New Zealand🇳🇿
I have been to New Zealand twice now, first in 2020, pre Covid-19, and now in 2025. This short blog will include details on both experiences and explain the differences between travelling New Zealand with a tour and hiring your own camper van.
Hop-on-hop off Tours
In 2020, me and my friend booked our three week trip with the Kiwi Experience, a company we were recommended to use. This company is known for their different travel passes that offer the ease of getting around, and being able to meet other sociable travellers along the way. We booked the 17+ days Tiki hop-on-hop-off pass, starting in Auckland and ending in Christchurch, adding in extra nights in four places to total 21 days all together. There are different bus passes, varying from different lengths, only focussing on North or South Island or just day trips etc. The benefit of these bus passes are your whole trip will be practically planned for you with the transport to each place all included. All you essentially do is hop off the bus at the stops you want and hop back on when you want to continue your trip. The price of this tour is currently $1649 NZD, but it was definitely cheaper five years ago. Check out the different hop-on-hop-off passes here.
Booking a tour at the time, made it a lot easier for us, because all we had to do was confirm our booking and turn up. We did however, have to also purchase a Bed Hopper pass as accommodation was not included. Any activities that we wanted to do also needed to be paid for when booking them. Now looking back it does seem quite expensive overall, but we didn’t have to worry about booking separate transfers to each spot and we met a lot of fun people along the way!
Travelling by Camper Van
In 2025 Ned and I went to New Zealand for three weeks and this time we travelled around by camper van. We first did the North Island with a relocation camper van in six days. If you don’t know what relocations are, check out my other blog here, which goes into details what relocations are and how they are a really good, cheap way to travel around. A majority of relocations we did have been in Australia, but we booked this relocation with the same company and the rules are exactly the same in New Zealand. If you want to look into relocations, check out the Imoova website we use here.
We then did the South Island hiring our own Jucy camper van for another twelve days, although we wished we had longer in the South. If you decide to hire your own campervan, make sure to splash out on one that has a green Self-Contained New Zealand sticker. In New Zealand you have to be fully self contained (toilet and waste water tank onboard) to be able to legally free camp. If your camper is not self contained you run the risk of being hit with a fine by park rangers if you are found free camping, so definitely make sure to hire one with the green sticker.
If you are a solo traveller, going with the Kiwi Experience is probably the better choice, as you are likely going to meet a lot of other backpackers and it’s easier to socialise. However, if you are planning to travel with a few friends or a partner, hiring or relocating a camper van is definitely the better choice. Camper vans can be quite expensive to hire depending on the model, size and length of time you hire so splitting the price between a few of you will make it a lot cheaper. Overall, New Zealand is an expensive country, so take this into account when budgeting for your trip. We saved money on free campsites, cooked most of our meals with little treats here and there, and spent money on the main activities.
Ned and I have done a lot of campers and we really enjoy travelling around in them because you are saving money on accommodation and transport as well as have the freedom to go wherever you want. For stops and recommendations on where to go, check out my North and South Island blogs.
Peak season
The best time to go is during summer, which is between December and February. In 2020 I went in January and the weather was pretty good. This time, Ned and I went end of October to middle of November and we had a few weather issues. They weren’t the worst but they also weren’t ideal for some of the activities we wanted to do. If you have a specific amount of time for New Zealand, we would recommend prioritising more time in the South Island as there is so much to see and do there, whereas the main sites in the North Island can easily be done in a week if needs be! If you have more time overall, we would definitely recommend spending more time in Auckland and the surrounding areas like Waiheke Island and the Bay of Islands!
Overall, you have to visit New Zealand at least once in your life. It’s breathtakingly diverse landscapes of mountains, glaciers, subtropical forests is amazing to explore and you won’t regret booking that trip.
