Campervans were literally made for places like New Zealand. It seems as though every other vehicle in New Zealand is a camper of some sort — there are that many about!
This post aims to give insight into the technical details of our campervan road trip around New Zealand, with a full itinerary and map, that might just inspire your own trip.
If you really want, you could actually follow our whole trip word for word if you’re not sure what to see!
You can also read more about our experiences and adventures in more detail, through our three part blog and video series!
New Zealand Part 1: North Island
New Zealand had a lot to live up. Spoiler alert: It smashed it. Catch all our photos and info on the places we visited in the North Island!
New Zealand Part 2: South Island
We've always said how much we've wanted to explore the South Island of New Zealand. Imagine our excitement levels when we were finally making our way there... and then when we took a Helicopter flight over the Southern Alps!
New Zealand Part 3: South Island
Moving further south from Franz Josef, we still had a huge amount to cover of the South Island of New Zealand! Check out all the activities we got up to around Wanaka, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Pukaki, Mount Cook and Tekapo!
Campervans are everywhere in New Zealand
Our call to Nature
Earlier in the year, around May (just edging into New Zealand’s winter), Elly and I set off on a 3 week adventure around the North and South Islands of New Zealand. We were in search of epic landscapes and raw natural beauty among all the mountains, lakes and glaciers!
You see, we’d already spent a few months travelling around metropolitan areas such as Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Japan, and Australia in the previous months; so this trip was everything about nature.
Oh, and of course those crazy activities that New Zealanders seem to breathe on a daily basis 😉
I don’t think we’ve ever covered such a high percentage of a country. Ever.
Natural beauty is all over New Zealand, but the South Island is home to the Southern Alps with the highest peaks in the country, so that was our primary focus for the trip. We still wanted to explore parts of the North Island as well, but we split our time about 30:70 between the North and South over a 3 week trip.
Mighty Manu, Our Campervan
We rented a “Double-up” from Mighty Campers in Auckland for the duration of our trip, which was more than comfortable for our needs.
There are SO many campervan companies in New Zealand; you really are spoilt for choice! When we were deciding who to go with, it literally came down to price and availability of different sizes. Due to the time of year we went (end of Autumn/beginning of Winter), we were able to pick up a big van at about 1/3 the normal cost of a Summer rental.
This sized camper is designed to accommodate up to 4 people and has a shower/toiler built-in, to certify it as self-contained, which means you can make the most of the freedom camping rules throughout New Zealand.
The Mega Route
Take a look at the map of our mega route below, complete with photos from our trip along the way. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a single country we’ve wanted to see so much of, in such a short space of time. We were so excited for New Zealand and it bloody smashed our expectations!
Looking at the map in hindsight, I don’t think we’ve ever covered such a high percentage of a country. Ever.
For reference, here’s a run down of each night’s stay whilst travelling around, with details on the relative drive time to the next destination and each campsite we stayed at.
The North Island
Auckland
We rented an apartment in the city, to catch up with planning the details of our New Zealand trip, since the previous weeks had been spent travelling around Australia.
Hot Water Beach
This beach is nothing short of magical — dig yourself a hole on the beach and let some amazing hot water soak up from below for a custom hot tub! We stayed at the Hot Water Beach Top 10 Holiday Park
Whakapapa
Get lost in the natural beauty of Tongariro National Park with Mt. Ruapehu in the distance. We stayed in the forest at the Whakapapa Holiday Park.
Himatangi Beach
The beach is famous for huge quantities of drift wood and epic sunsets. We stayed at the Himatangi Bech Holiday park and it was easily the cleanest campsite of our whole trip!
Porirua
Porirua has the fastest free WiFi in the whole country with a gigabit network! We stayed at Camp Elsdon which is possibly the cheapest campsite in the North Island at around $20 a night for a powered site.
Wellington
We made use of the public library to catch up with various amount of work and planning for activities planned for the South Island. We stayed at the Evans Bay freedom camping site, which is essentially a car park near the bay where you can stay for free.
Bluebridge Ferry to the South Island
We took the 8am ferry (courtesy of Bluebridge) to make sure we caught good views of the South Island, as we travelled the Cook Strait. Make sure to book this journey in advance, as it can get quite expensive.
