Travel information New Zealand | Everything you need to know in advance

The green country, the country that is so far away, the country that has their summer during our winter and the country that is above all super beautiful. Of course we are talking about New Zealand on the 8th continent of the world. You can see really beautiful nature in this country and experience everything. For example, the Lord of the Rings movies have been recorded. You can see part of the decor in real life. In addition, the country has fantastic mountains, volcanoes, lakes and the country is surrounded by beautiful beaches and the sea. With a rough itinerary and a lot of travel information about this country, I hope to enthuse you about New Zealand and to get you started on a journey here.

Our advice for camper rental New Zealand

Camper trips through New Zealand from Travelhome

Are you thinking of following our footsteps and renting a camper(van) with friends, your partner or with your whole family? Then ask free of charge and without obligation submit a quote to Travelhome from ANWB. They have both campervans and full-fledged family campers on offer.

Pros:

• Large selection, low prices
• Independent or Customized
• Expert advice from specialists
• Full quote with no hidden costs

Request a free quote

By using our affiliate links you support us at no extra cost. Thank you!

Practical Information

The best travel time

It is best to visit New Zealand in the months December through March. This is because it is the summer period and therefore the temperature is very pleasant. Don't expect a huge heat, but about 22 to 25 degrees. In these months there is the least rain and this makes it nice to make your trip in these months. A lot of activities in this beautiful country are outside anyway and good weather is of course always very welcome.

Visa

If you stay in New Zealand for up to 90 days, you do not need to apply for a visa. They do ask for one NZeTA (New Zealand electronic Travel Authority). You can do this here arrange online. It is valid for two years from the time you apply and the 90 days start upon arrival in New Zealand. You can easily apply for the NZeTA through the official channels and this way you are also the cheapest. It cost me €31 and the approval took a maximum of three days. If you don't do it through the app and perhaps not on the website of the New Zealand government itself, you often end up spending at least twice as much. So not recommended.

Holidays

In New Zealand they often celebrate the same holidays as we do The Netherlands also know. This is how they celebrate Christmas, Easter and New Year just like we do. They do have a number of National holidays. The most important National holidays are Waitangi Day on February 6 and ANZAC Day (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps Day) on April 25. The latter commemorates all victims of both world wars.

In addition, they celebrate Queen's Birthday. It is celebrated on the first Monday of June. Another national holiday that has no fixed date is Labor Day. This is celebrated on the fourth Monday of October.

It is also good to know that when a public holiday falls on a weekend, the following Monday is a day off. This can sometimes be useful to know during your trip, because a lot is often closed.

Tap and drinking water

Tap water is generally drinkable everywhere in New Zealand. However, you should not drink from every tap near a toilet or around remote places. It is often also clearly indicated here whether or not it concerns drinking water.

If you are traveling around with a campervan, you will find out that there are many drinking water points, but you have to pay attention. For example, there are several dump locations for your dirty water, where there is no drinking water. Then you have to go to another location to arrange drinking water.

In restaurants and accommodations you can basically see that there is drinking water everywhere. Of course again with the exception of the special places, such as on the way to a hike. It is wise to have a filter bottle so that you can still drink the filtered water.

Clothing Tips

As for clothing tips. can i be really short. Bring everything! In New Zealand you can experience four seasons in one day and it also makes a difference in which season you visit the country. Even in the summer months I wore thick sweaters, but also my bikini. Dressing yourself in layers is the best tip I can give. So make sure you have everything in your suitcase or backpack to this country. In the winter period it is also really cold in New Zealand. For example, there is skiing in many places. An appropriate content of your suitcase is then of course necessary and really different than during the summer period.

Money matters

In New Zealand you pay with the New Zealand Dollar. This is currently (April 2023) worth about €0,58. You can pin in many places, so you don't have to have mountains of money in your pocket. Nevertheless, we can recommend that you have some cash. You never know if you're going to need it and New Zealand has a lot of remote areas.

Also read: Which (prepaid) credit card is best to travel with? And why?

How do you get there?

New Zealand is seen from the Netherlands, literally on the other side of the world. You can of course fly there, but there are no direct flights. So you will always have to transfer at least once. Do you want to transfer as little as possible? Then flying becomes to Auckland (Location here) recommended in New Zealand. Through this page from Skyscanner it is usually the easiest (and cheapest) to find these flights. In addition, you can also fly to, for example Christchurch, but because there are fewer international flights, you may have to transfer more often if you come from the Netherlands.

Also read: Skyscanner | How to save (a lot of) money on flights | 2023 UPDATE

Route, highlights and tips

Determine the travel route

You can enter New Zealand through several places. Many people do that through Queenstown, Christchurch of Auckland. The latter is the most common and because I have flown on it myself, I will therefore keep this place as the starting point of the route.

There are numerous routes possible in New Zealand and that is why I only cover a global route in this blog. In another blog I will discuss several route options, so that you can make a choice in what you do and do not want or can see. The route described below has been created in such a way that you can see many highlights in New Zealand. A number of weeks is not taken into account, rather a number of months. In another blog I will go into more detail about routes for a certain time, such as a number of weeks.

