What an incredible country! This should be on everyone’s travel bucket list! The scenery is beautiful, and the people are so kind. We covered a lot of ground in 2 weeks. Next trip we won’t focus on hitting every stop along the way. It was a lot of fun, but exhausting. Instead, we’ll pick a couple places a spend a few days at each. I’ve outlined what we did on our trip including things we wouldn’t recommend and things we wished we had done.

The first week we were on the North Island. We started in Auckland and drove all the way to Wellington (something we don’t recommend doing in 2 days…). You can find that leg of the trip HERE. Our second week was spent on the South Island, flying into Queenstown, renting a campervan, and scooting around from one campsite to the next.

Queenstown

From Wellington we caught a flight into Queenstown where we picked up a campervan. CamperMate was the best app! It showed us where we could camp for free and what locations had facilities. It also showed reviews from other campers, which was probably the most helpful! If you’re camping in New Zealand, I highly recommend this app!

I have always wanted to live out of a van and this was my opportunity to give it a go! We didn’t spend much time in Queenstown because we were ready to try out our camper van, but we did stop at Cookie Time. I must say it’s a little over priced but the cookies were good and it was a fun experience.

Next time:  We’ll rent a campervan for sure! Not just because campervans are awesome and New Zealand is a super friendly campervan place, but also because we added up what it would cost for us to rent a car and camp/rent a private room for 2 in a hostel and it was less to rent the campervan. This may not be the case for solo travelers. Next time we will not stop at the 4 Square downtown with the van and get stuck in their tiny parking lot. We will spend at least 2 nights in Queenstown. It’s kind of counterproductive to rent a campervan and then stay in Queenstown if your intentions are to freedom camp because you can not do so in the city limits. It might be doable to spend a few days here and then pick up a van after….?

Orepuki - Monkey island

What a peaceful place! We freedom camped right on the beach. We ate dinner as the sun set over Monkey Island. There were a lot of campers but everyone was friendly and it was pretty quiet. We would definitely camp here again. There was plenty of beach to spend the afternoon walking around and admiring the multicolored rocks. Arthur decided he needed to go for a swim and froze his butt off….It was fun to watch.

Next time:  We’ll come back for sure. There wasn’t much to explore right at the campground, but it was very relaxing. Invercaigill wasn’t far from here and we would have liked to check that town out as well.

Bluecliffs Beach

We took off for this beach because we hoped to get a glimpse of hector dolphins and orcas. Of course after we traveled all the way out there and back someone told us we would have been lucky to spot them…..it was a neat area with a wild beach, but it was wayyy off the beaten path. Unless you really love to drive or plan on spending more than a few hours here, we wouldn’t recommend making the trip.

Te Anau

We bit the bullet and paid for a campsite at Lake View. We were ready for a shower and got a site with a view of the lake (hense “Lake View”). It was a friendly campground with nice facilities. They charge by the person and had clean bathrooms/showers, kitchen, dump station, and laundry facilities.

We ate dinner at Fat Duck in town. The venison was fantastic! But, being the beer drinkers that we are, we were a little sad at their limited selection.

Next time: If we need a place to stop we would come here again. Although it was a little touristy, it’s a cute town with beautiful views of the mountains and lake.

Milford Sound

Ahh the legendary Milford Sound. We would do this a million times over! We drove in with the camper van and stopped at all the lookouts and viewpoints we could. There isn’t much hiking once you get to the sound. We didn’t do our research, and were prepared to hike around for the afternoon. When we realized we had walked all we could after 30 minutes we found a warm spot and took a nap. The drive was breathtaking and the mountains were unreal. Some photos of the drive into Milford Sound are below. 

Next time: We’ll be back for sure. This was one of our favorite places. Next time we’ll book a boat ride, do some hiking before the sound (there are trails all over the place just off the road). We would also camp in the park. We felt the campsites were a little pricey compared to freedom camping, but after seeing the locations and knowing we would do so much more hiking if we had a couple days, it would be worth it.

Lake Wakatipu

Probably our favorite freedom campsite. We spent 2 nights here and would have easily spent another night. The view was beautiful, the lake was freezing but refreshing, and it was so peaceful. It did start to get crowded the day we left (on a weekend), which made it a little noisy. Prior to that there seemed to be enough room for everyone.

Next time: We’ll spend more time being lazy and just laying by the lake.

Lake Wanaka - Roy's Peak

We were really pushing ourselves at this point. In all honesty, we should not have beat the road this hard. We arrived in the Lake Wanaka area late at night and unfortunately let our porta potty overflow. Yup, that happened. We were exhausted at this point and didn’t keep an eye on the level and it was a disgusting mess. We got to the freedom sites at Diamond Lake just to smell the mess, turn around, go back into town to find a dump station, and clean up our terrible mistake. All around midnight. Talk about a bonding experience… It was super gross, BUT it was a clear night and the stars were amazing. We woke up the next morning and attempted to hike Roy’s Peak. Another incident where we didn’t do our research. We only got about a third of the way up when we had to turn around so we wouldn’t miss our flight out of Queenstown later that day.

Next time:  We’ll keep a better eye on our porta potti….hike Roy’s Peak to the top (this shouldn’t be missed!), and spend at least a couple days in this area. It seemed like a really fun place with a lot of adventure activities.

Gibston Valley Cheesery

Before our flight out we were able to grab a cheese platter at Gibston Valley Cheesery. If you like cheese, DO NOT MISS THIS. We had a bit of a cheese hangover after, but completely worth it!

South Island - Next Time

South Island Bucket list for our next trip: Fox Glacier, see penguins and orcas, take time to chill out and not drive so much, wake up earlier to take advantage of the daylight. Rolling out of your comfy campervan on a chilly morning is a lot more difficult than it sounds!

Have you traveled by campervan before? Comment below with some of your funniest moments. Surely we aren’t the only ones that didn’t keep a good enough eye on their porta potty!