Four weeks in New Zealand

[Deleted member 1276]

Did you camp most of the time?

Well... we had the intention of staying in hostels and going super cheap. We mistakenly thought that lugging our tent and pads around would be too much of a headache... We rented the smallest damn Hyundai in the world and were on our way.

But we ended up sleeping in the car a couple of times when a hostel wasn't available or we thought it was too expensive for the facilities, so we borrowed a tent from some friends down there and car camped at the backpacker places/hostels and "holiday parks". We also spent a few nights in double-rooms at some backpacker places, stayed with friends in Wellington, Auckland, Lyttleton (Christchurch), Dunedin, and a place near Picton. A few nights were spent in a swank hotel where the wedding we were attending was located, so that was the splurge factor on lodging.

All in all, things get expensive when you travel for a month, but we kept it reasonably budget-minded and escaped without spending too much.

EDIT: If I had to do it all over again, on a slightly higher budget, I'd rent a campervan and cruise the country in that. Sleeping in that, parking at Holiday Parks maybe once or 2x/week. The van would provide bed, cooking, utensils, some even have DVD players... FWIW. On a similar, or lower budget, I'd take the tent and all backpacking cooking gear. Our car ended up being less than $20USD/day after conversion, which was nice... so if I could get a similar deal, I might take that again. Hitching or using a bus to travel is also very common down there and looks like it works well. I'm so addicted to having a vehicle and doing things on my own timeline though, that would be tough.

 

[jbs]

Well... we had the intention of staying in hostels and going super cheap. We mistakenly thought that lugging our tent and pads around would be too much of a headache... We rented the smallest damn Hyundai in the world and were on our way.

But we ended up sleeping in the car a couple of times when a hostel wasn't available or we thought it was too expensive for the facilities, so we borrowed a tent from some friends down there and car camped at the backpacker places/hostels and "holiday parks". We also spent a few nights in double-rooms at some backpacker places, stayed with friends in Wellington, Auckland, Lyttleton (Christchurch), Dunedin, and a place near Picton. A few nights were spent in a swank hotel where the wedding we were attending was located, so that was the splurge factor on lodging.

All in all, things get expensive when you travel for a month, but we kept it reasonably budget-minded and escaped without spending too much.

EDIT: If I had to do it all over again, on a slightly higher budget, I'd rent a campervan and cruise the country in that. Sleeping in that, parking at Holiday Parks maybe once or 2x/week. The van would provide bed, cooking, utensils, some even have DVD players... FWIW. On a similar, or lower budget, I'd take the tent and all backpacking cooking gear. Our car ended up being less than $20USD/day after conversion, which was nice... so if I could get a similar deal, I might take that again. Hitching or using a bus to travel is also very common down there and looks like it works well. I'm so addicted to having a vehicle and doing things on my own timeline though, that would be tough.

Great pics! What are "holiday parks"? Like campgrounds? Are you allowed to park your camper van in "dispersed" areas like National Forest in the US?

 

[Deleted member 1276]

Great pics! What are "holiday parks"? Like campgrounds? Are you allowed to park your camper van in "dispersed" areas like National Forest in the US?

Holiday parks are pretty cool. They come in all shapes and sizes and pretty much every town has one. They are basically like grassy campground areas, but most have electrical hookups for campvervans and the like. Many have double rooms you can stay in, some have nicer rooms too. Most have tent sites as well so you can throw down your tent and use the facilities. The facilities vary from park to park, but most are decent and some are really nice with huge, clean common bathrooms, good showers, laundry, internet... some have pool halls, some have bars. Very interesting concept.

Some of these parks aren't located in compelling locations, but some are beachside, lakeside, or in other very cool areas.

I don't know what the camping road-side rule is, but you seem to be able to get away with it here and there and if you rocked a camper van, you'd be able to stealth park almost anywhere outside of the major cities.

As far as National Forest designation goes, they do it differently down there. My impression is that they think of campgrounds more as holiday parks and camping out in the bush as something different. I'm sure some of this happens off the beaten path, but even along the popular multi-day hiking routes they have huts for hikers to stay in instead of camping on the ground.

