New Zealand by Van
Kia Ora! (That’s hello in Maorí)
After having so many friends travel or study abroad in New Zealand and coming back with the most INSANE stories, visiting the country quickly became the top of our travel list. It’s not a very big country, about the size of the West Coast of the states, and takes about 25 hours to drive tip to tip. Kiwis are also known for their sustainability practices and having a good time - so we were sold. We had heard of so many different ways to see the country, some people only went to the South Island, some flew across both islands, but one thing was for sure - #vanlife is the real deal there.
UPDATE - I just made this fun little video for Brooks for his birthday highlighting our whole trip. Check it out HERE.
So we decided to take two weeks over New Years Eve to visit Sydney and both Islands of New Zealand (I’ll only focus on NZ for this post). It’s high season during NYE, because it’s summer in the southern hemisphere, but the crowds weren’t anything hectic. We learned that it’s “New Zealand busy” which is very different from “LA busy” haha. We rented a van and drove from Queenstown in the South Island to Auckland in the North Island. Here was our route:
Queenstown
Milford Sound
Wanaka
West Coast of the South Island (drove past the glaciers)
Picton (took the ferry to Wellington)
Wellington
Taupo
Rotorua
Mount Maunganui
The Coromandel (Whgmanta, Hot Water Beach, Cathedral Cove, Thames)
Auckland
Waiheke Island
FIRST THINGS FIRST if we’re going to talk about traveling, we need to talk about carbon offsets. Being an environmentalist, I always feel guilty for flying, and try to avoid it as much as possible. When I do fly, I purchase carbon offsets, which is essentially a donation to an organization that operates to remove carbon + other greenhouse gases (GHG) from the atmosphere. I first learned about Carbon Footprint in my UCLA classes, and have since purchased my offsets through them every time. Here’s how it works:
You first calculate how much carbon you emitted into the atmosphere from your flight/drive. It then spits out an estimate of carbon gigaton equivalents. On the same website, you’re redirected to a page that has carbon offset options that puts a dollar amount to the GHG you emitted. For two round-trip flights from LAX to Queenstown, we emitted 7 tons of CO2 (yikes). Although traveling provides amazing experiences where we are humbled as we learn about different cultures, and meet people from different backgrounds, there is obvious detrimental harm done to the planet with the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel operated vehicles, and it’s our responsibility to clean up the mess we’re making.
YOU NEED A VISA to enter New Zealand, something I wish we knew sooner… It’s a super easy process, we were able to do it in 15 minutes at the airport, but had a bit of a panic attack when the Delta representative said, “you can’t board without your visa.” So I recommend doing that as soon as you purchase your flights! All visa info can be found here.
FOR THE VAN we rented ours from Britz. We read a few blogs and they seemed to be a trusted, one-stop-shop van rental company. It felt pretty luxurious! We had a comfortable bed, a gas stove, a huge water tank with a pump as a sink, and even a toilet (although we never used it). It was a self-contained vehicle so we were technically allowed to park anywhere and sleep in the van, but make sure you read all of the local regulations before you do so. I highly recommend downloading the CamperMate app which has all of the details and where you can park/camp in each region.
If you want to see a tour of our little campervan (that we named Vandalf) watch this video 📹
DAY ONE we drove 4 hours south from Queenstown down to the Milford Sound. It’s a windy but GORGEOUS drive. The best way to see the Milford Sound is definitely by boat. We went on the Mitre Peak Cruise. It was a smaller, more intimate boat and they served us coffee and tea. We went in the afternoon and it was BEAUTIFUL. Bring your rain jacket because they’ll let you get RIGHT UP next to the waterfall. Afterwards, I would recommend packing a picnic and eating by the rocks. That night we camped at the Walker Creek campsite which has the most beautiful view. It’s small, just a bathroom and some car sites, but still lovely. There are lots of bugs though, so watch out!
DAY TWO we drove back to Queenstown to go Bungee Jumping and enjoy the town a bit. Fun fact - bungee jumping was invited in Queenstown so of course we had to give it a shot. We wrapped it up with Erik's Fish and Chips on the beach, but be careful - the sneaky Kea birds will swoop and steal a fry straight out of your hand! There’s also Patagonia chocolate which is a cute little spot. I wish we would’ve gone to the Onsen! Next time 🙂
Brooks loved bungee jumping so much, he went twice. Check it out 👇
DAY THREE we made our way up to Wanaka, which if I could live anywhere in the world I would move there tomorrow. There’s a fun little pub on the water where all the locals were sitting outside drinking beer and enjoying the summer sunshine. Brooks recommends going for a swim! And of course you have to see the #wanakatree. We camped a little north of Wanaka, close to the trailhead we were going to hike the next day. But nonetheless had the sweetest little camp dinner on the water. We heard that the Roy’s Peak hike was going to be super busy, and the ranger recommended that we do the Isthmus Peak hike instead which was BEAUTIFUL. It’s super steep, and you have to climb over a few gates, but the view at the top is INSANE. Bring your lunch and plenty of water, and enjoy a nap at the top with panorama views of the mountains crystal blue lakes.
