Everything you need to know about traveling in a campervan in New Zealand in winter.
We spent two months living in a van in New Zealand in the middle of winter and most of this time was on the South Island. So as you can imagine it was not really all that warm, EVER.
After that, we went to Canada and spent 6 weeks living in our van in Canada in Winter where temps actually got to minus 36C. Yes, MINUS 36 C. So we kind of got pretty good at it. Not saying we are the number one authority on van life in winter but we deffs learnt a thing or two so if you’re looking at traveling to New Zealand in Winter and getting a rental van then there might be a few tips and tricks in here for you.
If you’re looking for hikes to do you might want to check out this list of some of the best hikes in New Zealand all of these are amazing and highly recommended especially in winter.
What to expect while living in a van in New Zealand in winter.
This seems to be one of the things people have the hardest time dealing with so first of all unless you’re getting hotels on a fairly regular basis you’re going to have to accept you won’t be showering as much as normal. We kind of thought we could bucket shower, but, when it’s snowing outside and the thought of taking your socks off to get into bed is too much then you are probably not going to step into the snow, barefoot, cover yourself with cold water and proceed to wash.
Now we have that out of the way we can start to talk about everything else.
The first thing you are going to need to look at is how long you want to be traveling for, what you want to do, and your budget.
At no extra cost to you, some of the links in this article are affiliate links and by using them Sara and I receive a small commission. This goes towards helping us continue to explore and write articles like this. 😁
Current reading: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Budget is super important because inevitably it’s going to determine your level of comfort whilst living in your vehicle through the winter.
We did see several different groups of people doing it in several different ways. From a couple of guys living out of the back of a small Toyota Corolla to a family of 5 living in a giant RV with everything they could ever want inside.
Us personally, we rented a high top Toyota Hiace that was very comfortable but terribly insulated. Like ice inside the windows most morning when we woke up terrible. Having said that though there was something nice about waking up rolling out of the bed and wrapping a big woolen blanket over your shoulders, putting a pot of coffee on and watching the view take shape as the ice melted.
We used Discovery Motor homes to book through, they had good customer service and the cheapest deals we could find but you can find current Great rates on motorhome hire here.
Heating tip
After a week or so we started to realize the more clothes and towels we surrounded ourselves with/put on the walls and windows the warmer it became in there. This sounds super basic but fill every little crack and cover every part of exposed plastic or metal with extra clothing or towels and it should add a few degrees to your sleep. Especially around your head or foot area.
Campervan rental in New Zealand
You have a lot of options here but the company we went through was Lucky campers. They are basically just using decommissioned Jucy rental vans. Which is fine because Jucy is obviously using the same ones just at a higher price.
Campervan rental in Auckland
Lucky Rentals was by far the cheapest company we could find at the time when it came to renting full-sized vans you could stand in.
We rented our van from Lucky but we went through the company Discovery Rentals which actually had by far the lowest prices we could find for camper vans in New Zealand and we looked for weeks trying to find the cheapest deal possible. There are dozens of amazing rental companies in New Zealand and you should pick on based on budget and what you think will fit your needs.
Cheap Campers in New Zealand
If you want to have a look on the Discovery Rentals page click through the link here and have a look around. But like I said with any booking site check with the company as well because you never know who is having a sale.
Cost of Fuel in New Zealand
I will mention this here because the fuel prices in NZ were actually painful and unless you’re coming from a country like Denmark or Norway expect to have a small part of your soul destroyed every time you fill up.
Finding the right van.
This is a super important point. We booked our van through a booking company. Kind of like buying a flight from Kayak, OneTravel or any other website that offers deals.
This turned out to be far cheaper than actually booking it through Lucky at the time but you should always compare the rates on these sites to the current rates on the website of the company you are looking at.
For us the being fully self-contained thing was important. The main reason being that we didn’t want to have to cook outside. Standing in the snow or rain while the wind tries to blow every tree with in falling distance on to your head looked incredibly miserable not to mention terribly hard while cooking with gas.
Another reason was the fact that we wanted to be able to change comfortably inside. We knew we would not be getting hotels and that staying at campgrounds would also be rare. The van despite being the cheapest we could find was still expensive for us and we couldn’t bring ourselves to spend another 20 plus dollars a night on accommodation.
Camping in your van in New Zealand
One other important thing to note here is that there are a lot of free camping places in New Zealand(I’ll cover this more later). They are only allowed to be camped in, however, if you have a certified self-contained camper. Meaning that they have a toilet inside with a certificate to say so. If you rent a Toyota Corolla and try and camp at the beaches or the mountains in them there is a good chance you will get a fine. We spoke to several people that received these kinds of fines. There is a 99% chance you will have to pay it as well, due to the fact it will be linked to your rental car company.
