By Jen.
Did our journey through New Zealand inspire you to do the same thing? Or, perhaps you just found this page as you searched for how to prepare for your own journey. This post will discuss what we recommend for anyone else looking to explore New Zealand by vehicle.
Check out the accompanying post:
Shipping Vehicle to Australia or NZ
Choosing a vehicle
You have 3 options for your overland trip:
- Rent/hire a vehicle.
- Buy a vehicle.
- Bring your own vehicle.
Renting a vehicle is pretty standard. Most people have done it. Make sure to verify whether you are able to drive on unsealed roads. However, this doesn’t make sense at all if you will be traveling for more than a few weeks. We looked into just renting a vehicle and staying for 6 weeks. In the summer when we planned to visit, for a vehicle of similar convenience and quality to Fernweh, it would have cost $10,000 NZD per month!
Buying a vehicle in New Zealand is a great option. Unfortunately, this is a common thing to do here and the sellers have gotten this figured out. For most of those small (low-roof) vans, they will sell it to you for several grand more than they will buy it back from you. Most people loose $2000-5000 NZD in their transactions. And, all that is generally required to register your purchased vehicle is a local address. Just borrow a friend’s or your hotel’s, etc. The cons are fairly obvious. You don’t truly know its history or reliability, and you have to arrange for a sale at the end. For us, since it was going to take less than 2 weeks to ship from Australia, we felt we might as well as travel in the comfort of our own home. Plus, we didn’t want to stay in country when we were done trying to sell it, or try to sell it remotely from another country. Those were just hassles we didn’t want, though many people do it with minimal trouble.
Obviously, we chose to bring our vehicle over. Why? We had a heavily-modified campervan, suited perfectly for us with established reliability. Plus, we had just finished with our van in Australia, so it made sense to bring it along. We knew we would be in New Zealand for several months, probably 8-9 months. Our travel style is low cost using free/cheap camps and cooking our own meals. Our vehicle greatly supports this. When you take the cost of shipping and divide it over that time, the non-refundable cost was worth it for us.
Preparing the Vehicle
Importation
To temporarily import a vehicle into NZ, you either must pay the cost of the vehicle plus GST up front when you bring it and then have get it reimbursed when you leave, or bring it over using a CPD carnet. We chose the CPD carnet route. The NZ government has good instructions on their websites. As a note, when the vehicle arrives, it will be inspected by Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) for any biosecurity issues. Your importer may try to say that it needs a NZTA inspection at the port, but it is not necessary for temporarily imported vehicles.
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/importing-a-vehicle/exceptions/importing-a-vehicle-temporarily/
Registration
Before you can drive your vehicle on NZ roads, your vehicle must receive either a certificate or warrant of fitness (COF or WOF) and pay Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). You do this at an entry certifier. Some of these require appointments, some don’t. Most only certify WOF, which are for vehicles under GVM 3500 kg. So, if you have a vehicle like ours, which has a 3800-kg GVM, then you are limited to only a few VTNZ or VINZ. Fortunately, at these two locations, if you are NZMCA member (see section below), you can also get a discount. I highly recommend calling ahead, explaining that you are temporarily importing a vehicle, that you need entry certification and a COF/WOF, and see if they know what you are talking about. Only one place that we called that could certify COFs knew what I was talking about, had a list of what I needed to bring, and didn’t require an appointment two weeks in advance. If you ship to Auckland, I would highly recommend them:
VTNZ Mt Wellington
Towing
So, first choose your entry certification location. Then, you must get your vehicle towed there. Since NZ has very clear delineation between vehicles at 3500kg, if you are under that limit, you won’t have an issue. If you are over that limit, there are only about 3 towers in Auckland that can get you. Additionally, if you did RORO shipping and your vehicle is at the wharf, you have to have a tower that has security clearance for the wharf. Alternatively, you can pay a stevedore about $50 NZD plus GST, to drive the vehicle to the wharf entrance and have a tower pick it up from there, but you will probably be paying more for that. Only one company responded to my emails and didn’t require a full 24-hour notice:
Carr & Haslem
They charged $150+GST NZD for towing anywhere in the Auckland metro area. They corresponded with me via email, which was great for coordinating this prior to getting my NZ SIM. I had to pay before they delivered my vehicle, and I did so by going to a branch of their bank and depositing cash into the account they provided. They picked up the van from inside the wharf and dropped it off at the VTNZ without needing me to be present. They just gave the keys to a VTNZ mechanic and parked it on the grounds.
