Currency parity: Kiwis cash in on cheap Aussie deal

A long queue of people keen to take advantage of Travel Money's special one-for-one parity offer made its way up Queen St in the afternoon. Photo / Getty

An Auckland foreign exchange had New Zealanders clawing to swap their Kiwi dollars for Aussies yesterday.

A long queue of people keen to take advantage of Travel Money's special one-for-one parity offer made its way up Queen St in the afternoon.

The currency exchange business, owned by the Flight Centre, was offering one Australian dollar for one New Zealand dollar, commission free for two days - yesterday and Thursday after 4pm.

The company has 11 branches in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown.

At its midtown branch on Queen St, customer John Clegg was happy to swap his New Zealand dollars for the same amount in Australian currency ahead of a holiday across the Ditch.

He said he didn't mind queuing about 45 minutes to save himself a few dollars.

Beside Mr Clegg was auditor Philip Doyle, who had also been in line about 45 minutes.

"This started about 4pm. I heard the downtown branch sold out within 30 minutes," he said.

Mr Doyle said he'd learned about the deal from a colleague, and had jumped at the opportunity to swap his money, without being charged a fee, before heading to Australia on business next week.

The exchange was limited to $1,000 per customer either until the store closed, or until stock ran out.

The company's manager, Scott McCullough, said the move was in response to the "parity party" being called off.

"Watching the so-called parity party get called off ... when Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to keep interest rates on hold strengthened the Aussie dollar unexpectedly was almost as gutting for us as travel money experts as the World Cup cricket final was."

Mr McCullough said all branches had sold out on both days in between 30 minutes and two hours.

Historically, one New Zealand dollar has been worth around A80c.

On Sunday, it peaked at 99.78c, nudging, but not quite reaching, parity with the Australian.

The strong dollar is good news for Kiwis travelling to or keen to invest in a slice of Oz but not so great for those exporting goods there.

Yesterday, according to Bloomberg, the Kiwi dollar was sitting at 98.37c.