Our van had a toilet in it, which might have come in handy but we literally didn’t use it one single time in the entire two months we were traveling, so I don’t really know. It tucked in under a seat in the front and I really just couldn’t imagine either of us sleeping that well knowing of or potentially smelling a big poo a meter or two from our heads. (So ah living in a van with a partner can get super raw so prepare to reach new frontiers in your relationship you never even imagined.)
Living in a van in New Zealand on the North Island
Living in a van on the North Island was pretty chill. Despite the fact that the locals seem kind of over it, in the middle of winter we really didn’t see anyone else doing it and everyone seemed to be very friendly and helpful. Maybe the break from tourists for a few months had helped.
The only major concern up here is the rain and the wind. Our first night in the van we were up near the Coromandel and this crazy storm came in. The wind was so strong the van was shaking violently, so violently that we were actually a little worried that we were going to tip over(we know this is highly unlikely, but, first night in this contraption with a giant extended roof and we had no idea what to expect) we also expected every tree to fall on us. When we got up in the morning there were a few larger branches down in the car park.
Having said this though the temperature was far more mild up here, the rain was actually pretty infrequent but when it did rain it was intense and was a little annoying. With the freedom to be able to stretch out, stand and cook inside it really wasn’t that bad though.
New Zealand overall is fairly small and the North Island, in particular, is pretty tiny so driving distances are never really that far. There are petrol stations frequently and the road conditions are fairly good on almost all of the island.
There is no shortage of things to do here and free places to camp. You could easily spend an entire two months on the North Island alone but the South Island was the one that really stole our hearts.
Living in a van in New Zealand on the South Island of New Zealand in winter.
We spent 6 weeks on the South Island and literally went from the ferry port to the most southerly point in New Zealand and back up.
The South Island is so raw and it can go from sun to snow to rain in a 30 minute driving period if you’re on the right road. So as a result you kind of need to be prepared for everything.
One thing you’re going to have to get used to is things being wet. One thing I would suggest if find a good place to hang your wet clothes, or find a good system for them at least and as soon as the sun comes out stop everything. Open all doors and windows, hang your clothes out and get some of the moisture out of your vehicle.
This is actually going to be one of your biggest challenges so be prepared for it. Keeping everything dry and mold free was a constant struggle haha.
Due to the proximity of New Zealand to the coast in literally every single part of the country it makes the weather erratic, extremely erratic. Snow is normally only common when you are in the mountains and I would not expect to see it snow anywhere on the coast no matter how far south you go. Once you get low the problems become daylight, rain and wind, also low temps haha. So if you’re concerned about snow you shouldn’t really be. The only time we had a real problem with snow was around Mt Cook when it snowed so much we couldn’t go anywhere for a few days.
Just remember that most of the time snow is dry unless it starts to melt in your boots.
It is always good to check the weather before you go anywhere though. We were just north of Christchurch and it was raining and all of a sudden they were starting to close the road. With no idea of what was going on, we realized we seemed to be just in front of them but it gradually got worse and the wind was out of control. We decided to pull in and just made some dinner and read a little then went to bed.
When we got up in the morning I went to get out of the van to go to the bathroom and as soon as I opened the door I realized we had a problem when the water was literally knee deep around the entire van.
It turned out to be fine but we had to spend a whole day in the car park waiting for the water to go down. So yeah just check the weather.
Apps for finding free camp spots.
So finding places to camp is actually super easy and it is one of the best things about having a van in New Zealand. I know due to extremely high levels of tourism there has been a lot of debate about the van thing in the last few years. But as for now it’s still chill.
Using any or all of these apps you will be able to find almost every legitimate camp spot on both the north and south islands.
They should be compatible with both iPhone and android. I know for sure they are compatible with android.
Personally I would get them all.
IOverlander is one that works offline as long as you have preloaded the map. There is also an amazing feature where you can copy and paste coordinates so you don’t have to hunt around looking for a point if it’s not showing up in maps.
This has actually been most helpful when coupled with maps.me which is another app that functions as an offline map. You can paste coordinates straight into it and just hit directions and you’re on your way. So with the ioverlander app coupled with maps.me you should be good to go.
Maps.ME requires you to download the regions you will be traveling to beforehand so make sure you do that otherwise, it will be useless.
The main reason I suggest getting all 3 camping apps is that they all have different spots in them and while you might be in an area and nothing is showing up on one there is a good chance there will be something close by on one of the others.
This kind of brings me to my next point perfectly as well.
Internet plans while living in a van in New Zealand.
So New Zealand is a tiny country, unique compared to most others. It is extremely isolated and the population is small and as a result, trying to get on the internet can sometimes feel like you’ve traveled back to 2001. A lot of hostels and hotels still allocate data per day and often as low as 100 megs per day. Now I don’t know what you do on the internet but the last time I tried to research anything I used Google, YouTube, and Instagram. If this is your process expect about 45 to 60 seconds of internet usage time per day. Haha
This is what we did and one thing that is worth looking into. Data plans provided by the rental companies. Depending on what plan you decide on it may cost extra. But we got one for free when we got the fully comprehensive insurance(first time I’ve ever done that, but I kind of pictured our van flipped on its roofs sitting in a hole on the side of the road somewhere. Not sure why but I had never rented a vehicle for this long before. It never happened though).