Entry Certification
The VTNZ takes people at a first-come, first-serve basis. It took us less than 2 hours, between the queue and the tests. You can fill out and print the form (
MR2C) in advance. They will have to type it all into their computer, but at least you don’t have to ink it out while you are in the queue. They let us choose whether we wanted to certify for a year or 6 months (even though we were a COF-diesel vehicle). The entry tests plus the COF plus the ACC cost us only $190.55 NZD. According to the NZTA temporary importation guidelines I mentioned earlier, we may have had to pay Road User Charges (RUC), since we were a diesel vehicle. But, upon investigation at the VTNZ and later confirmed via email, temporarily-imported diesel vehicles are not required to pay RUC. This was great news, as it saved us a decent amount of money. We were able to pay all fees via card. I think they charge a $1.01 fee for credit cards, though.
https://vehicleinspection.nzta.govt.nz/virms/entry-certification/technical-bulletins/inspection-requirements-for-temporary-vehicle-imports
Insurance
Now, while not required, it is highly recommended to get vehicle insurance. ACC is not vehicle insurance, it only covers medical bills for an accident, not any damage to vehicles or property. (HINT: ACC covers medical bills for
any type of accident, not just automobile accidents, which is helpful.) After calling around, there were only two companies that would accept a temporarily-imported, left-hand drive campervan that was permanently lived in: Covi Insurance and Star Insure. Covi is the insurer of choice for most NZMCA members (see section below), but they only offered yearly, nonrefundable terms. We went with Star Insure, which allowed us to go on a month-to-month basis. If we had stayed a year, Covi would have been cheaper. But since we knew we would only be there less than 9 months, Star was cheaper for us. See below for examples of quotes.
Covi Insurance. Important to note that all the deductible/excess was only listed as $500, as a non-New-Zealand resident from a country that drives on the right-hand side of the road, it would actually be $1250.
Star Insure.
Registration Plates
Since we actually got pulled over in Tasmania for not having a front registration/license/vehicle number plate and NZ has similar rules, we decided to keep our faux plate on through NZ. So, to appease the local enforcement and prevent unnecessary pull-overs, we recommend you spend $10 and have an image of your plate printed and laminated. Then tape it to the front of the vehicle. We haven't had an issue with it since have done so. HINT: Don’t mention why you need it done if you are doing it in NZ. We actually a printing place refuse to do it because he was uncertain whether it would break some laws.
Self-Containment Certificate
In NZ, if you want to take advantage of many of the “Freedom Camping” locations (see section below), especially in town, they often require you to have a self-containment certificate (SCC or CSC). To comply with the rules, we actually had to modify the vehicle some. For example, our grey water tank did not have a 1” or 25mm inside-diameter outflow faucet or hose. So, we went to some local irrigation and RV-supply stores and picked out what we needed and fit it on the vehicle. Then we had to schedule an appointment with an inspector. Since we were NZMCA members, a local volunteer did it for free for us. But, otherwise expect to pay. Being self-contained is not a requirement, but not having it greatly reduces the number of places you can camp.
Requirements:
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/0000164999 or
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4d565f_9f9520760c1047e3982b8a7828cf073c.pdf
Preparing for the Road
NZMCA
Similar to Australia’s
CMCA or
ACC, NZ has the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association. After our experience in Australia, we had been thinking that we really didn’t need to join the club. Their website did a poor job of showcasing the exclusivity of their benefits, and I was thinking it would just be an expense that wouldn’t pay for itself, like in Australia. Boy, was I wrong! If you have the opportunity, join the club. It is worth it. However, they did just put in new rules about foreigners, so they may or may not let you join. The entry costs are $130 joining fee plus $90 per year. They offer huge discounts on the ferry crossings as well as access to many campsites that you wouldn’t be able to use otherwise. They also have a NZMCA DOC Vehicle Pass, which must be purchased for either 5 months or 10 month and allows you access to many DOC campgrounds that you don’t have to pay for. Greatly reduces the amount of cash you have carry around. Being a member also gives you discounts at many businesses as well, e.g. VTNZ, VINZ, RV/camping supply stores, electronics stores, etc.