The South Island Part I
Arthur's Pass
Straight after the ferry, we passed through picturesque Picton to Lake Rotoiti (one of the most unforgettable sights of our whole trip), we then headed further south to Jackson’s Retreat in Arthur’s Pass. It was an incredibly long day with a lot of scenery along the way!
Lake Pearson
Arthur’s Pass is one of the most incredible drives you can do in all of New Zealand. With epic mountains and winding roads, you’ll want to explore for a whole day! We stayed at the DOC campsite at Lake Pearson, for an authentic camping experience.
Franz Josef
Franz Josef is such a friendly and welcoming town with amazing and unforgettable activities to do around the famous glacier! We stayed at The Rainforest Retreat and Franz Josef Campervan park.
The South Island Part II
Wanaka
We wished we’d spent more time in Wanaka, it seemed like a really great town! Though we really enjoyed our lake views at the Lake Outlet campsite!
Queenstown
Queenstown is the absolute epitome of New Zealand culture. Incredible landscapes, welcoming people and literally every extreme sport under the sun (or snow) available. 5 Nights still wasn’t enough at the Queenstown Top 10 Holiday Park and Creeksyde Holiday Park.
Milford Sound
We took a Coach/Cruise/Coach tour via the Gray Line, however the weather was so bad, all the cruises were cancelled for the day. We did see the incredible waterfalls of rainy Milford Sound along the way though!
Mount Cook/Aoraki/Lake Pukaki
Our most remote night of our whole trip, camped under the pine trees along Lake Pukaki; a freedom camping spot in the middle of nowhere!
Lake Tekapo
Staying at Lake Tekapo Motels and Holiday Park is pretty much your only option in Tekapo. Though the close proximity to the Tekapo Springs hot pools and ice rink is very useful.
Geraldine
Our night at Grumpy’s Retreat felt like travelling back in time to the glory days of camping. Grumpy himself was anything but grumpy, by the way!
Christchurch
We had to return our camper to Mighty at 4pm and our flight out of Christchurch was at 6am the following morning, which meant we had to check-in at 3am. So we spent the night in the Airport, as the hotels near the airport were way overpriced and well beyond our budget for just a few hours. If you’re staying overnight in the Airport, you can make use of the bean bag lounge for $10 to relax a bit more comfortably whilst you wait for your flight!
Finding Campsites
Throughout our journey, we passed through and stayed in various managed campsites as well as a few Department of Conservation (DOC) sites which vary from the very basic in terms of facilities (free) to more accommodating facilities/services at popular spots.
You can check the DOC website for official details on each campsite before you visit, though we’d actually recommend popping into the nearest visitor centre and picking up a physical map to carry with you, as phone coverage is going to be very poor when you’re on the road, along with a need to ration your battery life if you have no means of keeping your devices charged.
If you do have a way to keep your phone charged, you can download the Camping NZ app from Rankers, which details pretty much every single available camping ground on a map, complete with reviews and photos to help make your decision! We literally lived by this app constantly throughout the trip—it was SO handy!
I would also recommend getting it way before you actually go on your road trip and downloading the offline maps functionality as well. I’d even recommend downloading it before you arrive in New Zealand if you’re travelling from overseas, as the internet speeds in New Zealand can be quite poor and the maps are about 1gb in size…
Camping Tips
Now that you’ve made it this far in this mega post, I’d like to share a few final thoughts and tips from our camping experience!
- Bring a flask! Brewing a large tea in the morning sorted us out for pretty much the whole day, saving us the hassle of switching the gas on and boiling water when we wanted a quick warm-up.
- I mentioned it before, but get yourself a physical map just incase you lose connection to your digital devices.
- Failing that, get a satnav with your rental. Mighty gave us a TomTom for free, as we had such a long booking and it was extremely handy!
- Try your best not to drive in the dark. Especially if it’s raining. Chances are you’re not used to driving such a big vehicle and it’s really not safe to be roaming about in the middle of nowhere at night.
- Thick socks to keep warm, but also so that you’re not wearing shoes in your camper. It’s amazing how dirty the floor can get when you’re traipsing through the wilderness all day.
