Travel insurance can get you out of a spot of bother, Pam Jones writes.
Forking out that extra money for travel insurance might feel like adding insult to injury on top of the cost of your overseas trip but it is something no traveller should do without.
Most have heard horror stories of accidents and missed flights suffered by those who did not have travel insurance and then found themselves in unenviable financial and practical situations - but what of the unforeseen circumstance before your trip that puts a different spanner in the works?
Many would not think about the chances of this happening but a family trip several years ago that could have left us significantly out of pocket proved the value of playing it safe.
Three children and two parents travelling to Europe for six months to live with family - plus a once in a lifetime splurge on two stopovers en route - was already costing a packet.
But when we were about to get into the car to begin the trip to Christchurch Airport (via a weekend at the grandparents' on the way) and my eldest son said ''Mum, my back is itchy'' the possible extra dollar signs went ka-ching.
''Chickenpox,'' said the doctor, and our despair deepened when our other two children were struck down the next day as well.
We spent the day we were meant to be flying out of New Zealand dousing three children with liquid paracetamol and dabbing them with calamine and aloe vera.
But not before we'd phoned our travel agent first.
''Travel insurance will pay for it,'' she sympathised, although it still took some work to sort out.
The fees for rebooking flights and accommodation and excursions for our planned week in Singapore and Paris on our way to Portugal would have cost $4500, but our six-month $1000 family travel insurance policy paid for the lot (less a modest excess).
Although the insurance company (which one I can't remember, but it's definitely something to watch out for) then tried to tell us because we had made a claim on our insurance policy it was then null and void and we would need to purchase a new one for our six-month trip.
Not on your life, I replied, and our travel agent managed to convince them it wasn't worth trying it on.
We kept our policy for no extra fee, and in fact made other claims later on for other medical bills in Europe that made the policy even more worthwhile.
Our combined children's chickenpox delayed our trip by two weeks but we were at least grateful we had not had to pay $4500 in cancellation and rebooking fees.
And for one other small mercy.
Two weeks is the incubation period for chickenpox.
My children all caught them within 24 hours of each other.
Imagine if they had caught them one at a time two weeks apart and we had been forced to wait at home for six weeks?
Things can always be worse.
We ended up having the time of our lives on our European sojourn, and retell our chickenpox/insurance episode with gusto to all who will listen to advise them to never travel without insurance.
Yes, the extra cost of insurance is annoying when you consider you probably won't need it.
But you never know when you will, and gambling on that simply isn't worth it.
