Protect your gear when you’re travelling

Last updated 27 October 2022

Most of us wouldn’t head for a trip overseas without travel insurance, but what about domestic travel? The good news is if you have contents insurance with MAS, your stuff is most likely automatically covered under your policy if you’re on a domestic trip.

There are lots of benefits to having insurance with MAS while you’re travelling. Find out more about how to make sure your stuff is covered by your contents insurance while you're on holiday within Aotearoa New Zealand.

Your possessions are covered wherever you are in the country

While MAS doesn’t offer travel insurance, our contents insurance policy has some excellent benefits for domestic travellers. If you’re heading away on a trip within New Zealand and have contents insurance with us, your stuff is likely to be covered – with a few conditions and exclusions, of course. 

If your things are stolen, lost or damaged while on holiday domestically, your MAS contents insurance will look after you – as long as you’ve taken reasonable steps to protect your belongings, and you’re not away for more than 60 days. So if your bike is stolen while it’s locked up outside the bach, or your phone ends up at the bottom of the sea, get in touch with MAS.

MAS contents insurance offers new for old replacement

One unique benefit of having contents insurance with MAS while you’re travelling is that we offer “new for old” replacement. If you make an eligible claim, we’ll cover the cost of repairing or replacing your things with the nearest new equivalent. 

This means even if you’ve had your laptop for a decade and it’s stolen while you’re travelling domestically, we’ll cover the full cost of a new model if you make an eligible claim. If your contents insurance doesn’t offer new for old cover, you’ll only receive your laptop’s current market cost, which probably won’t be enough to cover the cost of a new one.

Contents insurance can help when you get back home too

Coming back from a holiday, your first priority is probably unpacking and getting the washing machine going, but what if something has gone wrong at home while you’ve been away? MAS contents insurance has a few other benefits that could make your arrival back home stress-free.

If you go to unlock the door and realise your house keys fell out of your pocket somewhere on the tramping track, MAS will cover the cost of replacing locks and keys that have been lost, stolen or damaged. An extra perk is there is no excess for this, and your no claims bonus will not be affected.

And if you come home to a burst pipe, flooding, fire or another major issue in your home, your MAS contents policy might be able to help you here too. If you can’t live in your home because of sudden accidental damage, we’ll pay up to $50,000 towards accommodation while it’s repaired or assessed, and we even cover your contents if they’re damaged or lost while in storage. We’ve also got some top tips for protecting your house when you go away on holiday. 

You might need extra insurance to cover expensive items

If you're heading off for a holiday within Aotearoa, your MAS contents insurance policy probably covers most of the things you're likely to take with you. But if you're packing particularly expensive stuff, or hard-to-replace belongings, you might need to list these separately on your policy, if you haven't already.

For example, your standard contents policy covers you for bikes worth up to $8,000. But if your bike is top-of-the-range and worth more than $8,000, you might need to list this item separately on your policy. The same goes for expensive jewellery, electronics, high-end sports gear, and so on (each category has different value limits). You can find out more on these items and their sub-limits here. 

And if you're taking your boat with you, make sure this is covered with boat insurance too.

Always report an item lost or stolen

If something has gone missing or you think it might have been stolen while you’re travelling, you should report it to the police. They may or may not be able to help you get it back but we need you to let them know before you get in touch with us to make a claim.