The NZ Department of Conservation (DOC) office is a great resource for the actual hiking& backpacking kind of stuff. They have offices all over the country and the web site is very useful. Be aware that "backpackers" as referred to down there are more likely people traveling on a budget and living out of a backpack while travelling... which is different than I think about it here in the US.

 

[elcoyote]

EDIT: If I had to do it all over again, on a slightly higher budget, I'd rent a campervan and cruise the country in that. Sleeping in that, parking at Holiday Parks maybe once or 2x/week. The van would provide bed, cooking, utensils, some even have DVD players... FWIW. On a similar, or lower budget, I'd take the tent and all backpacking cooking gear. Our car ended up being less than $20USD/day after conversion, which was nice... so if I could get a similar deal, I might take that again. Hitching or using a bus to travel is also very common down there and looks like it works well. I'm so addicted to having a vehicle and doing things on my own timeline though, that would be tough.

That is what we did. It was great. Our report for more resources if anyone is considering it is at http://expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5524&highlight=zealand+vagabonds

 

[suntinez]

Really stunning photos, thank you for posting this!!

btw I think that's a sperm whale ....

 

[The Adam Blaster]

My wife and i spent about 2.5 weeks in NZ for our honeymoon last July/august.
Good times indeed!!
We rented a camper van through Juicy (formerly known as EZY) and they seemed to be the cheapest place around. We spent most of our time on the south island, did a big circle from Christchurch-Dunedin-Queesnstown-Mt Cook-Christchurch, then flew up to Auckland to zip around a bit. (I bunjy-eed in Taupo).

Anyways, the camper vans through Juicy are pretty slick, we actually never used it to sleep (or cook) in because it was their winter time, and the wife veto-ed that plan when we were driving around. lol
The built in cooler/fridge was usually full of drinks and snacks though, that was handy.

Near Dunedin we discovered the major disadvantage of the diesel camper -- none too quick on the get-go.
We had gone out to a yellow-eyed penguin conservation area on the Otago Peninsula, the coastal road is CRAZY there. On the one side you have a tall and very steep hill of mud about 6" on the other side of the yellow, and the other side of the road you have a 4' drop into the ocean, the edge of which is about 6" outside of the yellow line on that side.
Oh yeah, when we were there they had been experiencing some crazy 50-year flood type conditions because it had been raining HARD for 4 days straight. So, the waves were crashing against the roadside, and the hill had started to show signs of collapse.
On our way back from the penguin colony we experienced a "slight" mudslide. I was going around a blind curve (they are all blind curves on that road) and out of the corner of my eye i could see the entire hillside start to come down, and that's when my wife started yelling "GO GO GO" but with my foot to the floor, the van only managed a single little "go".
A 1/2 second later we felt the impact from the left side and the whole van lurched to the ride, the tail end sort of fish-tailing from the impact.
I kept my foot planted because there was no safe place to stop, but as i looked in the rearview, a car going the opposite direction hit the mound of mud and actually took air!!!
The mud had flowed and covered about 3/4 the width of the road.
We pulled off onto a widened portion of the road and a guy pulled up beside us to ask how we were. He also mentioned that car that took air just kept driving after getting (in his words) 1.5 meters into the air!!!!
We had a nice big dent in the side of the van, and of course i didn't opt for the extra insurance.
But, even if i would have gone for the highest level of insurance, it would hav still cost me $700.00. At the lowest level that i did opt for, i was out $1500.00. So, when i was deciding, i was risking 800 bucks on a "chance" something might happen. And i lost that gamble.
Ah well, we still had a great trip! And a good story to tell about the great Otago mudslide of '07! lolol

And it was really weird to see the Kea's around Mt. Cook. We were sitting in a lodge having a drink looking at the snow-covered mountains and see what was to my eyes, a parrot. You don't often see a parrot in a mountainous glacial climate! hahahaha