Tips for your road trip around New Zealand in a Motorhome

(written and done in 2017) // See also our guide: how to plan your NZ experience.

We have explored NZ by motorhome for 2,5 weeks. Not being attached to "hotels/locations", we freely skipped famous “top attractions” if they were not so cool in reality to have more room for enjoying not-so-famous spots we've found and truly liked.

Which to choose?

First of all, there're three types of "homes with wheels": campervans, motorhomes and caravans. Check out this link to see the difference: http://www.60yearsjourney.com/2013/08/difference-between-campervan-caravan.html

You can choose any you think would suit you. (In the post I'll refer to all types as motorhomes.)

Our choice

We've booked "4 berth cruiser campervan with toilet & shower" for 2 people. It's an amazing motorhome with stunning facilities. However, we've found it quite big for 2 people. So next time we would have chosen a smaller campervan, which would be on top of everything, more shifty on the road.

Let's begin.

Here're some pretty good articles on what to expect:

• http://globalgirltravels.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-a-campervan-road-trip-in-new-zealand/
• https://theplanetd.com/living-in-a-campervan/

From our experience: pros/cons

Motorhome benefits:

(a) allows being flexible and not to plan stays too much ahead

(b) you don’t have to pack/unpack when moving from place to place

Motorhome "maintenance": emptying grey water and "toilet" to dump stations; refilling water, gas; charging - easy peasy.

Some motorhome companies to rent from: Britz (http://www.britz.co.nz/), Maui (http://www.maui-rentals.com), Jucy (https://www.jucy.co.nz). We've rented from Britz, however, all other companies seemed to be pretty popular.

Where can you camp a motorhome: https://www.govt.nz/browse/recreation-and-the-environment/freedom-camping/

Types of campsites

Basically there’re 3 types of campsites: (1) free, (2) $10-20, (3) $21+

• Free: Usually just a spot with nothing on it but nature. However, it might have a toilet, for example.
• $10-20: (something in between, really depends)
• $21+: usually have a whole range of facilities (toilets, hot water showers, laundry, powered sites, etc.)

Why would you need a not-free-campsite? For instance:

• Power. We had a fridge in the motorhome. The fridge only works if (a) engine is on or (b) the motorhome is plugged in a powered site. Plus, it's convenient to charge everything overnight when the motorhome is plugged in.
• Hot shower, toilet (or you can use the facilities of your motorhome)
• Kitchen (or you can use the gas in the motorhome)
• BBQ
• Wifi (though it is usually pretty slow)

It’s not a rare thing that a free campsite would be better than the expensive ones. Our recommendation would be to "mix&match": switch and stay in all three types of campsites.

Your best "friends" are 2 apps (download offline maps in them):

• Rankers (https://www.rankers.co.nz/)
• CamperMate (https://www.campermate.co.nz/)

You can find everything you need via them (though, they were way from perfect, when we used them): campsites, dumping stations, water refills, etc. We arrived to most of places without an in advance booking (when we were travelling in November).

Here's our feedback on some of the campsites:

• Willowhaven Holiday Park @ Rotorua: right on the lake, has a nice view, windy, black swans & black ducks, seagulls alarm in the morning, mosquitos
• Roselands @ Waitomo Caves: just a car park behind a restaurant, but nice if you’re going to the caves, cause it's super close to the meeting point
• Cuba street Motorhome park @ Wellington: small carpark in the city centre with powered spots, no view (if do not need power, better to stay at the waterfront parking)
• Helme Holiday Park @ Mapua: quite expensive, worth if coming early in the day, cool view, nice facilities, great host, no mosquitos, can do star gazing
• Westport Holiday park & Motel: great host, but no view and in the middle of nowhere (we were lucky to spot kiwi there)
• Otta/Mcdonalds Camping Ground: seems to be the best site in the area - though there's nothing but the toilet on the site, you can swim in the lake and watch stunning sunset, but be aware of flies that bites (badly)

New Zealand is perfect for motorhome experience. Go for it! Safe travels!