Hello,
1) If you researched online, most people will advise that Johannesburg is not safe. Our exposure in the city is low because we did not venture around on our own.
- Our hostel provided a free pickup from the train station. Well, we still have to wait outside the train station for like 10-15 minutes. The area is supposed to be safe and patrolled. We did get approached from beggars. But otherwise, it's okay.
- We organise a private day tour of the city including Soweto Township. When we remarked that why we didn't see any whites on the streets during the whole day, our guide (black) chuckled and said that even though Johannesburg is considered very safe now, the whites are still afraid to come to the city.
- We did not self drive in the city as we heard stories of carjacking. After two nights in Johannesburg, we took a taxi from our hostel to the airport to pick up our rental car for Panorama and Kruger. After a few days, we returned via Cullinan to the airport directly for our flight home.
- Along our drive throughout the country, we passed by some townships and black hike hikers. One of the guesthouse owners (used to be ex mountain police) told us that as tourists, we should never pick up any hitchhikers be him/her be black or white. It's mostly harmless but you don't want to pick the 1%.
- Otherwise, we never felt unsafe in South Africa. Probably some cautions in Johannesburg and general common sense will do.
2) Kruger is huge, it's about the size of Belgium and we took 5-6 hours to drive from the south to the north. I do not consider it as crowded.
3) We went public even though we did read many recommendations on the private reserves before the trip. We are not big on luxury and wasn't sure how much we will enjoy a safari before the trip. But Kruger was a great experience and we enjoyed it a lot. You can get a sense of the prices at the national park website. I find it very value for money.
4) Check out seat61.com for more information.
5) We booked rather late in Nov so prices are expensive at around 1.6k each pax. Generally flights to South Africa should cost 1.1-1.3k via Emirates. You can easily check the prices online now.
6) Read
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/105660825-post13.html
7) Yes, we enjoyed SA and will recommend it to anyone. We spent around 3.3k SGD each including air tickets. But how much you will spend is hugely dependent on your style of traveling and what you want to experience.
Enjoy your trip and share your New Zealand itinerary too!