It’s an adventure activity on many travel ‘to do’ lists so yes, there’s cover if you want to go scuba diving.
What’s covered
You're automatically covered on both the Standard Plan and the Explorer Plan to:
- dive with a professional, qualified and licensed dive instructor if you are not yet certified (e.g discover scuba experience) or you are doing your dive course.
- dive to 30 metres when you are certified.
- shark cage dive with a licensed operator.
You must list the activity on your policy and pay an additional premium to be covered to:
- dive to 40 metres when you’re certified
- cavern dive to 40 metres when qualified and with a licensed guide or operator
- work as a dive instructor. Read this for more details on how your policy can cover you while working overseas.
What you need to do to be covered
When you get your quote, simply add the type of scuba diving you’ll be doing on the options page, so you'll be sure you're covered.
You must add all the adventures and activities you plan to try on your trip when you get your quote. You won’t be able to make changes after your policy is issued.
Read more about how it all works and what restrictions apply to certain activities here.
How it works
If you become seriously ill or injured while diving and need urgent medical assistance, we’ll cover:
- Evacuation and repatriation if urgent and medically necessary (by the most appropriate means, including helicopter when necessary and available) to get you to the nearest medical facility or back home.
- Emergency medical expenses for treatment at the hospital or local medical centre (including decompression treatment if agreed as medically necessary by your treating doctor and our medical specialist).
If something happens to you, make sure you (or someone else) contact our 24/7 Emergency Assistance Team as soon as possible so they can arrange your evacuation to the nearest, most appropriate medical facility if medically necessary. If a guide or tour operator wants to arrange your evacuation, please get them to contact our Emergency Assistance team first to guarantee cover.
Who pays for medical treatment (and by this we mean either you pay upfront and claim later or we pay) depends on what’s happened to you and the necessary treatment required.
What’s not covered
Do think about your own safety! Don’t deliberately put yourself in a position where you are taking unnecessary risk, like going against instructions, diving unlicensed without an instructor, or diving in areas that are not suitable or safe.
Travel insurance is not designed to cover everything so please do read the terms, conditions, limits and exclusions in the Policy Document for what's covered and not covered (especially Sections 1 & 2 for medical and evacuation) plus important information on what you need to do if you need help while travelling.
Here are the main things that aren’t covered:
- Diving beyond 40 metres (qualified or not).
- Important: any search and/or rescue operations (including costs charged by a government, regulated authority or private organisation) connected with finding or rescuing you from a dangerous, life-threatening situation while at sea or at any other time.
- Cave diving, free diving or commercial diving.
- Any on-going medical expenses once you return to your home country.
- Anything mentioned in the General Exclusions or section specific exclusions.
This is only a summary of cover and does not include the full terms, conditions, limits, and exclusions of the policy. You should read your Policy Document in full, so you understand what is and isn’t covered. If you are unsure about your level of travel cover, please contact us for help.
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We’re here to help if you have a question about travel insurance. We’re available:
- Monday to Friday 11:00am - 8:00pm (NZST/NZDT)
- Saturday to Sunday closed (NZST/NZDT)
Contact us
Within New Zealand:
0800 666 237
From anywhere in the world:
+61 2 8256 1542
Within Australia:
1300 787 375
Before your trip, check the latest government advice for any travel alerts for your destination.