Surplustronics on 520 Queen Street in the Yellow Pages but I’m not sure whether they carry such mundane stuff.

[72andsunny]

I have not seen a non-grounded adapter for sale in NZ. (As per the review from your link on Amazon, they might not meet code here.) If you have time, I'd suggest buying them on Amazon (though possibly not that one). If you don't have time, Dick Smiths sells them, and there's one on Queen Street...but they're a little pricey: http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4cdecc...uct/View/M7308

[diogenese]

Do like Baldi did, bring a 2 or 4 was extension and change the plug when you get here.
Red Shed (the Warehouse) and Mitre 10 etc. will sell you a plug for about $4.

[VileTraveller]

Yep, UK extensions fitted with the plug of your destination is the way to go.

[emka]

Thanks for your answers. It looks like the regulations have changed because I once bought a simple two-pin adapter in that shop on Queen Street. This was in the mid-90s though.
I'll take a German "female" socket then and just buy a NZ plug. It's easy enough to fit the wires. I'll add a small screwdriver to my packing list
I was surprised they don't sell these plugs here. In addition to the super-duper multi-way adapters the electronics shop I went to had simple adapters with UK and US pins but not the AUS/NZ variety. As if these countries weren't popular travel destinations...

[petri]

Check out dealextreme.com

It's like living in Asia but you get their marvels home delivered

For generic travel needs, http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18126 is the best thing since sliced bread. LEDs show if the power is 110 or 220V, small and compact, and it will fit almost any kind of plug, even the strange british one -- both ways. Much better than anything they sell in the travel stores.

The pins turn so that it fits both the US and AUS/NZ types.

We used to carry the country specific things but never again.

[JandM]

'Even the strange British one'...? Just wondering what makes that any stranger for you than whatever other different ones you've bumped into around the world. I think they're all odd, till I get used to them.

[emka]

I think I know what Petri means. It’s not the shape/position of the pins that may appear strange (they are just different) but from a continental European point of view the plug as a whole looks, or can look, strange because it’s so bulky.
I felt that way when I once stayed at a place in the UK where I had a very small, delicate night lamp next to my bed. It looked very elegant, had an equally elegant, thin cord and emitted enough light for its purpose. But the plug in the wall socket above the bedside table was almost the same size as the lamp shade. It really looked weird, as the whole thing was out of proportion. Normally you don’t pay attention to plug size if you hook up bigger appliances such as a refrigerator, TV set or a power tool because it’s irrelevant. But the smaller the gadget gets, the “stranger” the UK plug appears – at least for non-UK people.
On the other hand I’ve heard immigrants to NZ call NZ plugs “flimsy”, probably in comparison to the UK ones. So it’s all a matter of what you are used to.

[petri]

Well, you can't say that the british plug isn't quite different in the world of power plugs

From travelling point of view it's also one of the biggest ones.

From practical point of view, the US/AUS/NZ type of plug being relatively flimsy and the british one being bulky, I would consider the Schuko plug one of the best (*. Not too big and it will go inside the socket to be firmly connected and protected from touching. German engineering

*) There are extremely well designed speciality plugs, just talking about the common consumer ones.