- Don’t overplan your route. We changed our route constantly throughout our trip depending on the weather conditions and how much ground we covered each day. By keeping it loose, it frees you up to explore areas that catch your attention, or allow you to drive-on if an area isn’t quite what you expected.
- During off-peak season (April-October), don’t bother booking campsites in advance. I called one of our first ones to reserve a spot and they practically laughed at the idea. We were one of only 2 campers that night…
- Pack a torch. Trying to find the power box for your campsite in the dark can be quite tricky, not to mention stressful if it’s raining hard. Bring a torch and be glad about it!
- Think carefully about the food you’ll eat. You might not come across a food store for a few nights in a row, so make sure you’re stocked up on good food that’s relatively easy to cook.
- Remove that bloody rattling grill pan below the gas hob, to save your sanity from the racket it makes when driving! We wrapped ours up in one of the spare bed sheets that came with the camper to make for a much quieter drive.
- Try to connect to a powered campsite every other night or so, otherwise the batteries that power the fridge, lights and other appliances will die.
- If you’re travelling a great distance over a number of days, consider paying the extra fee for returning the camper with empty supplies (fuel, gas and water), which also covers a fixed fee for the diesel tax (usually calculated on the number of miles travelled). We calculated that we’d saved a few hundred dollars on the diesel tax alone…
- Don’t bother replacing the 9kg gas tank. We had our camper for 19 days and used the gas generously every single day, without it ever running out. With the fixed price of returning empty supplies, this easily saved us about NZ$60.
- Budget for the diesel costs (and stops) when planning. Thankfully, diesel is much cheaper in New Zealand than the UK by about half. But remember it’s also about 10 times harder to actually come across due to the remoteness of each town.
Continue with our adventure!
I really hope you’ve enjoyed this post and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below if you’re thinking of doing your own campervan road trip across New Zealand! Incase you missed it above, check out each of the 3 parts to our road trip, packed with tonnes of photography along with videos showing our adventures in premium quality!
New Zealand Part 1: North Island
New Zealand had a lot to live up. Spoiler alert: It smashed it. Catch all our photos and info on the places we visited in the North Island!
New Zealand Part 2: South Island
We've always said how much we've wanted to explore the South Island of New Zealand. Imagine our excitement levels when we were finally making our way there... and then when we took a Helicopter flight over the Southern Alps!
New Zealand Part 3: South Island
Moving further south from Franz Josef, we still had a huge amount to cover of the South Island of New Zealand! Check out all the activities we got up to around Wanaka, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Pukaki, Mount Cook and Tekapo!
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If you're planning your own road trip around New Zealand or you're now feeling inspired, leave a comment below—we'd love to hear your thoughts!
Hey Joe, Great write up, me and my girlfriend are planning on doing pretty much the same route in October! Do you know roughly how much you guys ended up spending on fuel? Cheers
Hey Jack! Good luck on your trip, you'll have an amazing time! I can tell you exactly how much we spent on fuel as I tracked all the receipts for it! It came to the equivalent of £168. Diesel is pretty cheap in NZ, about half the cost compared to the UK (back in May when the exchange rate was good), but make sure you get the "refill bundle" thing from the camper hire, as it will include the diesel mileage tax. Otherwise you'll have a shock at the end of your trip!
Hi Just tie confirm was that GBP168 cost in fuel for your whole trip? I assume the fuel lasted for a few days, before refilling? Thanks May
Hi Joe, Just dropping you a line to say MASSIVE THANKS for the fantastic vlogs / blog about your NZ trip. We are leaving for Auckland in a few days and have been watching your videos over and over again. Can't wait! Thank you for all the ideas you gave us and enjoy all your trips! Greetings from Rotterdam / the Netherlands, Caroline
Thanks Caroline, I appreciate the compliments and share your excitement for your trip! I hope this post has been helpful in sharing some inspiration and advice for you! What type of trip are you planning and where will you be visiting?
