Camping in New Zealand

We did it years ago. The rv we had was a smaller right hand drive diesel. If you have never driven on the left hand side, with lots of traffic circles and 1 1/2 lane roads you are in for a treat. It is a wonderful country with welcoming people.

The people are wonderful but the government will make you jump through many hoops. Sister in law lives in Australia and wanted to do the same kind of trip. Took almost six months of NZ looking into her finances and bank accounts, a complete list of every place they were going to stay so the reservations could be verified and a complete list of every place they wanted to see. SIL wanted to visit in summer but it was winter before the visa was issued. She cancelled the trip and then had to explain to the NZ authorities why she wasted their time.

Keep Your Daydream family on Youtube did it a few years ago.

Here's their series of videos from that trip.

Never thought of the government red tape. How long ago was it your sister in law planned her trip? Thanks for the insight.

We didn't camp in NZ but we saw many campgrounds when we toured there when we didn't want to go to USA in 2017. They're relatively primitive but well maintained. I wouldn't mind RVing in NZ; right after we do a motorcycle tour there.

No problem driving on the left as DW is ex-English and I've driven in England many many times, but we did hear of fatalities caused by foreigners driving on the wrong side of the road.

I don't know what this gov't red tape you're talking about is. We didn't have any. We did a self-drive LoTR tour (FANTASTIC!) so we had to rent two cars. No problem.

Djones10 wrote:
Never thought of the government red tape. How long ago was it your sister in law planned her trip? Thanks for the insight.

NZ has much tighter entrance red tape, than when we were there 20 years ago. Watch To Catch a Smuggler: South Pacific. You'll see how much more restrictive entrance is now, especially regarding biosecurity.

Djones10 wrote:
Never thought of the government red tape. How long ago was it your sister in law planned her trip? Thanks for the insight.

We were there a 5-6 years ago. We didn't camp, but rented a car and just freelanced and drove around for several weeks stopping at motels when we were done for the day. No red tape, no questions, no issues.

Did a Campervan tour of North and South Island pre-pandemic for a 6 week tour. There were no issues at all, no government red tape for a tourist visiting for a relatively short visit. Rented the Campervan in Auckland, toured around some LoTR sites, then ferried to South Island and continued on down to the southern tip of the island and over to Queenstown area. Only thing I didn't do was drive. I hired a local for the 6 weeks to drive and act as the guide. Well worth it.