North Island

From Auckland you can make a circle in the north of the city both clockwise and counterclockwise North Island (Location here). Stops on this route are eg Waipoua Kauri Forest, Arai at Uru Nature Reserve, Giant Sand Dunes, Ninety Mile Beach, Cape Reinga, St. Paul's Rock, Bay of Islands en Wangarei Heads. These stops are arranged in a clockwise order.

Of course, the north of the North Island is not the only thing you can visit and so you can continue your route towards New Chums Beach Lookout en Cathedral Cove. If you want to make a nice route here, I recommend the coastal route in a clockwise direction. So this means Thames to Coromandel, then to the two highlights mentioned and via tiarua back to the south.

After this you can, via visiting the waterfall Owharoa, continue to The Hobbiton Movie Set. From this angle you can direction Tauranga or straight to Rotorua. From Rotorua you can go further south via Huka Falls direction Lake Taupo then to Tongariro National Park by driving.

Then you can turn west towards New Plymouth en Egmont National Park. To then discover the east, you drive to Hastings of Napier. Of course you can also go east first and then west, but this will (unnecessarily) increase your mileage. After this you continue your route south, but first you stop in Wellington and there you go with a ferry to it South Island.

South Island

When you arrive by ferry at the South Island (Location here), you arrive at the town Picton. You can of course also do the route I am describing in the opposite direction, but I have written something out so that you can see what is possible. From Picton you drive to kaikoura and eventually you drive through Christchurch proceed to Lake Tekapo. Then you drive further south to it Lake Pukaki en Mount cook and then on to Queenstown.

Now you actually go up and down to Milford Sound and then you go to Wanaka. From Wanaka you drive through Rush to Fox Glacier en Franz Josef. After this you visit Be careful (Gorge) and drive through Arthur's Pass to the east, to Christchurch. Then you grab the Lewis Pass back west and through Greymouth you drive north to Punakaiki. After this you drive in direction Murchison and then to Saint-Arnaud.

After this you drive direction Richmond, but you continue to Abel Tasman National Park. Here you can choose to drive all the way to the north, but eventually you will drive back anyway Richmond en Nelson. Street Nelson take the route direction Blenheim and then you drive by kaikoura proceed to Christchurch. If you don't want to end your trip at a different location, you can na Nelson also to Picton drive and go back to the North Island via the ferry Auckland to end.

Good to know is that you too Akaroa from Christchurch in your itinerary and that Christchurch doesn't always have to be a stop on the South Island. This place is more common in the route explanation above, but you can also just drive past it. This city is often indicated as a route direction.

Rent or buy a motorhome in New Zealand?

I personally loved traveling through New Zealand with a campervan and can highly recommend traveling with a camper. You have complete freedom to go wherever you want. You can easily reach unknown places, it is easier to stop at beautiful viewpoints and you can also easily stay longer in places that you want to enjoy longer.

Of course you can also use the buses to travel through New Zealand, but I have not used this myself and so I cannot inform you about it.

You can buy or rent a campervan in New Zealand and you have undoubtedly received a lot of advice about both. Every situation is different and that is why it is important to make your own choice. It is of course riskier to buy a campervan, but it can also save you money if you are traveling for more than three months, for example.

I would first make the choice based on how long you will stay in New Zealand. If you are in this beautiful country for less than three months, you will spend a lot of time buying and selling a campervan in those three months. Of course you can, but it will take time. With a rented campervan you naturally have this time to spend in the adventure.

In addition, if you do want to buy, you must also take into account that there may always be additional costs associated with the maintenance of your camper. In addition, you can of course make a loss on your campervan, which means that it may cost the same amount to rent a campervan. My tip is that if you are going for less than three months, it is not advisable to buy a camper(van), but to rent it.

Our advice for camper rental New Zealand

Camper trips through New Zealand from Travelhome

Are you thinking of following our footsteps and renting a camper(van) with friends, your partner or with your whole family? Then ask free of charge and without obligation submit a quote to Travelhome from ANWB. They have both campervans and full-fledged family campers on offer.

Pros:

• Large selection, low prices
• Independent or Customized
• Expert advice from specialists
• Full quote with no hidden costs

Request a free quote

By using our affiliate links you support us at no extra cost. Thank you!

If you want to buy a campervan, there are many things that I advise you to pay close attention to. I wrote a separate blog about this.

Also read: New Zealand | Tips for buying a car or campervan

Great Walks

New Zealand has very nice walks and they are recommended by them Great Walks named. These are all multi-day walks. This means staying overnight during the hike of several days. For Great Walks you should always have booked the cabin where you want to spend the night in advance. Unfortunately, these fill up quickly, so you will also have to do this a bit on time.

Fortunately, you can also walk part of a lot of Great Walks and therefore make it a day hike. This is a godsend if you don't want to hike for several days in a row or when the hut is already full. Of course you often get less far, but the views are often no less.

the ferry

To go from the North Island to the South Island, there are two options. That is because traveling by plane or you take the ferry. For example, if you travel with a campervan, like me, only the ferry is an option. Especially during the high season of New Zealand, these ferries are extremely popular and therefore fill up quickly. If you want to use it, it is better to book the ferry in time. You can also buy a variable ticket, so that you can change your ticket to another date. Keep in mind that you can only change the date if there is also room on another date of your choice.