Besides all that, the people of the club are quite friendly and helpful. You can typically count on them to respect the rules for camping in an area. And, the club itself extremely proactive in looking out for its members. It takes towns who try to forbid freedom camping to court for the benefits of its members and future camping. They work to regulate legislation, etc. If they had a similar association in the USA, I would join it.
https://www.nzmca.org.nz/
Stores and Rewards Program
If I thought Australia’s store reward programs were pretty bad, they were heaven compared to New Zealand’s! I tried Woolworth’s Countdown’s options in NZ. They earned at an even lower rate and you only got points for every $10 you spent, non-prorated. If you spent $15, you wouldn’t earn anything for the $5 more than the $10. I ended up shopping at Pak’nSave most of the time. As far as I could tell, they only had a fuel rewards program, which would have been a good deal ($0.12/liter) if I didn’t have Kiwi Fuelcards (see section below). I don’t recommend you bother with a reward program, except for Muffin Break’s, if you like coffee or want a muffin for your birthday.
NZ Bank Account and/or Credit Card
After wishing we had done this in Australia, we researched our options in NZ and decided to open a bank account with
ANZ. This would allow us to have a Kiwi Fuelcards account and to withdraw cash without ATM fees (since our US card doesn’t provide that). It also let us use a cashless transaction (EFTPOS) at places that would otherwise charge exorbitant fees for a credit transaction.
Not sure how to transfer the funds to your account? You have a couple of options. Perhaps the simplest is to use your American bank accounts transfer rate (ours was about 4% off the actual exchange rate) at the ATM. For us, not only was the exchange rate not the best, but we also had ATM fees at the ATM and at our bank for the withdrawal. Alternatively, you can ask your Australian bank to do the wire transfer, but they will probably offer similar rates. We found the best option was to use a third-party wire transfer system.
OFX is our current system of choice. They take about 3% from the exchange rate, but don’t charge you any additional fees and can ACH-debit your accounts for no additional charge (takes 5 days, though).
Kiwi Fuelcards
While the store rewards programs are pretty terrible, becoming a member of a fuel rewards program is a great idea. You can normally save at least 6 cents per litre, if not up to 12 cents. Our research at the time led us to getting a membership with Kiwi Fuelcards ($10 joining cost). Then, it offers discounts on Mobil, Caltex, and BP. We signed up for the Caltex and Mobil cards. The Kiwi Fuelcards issue “credit” cards for each brand. You pay for your fuel-up with the card for the full amount (discounts NOT applied on your receipt), then pay off your account on the 20th of every month, with the discounts applied on your statement. Mobil was often the cheapest on the North Island. The Caltex diesel stops (unmanned 24/7 pumps for trucks) were the cheapest on the South Island. McKeown Fuel Group also offered really cheap fuel without requiring a membership, but I think they also now offer a membership card for even more savings.
Route
You should probably do a bit more research than we did and determine you route before you get there. We didn’t really have any plans, but it did work out all right. We read through guides and take recommendations from friends and put that the POIs on a Google Map. Then, we just drive to a location based upon weather and distance. After our experience, I do have some recommendations:
- Make it 2 trips. NZ’s late fall through early spring weather can be annoying: cloudy, rainy, cold, windy. We really enjoyed our time on the South Island, and felt we could even use a bit longer there. The North Island was could have been as much fun, but after the South Island and with the weather, we just weren’t into it as much. So, rather than suffering through burnout and weather, we recommend at least two trips, both based in late spring through early fall.
- For the South Island, plan on doing a couple of figure 8s to prevent burnout. Try some of the more remote places (e.g. Molesworth Station) during school holidays. Some places require at least 5 days of adventuring and is kinda cumbersome to go in and out. So, probably plan on hitting up as much as you can for as long as you can without burnout, then plan on heading out into town to recover and change up the pace.
Port/Ferry
Besides the season, probably the other biggest factor in determining your route will be your arrival port. We didn’t really shop around much for ports, and we probably should have. We chose Auckland going in and Tauranga going out. Auckland was really backed up when we were leaving, so could have caused delays. I think they were priced about the same. There are lots of other ports, probably similarly priced. So, choose one that works with your route.
The ferry is about $450 to ship a 6m-long, 2.7m-high campervan with 2 people. With a NZMCA membership, you can cut that down to about half that price. They also offer discounts for AA memberships or certain days/time of year. There are two ferries; we went with Bluebridge both times because of timing and cost. If you were smarter than us, you will only cross once because you planned better. We ended up crossing twice.
School Holidays
Look up when the school holidays are, as the roads and the campgrounds get packed during that time. We often tried to visit less-popular locations for a week or two while they passed. Accommodation rates may increase substantially during this period as well.
National Parks
There are 14 national parks, and admission is free to all of them. You will likely have to pay for camping or for doing certain events.
