This was the question I asked anyone who had been to New Zealand, and it was also the #1 question people asked me when they know that I've been to NZ.


I guess it's quite a common thing to travel around NZ in a motorhome, given the vast area to cover and being mobile means you're the first to reach and last to leave. We, and by that I mean 5 Adults and 1 Infant (2yrs old), decided to give it a try ourselves too! It took a little convincing for our elderly parents (60yrs old) to agree to the idea of being confined in a tiny space for 5 days, but we got there eventually. So here comes the massive planning! Get ready for a lengthy & detailed post ahead on motorhome rentals, dos and don'ts of motorhome and our experience in general :)


We wanted to save costs (as much as possible, without living uncomfortably) so we planned our meals thoroughly. Eating out in NZ is quite costly (in my opinion), and it's definitely more expensive than Australia. I've lived in Aus for about 3 years during my university days, and although living costs were slightly on the high side, I never thought eating out in NZ would be more expensive than Aus! That really caught us by surprise. Thankfully, we had already planned to cook most of our meals while travelling the first half of our trip via motorhome. The main itinerary planner was myself, whereas my brother & sis-in-law would give their opinions/suggestions on the sideline. I scoured the internet for recipes that was easy to prepare, doesn't require lots of ingredients that were "one-time-use" kind, and palatable for everyone. I had to keep in mind that little claire was eating these meals that I prepared too, so it had to be child-friendly too.


Once the food menu was approved (yes we had a food menu for our daily meals on the motorhome), we then listed down all the ingredients that we needed for the recipes written. Tadahhh, our groceries shopping list was born! Although this may seem very tedious, but trust me, it saves ALOT of time when you're doing grocery shopping and also it limits food wastage. Bcos all the ingredients are properly accounted for (in its units), so you're certain there won't be much leftovers. Fyi, we were flying down to Queenstown after returning our motorhome in Auckland, so we couldn't bring ANY food produce with us on the plane, or risk getting fined! Hence, the ingredient proportions had to be very precise. Having a recipe printed out also means that your extra pair of kitchen hands can help you along the way.

One thing about motorhome is that there are some limitations when you're driving on the road; like no using of electricity on board, no cooking (the gas cylinder has to be shut off before you set off), basically everything has to be shut in and stowed away or it will come flying out when on a bumpy road. So it means you can't literally cook while on the go. Initially we thought that we could possibly buy frozen pizza from the supermarket and toast it in the oven while driving, so there's some little bites for everyone. But, nahhhhh, you can't work anything on the motorhome while it's driving. I mean it is a safety precaution as well, you wouldn't want the gas cylinder to leak gas and explode if the vehicle hits a bumpy road. You can't charge your laptop/phone, watch tv at the rear end of the vehicle too. So make sure you have your meals settled and everything charged up before hitting the road.

Our travel dates were 5 - 16 August 2019, so that is winter season in New Zealand. It is a non-peak season for motorhome, which means we get some winter discounts but then again there's not many vehicles readily available for hire (many due to maintenance period). We checked with many popular car rental agencies but they didn't have any availabilities. Weird. I eventually went directly to the motorhome vendor Pacific Horizon to ask if they had any vehicles for rent. We had to book the biggest model, which was the 6 Berth Standard SAM Motorhome since we were a family of 6 (yes, infant is also counted in the headcount). Our pickup point was Wellington, and the drop off point is in Auckland. There is a one way location fee of $300 since we didn't return it at the original pick up location. The total cost for renting it 5 days plus winter discount plus one way location fee amounted to $1310. It was one of our biggest expenses throughout the trip. haha!


The 6 Berth Standard SAM is fully self contained and offers two large living areas with comfortable forward-facing seating and generous room for up to 6 people in each area. SAM transforms the front area into a king type double bed, which, with a king bed in the rear, effectively turns the motorhome into a 2 bedroom configuration at ground level. With a third double bed above the cab.Walk through cabin to living: With a raised roof above the driving cab and a clear walk through from front to rear, SAM is perfect for stretching out. For motoring, all seats face forward with seatbelts for all. Automatic transmission for an effortless drive. Age 2016.    -abstracted from New Zealand Motorhomes

Pacific Horizon has a depot in Porirua where the vehicles are kept, so they arranged for a complimentary airport transfer to bring all of us there. It was about an hour's drive there from the airport. Once we got to the depot, the manager was already waiting to receive us. We went inside the office first to settle the paperwork and learn some rules & traffic restrictions on operating the motorhome. Then, he gave us the grand tour of the vehicle. It was a very thorough explanation which took about 1hour. HAHA! We had to learn how to use the toilet cassette, grey/black water, refill fresh water, operate the lights within cabin and outside, TV satellite dish, driving, pumping, setting up the beddings etc etc. It was like a crash course and we tried our best to remember as much as possible. Of course there is a hand book provided but most people would just chuck it one side. lol. Once the orientation was completed, we then sorted out our luggage. There is a separate storage space outside of the living quarters to store your hard case luggage, there is absolutely no space for you to keep your luggage within the living quarters. All of us laid our luggage on the floor (yes, we unpacked and packed in the open and under cold winter conditions) and started picking out stuff that we need for the next 4 days and placing them in a soft duffel bag. Everything had to be organized since we were a big group living in a confined space for the next 4 days. It took us almost 2 hours to do that! Once everything was sorted, we then stowed them away in the overhead compartments. Luckily there were plenty of overhead compartments to store our stuff away!