Hi Joe, Well, we have rented a Mighty Manu (Double Up) and will travel through NZ in a 3,5 wk trip. We are wine lovers so will be studying some vineyards thoroughly. ;-) We are looking into heli hiking (looking forward to meeting the infamous guides), stargazing, getting lost in nomansland; generally we have nothing much planned yet. We can't wait to be blown away by the beauty of NZ!! Groet, Caroline
Hi Joe, Really stoked about my upcoming New Zealand trip this december!! However there's one thing I would love to clarify.. what do you mean by : "If you’re travelling a great distance over a number of days, consider paying the extra fee for returning the camper with empty supplies (fuel, gas and water), which also covers a fixed fee for the diesel tax (usually calculated on the number of miles travelled). We calculated that we’d saved a few hundred dollars on the diesel tax alone…" Could you elaborate more and enlighten me on this? I will be doing about 2,400km in roughly 10 days! Thank you Draco
Awesome—I hope you have an amazing trip! The comment I made was in relation to campervan hires and the diesel tax applied to large vehicals (based on a price per km). The hire companies will often offer a package of "returning empty" which means you won't have to refill the gas, diesel and other expendable items. Often included in the package is a flat rate for the diesel tax which is far less than paying per km. For that alone, it was worth it! I believe mighty charged around NZ$150 for this…
Hi both, just to let you know that Mighty currently charges NZD 299 for this package. If you have purchased the all incl insurance package as well check out is very simple as you only have to hand in the keys at reception. Otherwise this could take valuable time... Please also reserve 2 hours in your schedule for pick up of your campervan. When we arrived three weeks ago it was very quiet / little people picking up their van, but they still managed to take their time and have a huge backlog. If you have not purchased a ferry ticket yet, please buy a Top 10 membership card at NZD 49. It gives you 10% discount on the Interislander + Top 10 campsites and more discounts on a whole lot of activities. Joe, completely agree with your comment re the friendly staff at Queenstown Top 10. Were there yesterday / they were super nice ! Greetings from Wanaka and enjoy your trip in Dec! Caroline
Thanks Caroline, that's some very helpful advice—especially as it's coming into peak season! I knew the price was something 150; I must have just remembered the conversion to GBP ha! I hope you're having a great trip—I'm desperate to get back there!
Thank you very much Joe and Caroline for the insights! Will take note :) Yeap I am really excited haha; I hope the weather will be good to us!! Cheers!
This is wonderful write up "Jelly". You Vlogs and blog has been very helpful to me. I am planning to spend two weeks in South Island in coming April. I am concerned about a campervan usage as I will be traveling with an infant.
Thank you, I'm glad they've helped! I think travelling with a child in a campervan will actually be incredibly exciting for them! The ability to travel around incredible landscapes and spend so much time outdoors can only be a good thing! Loads of the campsites we visited had specific child areas with play areas and plenty of families about, so I wouldn't think there's much to worry about to be honest. As for hygiene and what not, there are usually ample facilities at campsites if you need them, otherwise a boatload of wet wipes will be your friend!
This looks like such an awesome trip.
Hi, I am planning a trip to the South Island in Sep, looking at campervan vs car hire. Just wanted to know how much on average were you paying per night for accommodation in the campsites/holiday parks? And were you just staying in the campsites etc because it's illegal to just park anywhere, or did you need to use their facilities too, i.e.. power etc?
Hi there, we are planning to go to NZ in Sep and weighing up whether to get a car or campervan. On average how much were you paying per night to stay in the holiday parks/camp sites? Thanks!
Yes, this was helpful for my holiday and now It's easy to make the holiday better, So thanks for this simple but thoughtful and amazing post. I will use your tips again and again until I got any better idea... So I think this is gonna be a long time part of my life.....
These tips were really helpful for me. Two weeks ago I went to New Zealand with my family and enjoyed a lot because I hired a campervan. Campervan hiring is very popular in New Zealand. I searched for many Campervan Hire companies and best Campervan Hire company I found on google.
Hi Jelly, do you have a post with tips for buying a campervan? Thanks
Getting ready to head to NZ in May 2020, from the US. Our first trip to NZ. Love this trip tips. Would anyone change anything on them since the trip in 2016? Additions, deletions, changes in parks, etc?