There are two companies with which you can take the ferry from the North Island to the South Island, or vice versa of course. These companies are called Interislander en Bluebridge.

Useful apps

There are several apps that are incredibly useful during your trip in New Zealand. The blog is aimed at traveling with a camper and therefore the apps are also aimed at that.

Camper mate

This app I personally found it the easiest to look up stuff. It is true that the free camping spots were a bit more difficult to discover in this app, but the app was really ideal for finding toilets, dump stations and showers! You can filter on what you are looking for or just keep all options in view. The app is free to download and use. In addition, it was also very easy to post reviews in this app and that made them (I think) very up to date. I have also left many reviews here. Always nice to help each other right!?

Rankers Camping

This app we mainly used to find free camping spots. This choice is very convenient to select and therefore you will immediately find all free camping spots, without seeing other camping spots in the overview. In addition, there are also reviews, not always up to date, but still handy to use. In addition to campsites, other useful traveler locations are also displayed, such as hikes, dump stations and supermarkets, but I personally found the Campermate app more useful for this.

Wikicamps

We have these ourselves app not used very often, but if we couldn't find a free or nice campsite in a certain area via the above two apps, then we actually looked at this one. Through this app we found a camping spot twice that had not been mentioned in the aforementioned two apps. This app requires a small contribution with purchase, but is then unlimited free to use. In this app you can not only find places to sleep, but also other useful locations, such as toilets.

Gaspy

This app is very useful for refueling as cheaply as possible. It really makes a difference to sometimes only fill up at the next village (if you can still make it, of course) or to refuel while your tank is only half empty. Some of the prices you see in this app are for pass holders only, but you can take advantage of those too. That will come back later in this blog. This app is a free app to download and use.

Maps.me

Most travelers often know the app Maps.me already does, but maybe you don't yet, so I'll give it a tip anyway. With this free app you can download maps in advance and you can therefore use it anywhere. Very handy in a country such as New Zealand, where you often have no coverage on the road and during hikes.

Speaking of hikes, almost all hiking trails that we walked in New Zealand could also be followed in this app. Incidentally, they were not always correct in terms of time, but at least you had an idea of ​​direction or an idea of ​​how far you still had to go.

Traveling around with a discount (budget tips)

It is of course ideal to get some discount here and there while traveling. It sometimes saves a lot of money and it is therefore definitely advisable to read the following tips carefully and use them during your trip through New Zealand.

Discount in the supermarket

There are several supermarkets in New Zealand. At a number of supermarkets you only get a discount on certain products if you have a certain card. This applies to supermarkets Countdown en New World. I can tell you that it is really worth arranging this pass. Sometimes it really saves quite a bit of money!

You need a green/orange card for the Countdown supermarket. It is available in the store and costs nothing. In principle, you don't even have to register anywhere. If you do this, you will receive personal offers by e-mail. So ask for this pass and use it every time you go shopping! This way you can be sure that you will also receive all products that are on offer with the offer price.

At the New World you do not have a physical pass, but you can download an app. With this app you become what they call a club member. Just like with the Countdown, you get all products for the offer prices that you encounter in the supermarket. When you have the club card scanned via your phone, you can be sure that you are not paying too much. Very nice while traveling in this relatively expensive country.

Discount when refueling

You can also get a discount in many places when refueling. At the gas stations BP en GAS you can get a discount using the same pass as at the Countdown supermarket. An additional tip for this pass is to register online and turn on receive e-mail. This way you know on which days you get even more discount at these two gas stations!

You can also go to the petrol stations Z en Caltex also receive a discount via a pass. This can also be a paper pass that you use temporarily. You do not have to register to receive the discount, so you can use this temporary paper pass continuously during your trip in New Zealand.

But don't forget the app either Gaspy to download, because that way you can save a lot of money on refueling anyway, just by paying attention to where you can best refuel.

Closing comments

If I have made you enthusiastic to go on a trip in New Zealand and have helped you on your way with this travel information, I hope you can make the trip soon. It really is a fantastically beautiful country! It is often said that the South Island is especially worthwhile and although this is of course completely true, I would also recommend the North Island if you have enough time.

In addition, I would like to ask you to help protect nature. New Zealand does everything it can to maintain their nature so well that we as travelers should certainly do the same. Don't leave any trash, nothing at all, and respect the rules. The longer we can enjoy this country with this clean and beautiful nature.

Our advice for camper rental New Zealand

Camper trips through New Zealand from Travelhome

Are you thinking of following our footsteps and renting a camper(van) with friends, your partner or with your whole family? Then ask free of charge and without obligation submit a quote to Travelhome from ANWB. They have both campervans and full-fledged family campers on offer.

Pros:

• Large selection, low prices
• Independent or Customized
• Expert advice from specialists
• Full quote with no hidden costs

Request a free quote

By using our affiliate links you support us at no extra cost. Thank you!