DAY FOUR we drove up the West Coast, and stopped at the Blue Pools for a quick dip. These are seriously beautiful! The water is COLD, but you can jump off the bridge and into the water - Brooks did! Bring a towel and give it a shot. We then drove through the rain (I guess the weather on the West Coast is always a hit or miss) and passed the small mountain towns of the Franz Josef + Fox Glaciers. We couldn’t go, but heard the Siberia Experience is one for the books (although definitely pricey $) We made our way up to Picton which is the town where you catch the Ferry to the North Island. We drove through the Malborough winery area, and I wish we would’ve had an extra day to go wine tasting here - next time! We took the Interislander Ferry from Picton to Wellington. I recommend buying your ticket earlier than later. We took the red eye (do not recommend) I bet it would’ve been BEAUTIFUL in the daylight to see all of the islands.
DAY FIVE we explored around Wellington for a bit. They have lot of awesome vegan food options, we had breakfast at Willi’s Kitchen and grabbed a green juice at Tank on Cuba Street after. There’s also an AWESOME zero waste shop called GoodFor that we stocked up on road trip snacks and cold brew. It looks like there are tons of funky little thrift + book shops if you’re wanting to peruse around a bit. Then we drove up to Lake Rotorua, and set up camp for the night. It was wayyy too windy to swim, but we were blessed with the most BEAUTIFUL sunset. The lake is so big it looks like the ocean.
DAY SIX we drove over to Taupo to dip in the Hells Gate thermal pools. It was SO RAD and extremely relaxing to experience the hot sulfur pools, but watch out, your bathing suit will for sure stink afterwards haha. We (and by we I mean I) really wanted to go to Hobbiton.. but we didn’t make it. It's $70/person and extremely busy this time of year… so I put on my ring of Mordor necklace, listened to the LOTR soundtrack, and called it a day 😉 That afternoon we drove to Mount Maunganui for a little hike and sunset. Make sure to pack your running shoes and do the hike! Bring headphones and a killer playlist if you wanna get a workout in with all of the locals. Then jump in the ocean to cool off. Afterwards we walked down the cute little strip and grabbed a beer. Was such a beautiful day!
DAY SEVEN we woke up early to get to the Coromandel. It’s BEAUTIFUL. Every single beach of the Coromandel is just gorgeous. The whole peninsula is lined with cute coffee and fruit carts. Our first stop was Waihi beach, you have to go on a little hike to get to the secret bay but it’s so worth it. We then mozied over to Whangamata which is a cute little surf town. We got falafel for lunch and took a nap on the beach. We took our time and drove up to Hot Water Beach where we camped for the night. Although it’s touristy, Hot Water Beach is pretty rad! You can bring a shovel down to the water at low tide and dig yourself a personal hot tub. There are underground “veins” that connect hot water from the shore down to the ocean, and if you dig at the right spot, the hot water will come up from the sand and you’ll have a personal jacuzzi! We went at low tide at midnight, which helped avoid some of the crowds, and the water was HOT! Definitely worth checking out.
DAY EIGHT we woke up early again to head to Cathedral Cove. It’s VERY touristy, there’s shuttles that take you from the parking lot to a bus stop to get to the cove, so we chose to walk instead. There’s a beach path/hike that takes you along a couple beaches and coves on your way to Cathedral Cove, so we stopped at Stingray cove. It was so beautiful and there was barely anyone there so we decided not to go all the way to Cathedral cove. Brooks jumped in the water and sure enough saw some stingrays! We climbed around on the rocks and read in the sun. After a full beach day, we drove to a little dive bar, The Coroglen Tavern, that my friend from NZ recommended. We were some of the only ones there, but you can tell that it’s a local staple. That night we camped in this little town called Thames. It was DEAD at night, we ended up getting wine and drinking in the van. Although it looked kinda cool in the morning on our way out.
DAY NINE we drove to Auckland. Several locals had recommended that we have breakfast at little vegan spot called Little Bird Kitchen which was absolutely amazing. Auckland has SO MANY cute coffee shops and restaurants in town. Brooks had wanted a pair of Allbirds for over a year, so we finally went to the Allbirds store (which this is another story for another blog post haha). We parked the van down at the harbor and took the 40-minute ferry to Waiheke Island. I cannot iterate how much of A MUST this is. It’s the most darling little island that is covered in wineries. We ended up only going to two, Cable Bay and Mudbrick, because Mudbrick was such a jackpot that we ended up spending almost the whole day there. We sat on the hill in these cozy bean bags, ordered oysters, bread, olives, and all the Sauvignon Blanc we could drink. It was the most magical end to such an amazing trip. After living in the van for nine days, this felt like heaven.
So overall, we did 10 days in the van, and it definitely wasn’t enough time! If I could recommend anything, I would drive/camp around the South Island, then fly to Auckland and do the Coromandel and Waiheke Island. Next time we want to head up to the Bay of Islands, but all of our local friends said you want 5+ days to drive up there, and we just didn’t have the time.
If you have any questions, or want to spitball ideas, DM me on Instagram @re.laurenferree because New Zealand quickly stole my heart and I would be happy to chat with you!