Campervan for the win –

Tour busses are not for us. We got caught once in their frenzy while in New Zealand. It was a wave of designer-wearing, umbrella-using and iPad-picture-taking folks all fighting for that ultimate selfie. Avoid this option at all costs. To see New Zealand, we jumped on the campervan bandwagon.

Campervaning was a great experience and apparently the other half of the tourists agreed. We passed more campervans than regular cars. There were many different companies to choose from and each has their own niche. We joined the Jucy “fellowship”; the company for hip younger travelers. Other brands tailored to the hippy traveler and the older luxury crowd. Jucy prices are very reasonable, but come at that cost of being a mobile marketing campaign. We were a beacon to locals that naive tourists have arrived!

Our home while New Zealand

The popular luxury camper

Too smokey inside to every see people driving

Pro tip, the must have app is Campermate. It made it easy to find gas stations, public restrooms, camping spots and more.

Freedom Camping –

AKA the spots-you-can-camp-and-not-get-a-ticket – Campervaning can get expensive. One way to save money is to camp at a Freedom site. You can camp at these sites for free. New Zealand has a love-hate relationship with freedom campers. As one could imagine, the type of people”free” could attract might be ones who aren’t respectful to the land or locals who live near by. Some areas have facilities and some don’t. 7/8 nights we stayed at a freedom site. We splurged on one night at Milford Sound Lodge and it was well worth it…Showers!

White knuckle driving –

Did we mention they drive on the left? Additionally, the roads are crazy narrow and twisty.  Driving, let alone driving a campervan, was stressful to say the least. We lost count how many times we went to the wrong side of the car to get in. And, how many times Isabelle turned on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. The mantra when approaching a roundabout was “yield right, yield right, yield right”. We gave up calculating an estimated time of arrival because it always took longer then what Googles predicted; especially if Isabelle drove. Even though the speed limit is 100kph it constantly changes due to the fact the roads carve through mountain sides and climbs valley after valley. One road had at least 15 washouts and was reduced to unmanned one-laned roads. We learned two quick honks means “thanks!” as we always tried to pullover and let traffic pass. Our gutless van could barely maintain 40kph on some hills. Unfortunately, we didn’t get stuck in a sheep crossing.