We had Claire's car seat fixed at the left passenger seat, and we never removed it. Our sleeping configuration was the rear double bed, the upper double bed above the cab and the single bed on the right passenger seat. You need to fix your bedding every night and keep them away in the morning so it's properly stowed away and transforms back into normal seating area in the day. The upper double bed above the driver cab is smaller than the rear, with super low head space and no room to sit up straight. Whoever that's sleeping up there gotta be careful not to hit your head when waking up in the morning. Oh, and there's a net provided to roll down from the upper deck to prevent anyone from falling out of bed.

and this is what i meant by low headroom...

3 hours behind our schedule, we finally set off from the depot and moved to our first camp site of the day, which was another 1 hour drive away. hurhurhur. As you can imagine, we got there pretty late.

If you've booked a fully self-contained motorhome, you're allowed to freedom camp. What is freedom camp, can I park anywhere I want? No. Freedom camping means that you're allowed to park at designated freedom camping spots. You will need to download an app that shows you all the freedom camping grounds/holiday parks/petrol kiosk etc. There are several apps available, but we used Motorhome Republic Travel. There is literally nothing available at freedom camping grounds, it's just a space for you to park overnight (for free). No toilets/kitchen/shower at these grounds, so you have to be fully self-contained. There are camp sites which may have basic facilities like toilet and cold shower but that's about it. Then, the more atas version is holiday parks. These are like "motel resorts", they have lots of facilities like hot shower, kids playground, kitchen, laundry etc. The accommodation type on the holiday parks range from motel units to stand alone cabins and camp sites for tents/motorhome. The cheapest option is campsite for motorhome, and you pay based on the no. of pax in your vehicle. It kinda runs on a trust system? If you purchased for 3 pax, and you actually have 4 in your motorhome, they wouldn't like ask you to get down from the vehicle so they can count. They don't even check when you enter the compound. All these are booked online, and you just show them at the reception. Holiday parks are individually owned like franchise, so every park is a little different from one another.

We stayed at TOP 10 Holiday Parks (its quite a popular brand) all around the North Island, their facilities were great even though it's communal. We were afraid that Claire couldn't get used to sleeping in the motorhome, so it would be easier for us to book a motel unit for her if that was the case. That's why we didn't freedom camp/stayed at public camp sites solely. Also, safety was an issue for us. Over at freedom camping grounds, there's no one to police the areas, so it can be quite dangerous in a sense. One thing i've heard about these holiday parks was their "time-sensitive" hot showers. I read somewhere that hot showers are timed and they will run out. I couldn't imagine showering in hot water and the next moment cold water comes down when it is still winter!!! When we got there, I found this to be true.



Apparently, you have to push the button once to activate the hot water. These buttons are located outside your stall. So you kinda have to open the door and stretch to reach the button then quickly go back in and take your 5 / 7min shower before the hot water goes out. Such a good way to discourage long showers. hahaha! The last TOP 10 holiday park which we stayed had a coin operated hot water shower. Instead of just a button like this, you had to drop a 20-cent coin and the hot water will start pumping out. Once 5 min is over, you have to put another 20-cent coin to re-activate the hot water. HAHAHA. This is my absolutely first experience ever with such a system!

After we returned our motorhome in Auckland and moved down to Queenstown, we stayed in a nice Airbnb. I was certain everyone took 30min - 1 hour of hot showers that day. rofl.

Before we returned the motorhome, we had to dump all of the black/waste and grey water. We cleared the toilet casette the night before and it was a hilarious disaster. There was poop splash back from the dump station on my dad's hand when he emptied the cassette. hahahaha. *Do not want to revisit that memory.* Other than the toilet casette incident, everything else was quite pleasant. We emptied the grey water easily, filled up fresh water easily too, although filling up fresh water took like 10-15min to fill.
We drove up to the Auckland depot and called the guy in charge to come out and open the gate for us to park the vehicle in the compound. It took awhile, i think they were running late or something, but it definitely helps if you had emailed them previously to inform them of your arrival. We emptied the motorhome and hopped onto another vehicle which sent us to the airport terminal. One tip for you while you're returning your vehicle; have everything removed from the drawers/overhead compartments and leave them in plain eyesight. It will definitely facilitate your removal of items when you clear our the vehicle. It may be a bit rush when you're returning vehicle, and may possibly leave something behind if they're all still stowed away in the compartmetns. This happened to us... We accidentally left a cooler bag full of utensils, non-perishable items and most importantly Claire's milk formula!!! It was left behind in the bottom drawer which everyone thought was checked... T_T Poor claire didn't get her milk for a day or two... We only realized this after we arrived in Queenstown, while we were unpacking our luggage at night. Lesson learnt.


Overall it was quite an eye-opening experience for us, first timers going on a self drive motorhome/campervan adventure. It's not the most comfortable trip, but we made it work. I'm glad i did lots of research before hand, and reading other people's blog posts were beneficial! It was definitely memorable, and we had lots of fun on the trip. Will be blogging down my trip entry in the next couple of posts. It's was a 12 days trip across North & South Island, so i'll be splitting it up into several posts. Do check out my trip posts when it's up! Till then!