Camping
Like in Australia, we purchased
WikiCampsNZ for our travels, and referenced it occasionally. We also tried
Rankers, but found it pretty terrible to use. The best app for finding anything from camp grounds to water to dump stations, was the
NZMCA app (of course, only available if you are a member). Most people we ran into used
CamperMate, which we never got around to downloading.
NZ has what they call “freedom camping,” which is free camping outside of a traditional campground. There is a big debate going on right now on whether they will allow it. NZMCA is fighting to allow it, but districts and towns are putting in some regulations on it. They often require you to be self-contained (with accompanying documentation), and sometimes put time restrictions on how long you can be there. To avoid angering the locals, we made sure to only park in advertised camping areas that were confirmed on at least one app.
Fuel
We used the app
Gaspy to figure out where the stations were and what price to expect. It wasn’t very comprehensive, though, and didn’t work offline. I also went to
https://caltex.co.nz/station-finder/ and marked on my google map where the diesel/truck stops were. Make sure to choose a reward program or get discount cards.
Phone and Internet
In Australia, our
Project Fi plan was partnered with 2° and Vodafone. This worked OK on the South Island, and great on the North Island. This meant we had unlimited text and were charged our US rate of $10/GB for data. WiFi calls to USA were free, while WiFi calls to NZ were about $0.04/min. Cellular calls were $0.20/min. Jonathan stayed on this plan, while I picked up a
Skinny SIM. I had the $46 NZD for 12 GB. They also had a 3-month deal for 2 GB extra data every weekend for free. This worked great for us while we were on the South Island.
But, eventually, when the extra data ran out and we were tired of dealing with slow public wifi, we decided to get a
NZMCA Data plan. Basically, when we were getting the travel doldrums, especially missing internet, we could either get a basic AirBnB room or get a modem and 3 months of internet for the same price. We chose the internet. We were actually fairly impressed with the coverage and quite happy with having it around. I was also able to drop down my Skinny plan to an even cheaper plan to save money as well.
Water
There are mostly 3 types of water taps in NZ: 3/4" BSP straight (most popular), 1" BSP straight , and a threadless small tap. Also, many of those taps come with a quick disconnect fitting already on them. We were able to make our 3/4" MPT female fitting on our water hose from the USA fit onto the 3/4" BSP male end of the water faucets by using a second rubber washer. However, to make things easier for us,
we picked up a few parts (previously in Australia):
This is by no means necessary, but it made it much easier and quicker to adapt to different taps. This allowed us to either use a quick disconnect fitting to attach to one already installed (without having to thread it on or off) or to attach screw it on to either type of tap without having to deal with a twisting hose. If you are mostly staying near the populated areas only having a 3/4" connection is fine.
Additionally, we found that
our 25-foot hose was really not long enough. Many of the water fills were not conveniently located and that length was insufficient, so we upgraded to
a 50-foot hose, giving us up to 75 feet of reach.
Medical
NZ’s medical practice is government-run. It is actually fairly well done, but does present some issues for foreigners. The good news is that you can know how much your appointment will cost when you schedule it. Typically, members pay $30-$50/visit, non-members pay $50-$75, and foreigners pay $75-$100, but prices vary depending on the clinic. Typically, a consultation for children is free.
They have 3 types of hospital: urgent care, clinics/hospitals, and emergency services. Not all of them offer services to non-members, which they call “casual patients.” Call ahead and make sure they accept casual patients before you go in.
If you pay ACC (when you registered your vehicle), then any accidents (car-related or not) are covered completely for you.
Leaving
There wasn’t anything too tricky about leaving the country when you are done either. If you bring your vehicle, there are two requirements:
- Deregister your vehicle by going to an entry certifier and filling out an MR 15 form. They must see your license/registration plate. The agent just walked out to our vehicle to see it, but I think you are typically supposed to remove it and present it at the location. Since ours was foreign, they didn’t want to keep them, just see them. As an added bonus, you may be entitled to a partial refund of the ACC levy, which they will send in a check to the local address on file.
- Time Limit: you have to export within an year or before the carnet expires, unless you get some exceptions or extensions, etc.
Since we did the carnet route, we had to get it stamped on the way out as well (another 24-hour processing), but other than that, there wasn’t any other requirements.
Summary
It was surprisingly easy to travel across NZ. For the long-term traveler, seeing NZ by vehicle is the only economical way. Well, you can also do it by foot, walking from hut to hut and campground to campground, but that is for the hardcore. It is hard to mess up the traveling. But, if you do, there are plenty of kind people out there who will help you out. So, enjoy yourself and have fun. I highly recommend this adventure.
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