There are two main ways to travel New Zealand: driving a campervan or joining a coach tour. The most popular New Zealand coach tour company is called Kiwi Experience who offer a variety of tours, one being a 14 day trip across both islands, for £1,000, including accommodation but not food. Megan and I rented a Jucy campervan (using Motorhome Republic to browse various campers) for three weeks to travel both the north and south island. Although we definitely think it was the best option for us, there were undeniably some disadvantages. Weighing up the pros and cons of travelling NZ in a camper can help you decide how you want to do it.
😃 You have complete freedom! With a campervan, you can make up your own route and stay in places as long as you like. We spoke to some people on a coach tour and they said they always had to wake up really early to start heading to their next destination, and they’d often stop at a sight like Huka Falls for an hour or so, then be rushed back to the bus to carry on the trip! Travelling on our own, if we liked or disliked a place then we could act accordingly and leave whenever we felt ready.
☹️ There are hidden costs. For travelling the whole country in three weeks, our petrol came to a total of £400. So you have to add that to the initial cost of renting/buying the campervan (we rented the Jucy Cabana for £1,370 plus £200 each for insurance). The ideal plan to cut down on campsite costs would be to alternate between paid and free sites, so you’re still able to shower every evening or morning, but you don’t have to pay every night. However, this plan failed us because it turns out lots of towns and cities don’t have ANY free sites, forcing you to pay for one. You pay about £8 per person per night for an average campsite, but you do get to use facilities for that money like showers and a kitchen.
Other unexpected costs include fixing the vehicle! Now if you’ve rented a Jucy camper then you can call the AA for free whenever you have a problem and they will come out to have a look. We probably received six visits from the AA in three weeks. Our car battery died three times and unless you can somehow prove that it wasn’t your fault then you have to fork out the £150 odd yourself. Luckily, we were able to prove that it was just a faulty battery so we were reimbursed by Jucy.
As you can imagine, you pay a fixed price for a coach tour and then you just have to pay for your own food and any extra activities that weren’t included in the package. So you’d have little to no unexpected costs if you travelled with a tour.
😃 What an amazing experience to live in a camper van. How often do you get the chance to drive your own little campervan around a beautiful country with such scenic roads? It was surprisingly cosy in our tiny little van and it was a really fun experience. You become part of the camper community too, meeting fellow travellers – it’s really nice. On the road, you can blast out your tunes and just feel so free, cruising through the mountains. It’s an experience and a feeling you couldn’t get on a coach tour.
☹️ All the responsibility is on you. As I’ve already mentioned, with a campervan, you’re likely to face some issues along the way and when this happens, no matter where you are or what you’d planned for the day, it’s your responsibility to call for help and get the problem fixed — you might even be in the middle of nowhere and have to wait hours for someone to come along. You also have the responsibility of selecting all the places you think are worth visiting and deciding on the best route yourself — although there really aren’t many roads in NZ so it’s not too difficult.
😃☹️ There’s a lot of driving… Some days we’d have a five-hour drive to get to the next place, but to be honest, I see the driving as a good thing because the whole of NZ is sooo scenic, and personally I think if I was on a coach then I would be watching Netflix or sleeping half the time, missing all the breathtaking views! Also, unless you’re on your own, you can obviously take turns behind the wheel each day and share the long drives.
So I think what it really comes down to is are you the sort of person who’s capable of planning their own trip in order to have complete freedom, or would you rather have the ease of going along with a trip that’s already been planned out? If you are planning a trip to New Zealand, I will have loads more information up soon regarding best routes and recommendations, etc., so subscribe to my blog if you haven’t already to make sure you don’t miss anything!
Safe travels!
Em Wanders x
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