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New Zealand Campervans

New Zealand campervans provide a way of travel that this country was made for!

Campervan hire in NZ allows you to enjoy the freedom of travelling around anywhere in the North or South Islands while at the same time saving money on expensive accommodation.

Motorhome rentals are relatively cheap in comparison to other countries, and when you compare with the cost of hotels you'll find the cost of your holiday substantially reduced through using this mode of travel. This is particularly true when you combine hotel accommodation with the fact that you will still need to travel by hire car or other transport.

When hiring cheap motorhomes you combine the best of both worlds and get the total freedom of being able to change your plans throughout your holiday if you want to.

Lake Outlet Holiday Park, Lake Wanaka, New Zealand

Roads

This isn't a huge country and hiring New Zealand campervans makes travelling around easy. The road networks provide easy driving, with the traffic being sparse in some parts of the country, so you can cruise along and stop wherever you like to take in the fantastic scenery and sights.

Although you could take the option of travelling by coaches, they may only take you from town to town and you will still have to pay for accommodation.

With motor home hire you only need to pay a small amount to camp up overnight at the many available camping grounds to take advantage of all the facilities they provide New Zealand campervans travelers.

Camp Grounds

Campervan site at Hamner Springs

Motorhome West Coast New Zealand
West Coast, South Island, New Zealand

Camping sites across NZ are excellent and cater for travellers much better than in a lot of other countries. Most sites have toilet and shower blocks, dump stations, fresh water supplies, washing machines, and kitchens with cooking and fridge facilities.

Although many New Zealand campervans sites will include a shop where you can purchase food supplies such as eggs and milk, it is more cost efficient to buy your main shopping from a supermarket as small camp shops are likely to be slightly more expensive.

There are also free camp grounds but there will be less in the way of facilities and they do vary quite a lot. Some include a long drop toilet, may include a tap and water supply if you are lucky, whereas others do not provide anything except an area to park your vehicle or pitch a tent.

If there are toilets and other facilities on free camping grounds you will sometimes see an honesty box where you can give a small contribution to help with the maintenance and upkeep of these facilities.

You will need to find a dump station every day to dump your New Zealand campervans waste water. Please do not dump waste water at the side of roads, respect the countryside and use the official dump stations for grey water or toilet waste.

Season of Travel

Campervan rentals NZ is most affordable outside of the main holiday season when you can get some really good deals.

We hired a small camper van for two weeks at the beginning of November to travel round the South Island. We got an amazing deal because it was before the main NZ summer holiday season.

It was the start of the Spring season and the weather was mostly dry with some warm sunny days... nearly as good as the UK summer! The advantage of taking our holiday at this time of year was that there was hardly any tourist traffic on the roads, we didn't have to worry about booking any sites beforehand, and the camp grounds were not crowded with summer travellers.

If you are travelling during the NZ winter, a four wheel drive campervan will enable you to go anywhere, stay anywhere, and never have to pay for accommodation! So if you are planning a skiing vacation or want to go off road at all you need to look to hire a four wheel drive motorhome. For ski resorts and travel between, you can generally hire snow chains from the rental company and they will advise you on road conditions in different regions as well.

A four wheel drive camper van probably won't be needed if you're vacation is during the NZ summer and you're not intending to drive in snow or along unsealed tracks. It's not recommended to go off road in vans anyway as there is always a risk you could get stuck off road in the middle of nowhere and without help to tow you out it could prove to be an expensive and inconvenient experience.

You will have to check with your vehicle hire company when you pick up your van because some do not permit vehicles to be driven on particular roads that are known for causing damage to vans (although you may be able to get extra insurance cover). They will be able to advise of any restricted roads or travel when you collect the van.