The data plan came with a GPS system that had a sim card in it. We were allocated 1 gig per day which is stupid amounts of data considering you’re often outside doing things, hopefully.
We only ran out of data between the two of us on two occasions. One time we didn’t really realize how much 1 gig per day was and we were just running 1080p YouTube videos.
The next time we literally got flooded into a car park(see above story) and spent the whole day unable to move and that night as we went to bed the internet ran out. So it lasted pretty well.
If you’re looking at sim cards both Vodafone and Spark provide the most affordable services at between $40 to $50 per month for 4-5 gigs of data as of May 2019
Things we loved about living in a van in New Zealand
- Despite high fuel prices, New Zealand is small so you never have to drive that far.
- When you do have to drive far there is a 99% chance the roads will be incredibly beautiful!
- There are so many places to stay for free. So many so that I think we only ended up paying for campsites a few times and they were all around Fjordland National Park. Some places will ask for donations, while not necessary to pay its always nice to drop a few dollars in just to make sure these things stay open for others.
- Being able to pull up somewhere and literally crawl straight into a nice warm bed.(not really warm ever actually but you know what we mean)
- Waking up and being able to roll straight out of bed and straight into a hike or viewpoint or anything else amazing.
- Being able to cook inside and in turn using the heat from the gas and cooking to heat the van.
Things we didn’t really love very much at all.
- The price of fuel. We were paying between $1.90 and $2.20 NZD per liter. This is a brutal price! I do believe it has gone up since we left though so yeah factor that in.
- Things being wet and never ever drying.
- The van not being insulated. This made touching anything accidentally without a piece of clothing on basically jump half a meter away from whatever you just touched.
- Being really organized is really an important thing. You take three things out to get to one thing, then have to put three things back then take them out again to put the other thing back.
- Cleaning needs to be done constantly unless you’re some kind of animal. It gets dirty and messy real quick!
- Finding things can get difficult. We also lost a few things forever. No idea if this had to do with the van or us but I blame the van.
Packing list for van living in New Zealand in Winter
So here is a list of things we had in our van that helped keep us warm. I’d say all of these are completely essential if you want to get through the winter without some kind of frostbite or hypothermia.
Now while our rental company did give us some blankets . We were not keen to use them. The only thing they may have been good for was to stop us dying completely during the night.
I’m going to chuck this into a list now.
- A good sleeping bag – this is actually life-changing. I went years trying to survive near freezing temps in a bag that was suited to 5 or 10 degrees because I was too tight to pay for a good bag but once I actually forked out a few hundred dollars I was so so happy about it. Also, remember living in a van in winter, the only time you’re really going to be nice and warm is in bed and if you can’t warm up in bed the whole trip is going to be pretty miserable.
- Silk bag liner. These are amazing little inventions. They help warm your sleeping bag by as much as 5 degrees and the literally fold down into something you can almost close your hand around.
- Thermals. Bottoms also these are essential not just for sleeping but for day time activities as well. Being from Australia I never owned these until a winter trip to Europe. They are literally life changing! These also roll up super tiny and will make a whole world of difference.
- Socks. Merino wool socks! Whilst out hiking in snow it’s always a good idea to wear two pairs. I’d have a thin layer underneath and a merino layer over the top. Darn tough socks make this amazingly comfortable sock that also come with a lifetime warranty. No idea how it’s possible to have a lifetime warranty on socks, but were both yet to wear through a pair.
- Beanie, gloves, neckwarmer or scarf. Beanie and gloves are pretty common sense but the neck warmer is also a game changer once you get into them. Always super warm, pack down tiny and stop all the extra heat leaving your jacket as soon as you stop walking. Or just kind of keep your neck warm all night.
- Down puffer jacket. I say this for a few reasons. One is that these are super warm and very comfortable. Easy to take on and off and good to wear inside if it’s cold, like it will be in a van in NZ in winter. Two because again they roll down into a tiny ball for packing and if you’re living in a van you want all the space you can get. I recommend Patagonia here because they are a sustainable company in many regards and are working towards helping the planet.
- Gortex jacket. So this is just a shell that will go over the puffer. But its 100% necessary because as warm as the puffers are they don’t really stop the wind or rain. For some reason, I bought a stupidly expensive one. I rarely buy new clothes and I suppose I got a little caught up in technology here.
- Hand and foot warmers. These little things can be reboiled and when broken give off awesome amounts of heat. These are great for taking on hikes to warm your hands if they get super cold or just to put in bed to warm it up or anything else you feel like needs warming.
We have actually written a complete packing list for New Zealand in winter which you can go and have a look at over here.
