New Zealand on your own
Fjords under seven metres of rain, Middle-earth volcanoes, turquoise lakes and a campervan parked facing all of it: New Zealand is the country that invented van travel — and the only one that keeps every one of its promises.
When to go
Austral summer from December to February: high season, everything open but everything expensive and booked out — van prices double. The shoulder seasons (November, March-April) are the real sweet spot: superb light, lupins in the Mackenzie in November, autumn colours in Wanaka, half the crowds. Winter (June-August) hands the South to skiers: the Milford road demands chains and avalanche awareness, but snowbound Alps over the lakes are worth the trade.
What it costs
A self-contained van for two: €60-90/day in shoulder season, €130-220/day at the height of austral summer — booking six months ahead changes everything. Petrol around €1.50-1.65/L (diesel is cheaper per litre but subject to Road User Charges, to factor into the maths). DOC campsites €6-12/person, holiday parks €35-50 for a powered site for two, freedom camping free where permitted. Budget €3,500-5,500 for two over 3 weeks excluding flights, inter-island ferry included (€200-350 one way with a van, depending on season).
Driving & transport
Driving on the LEFT — maximum vigilance is needed for the first three days and at every restart after a photo stop, statistically the moment tourists drift to the wrong side. Single-lane-each-way roads almost everywhere, one-lane bridges with signed priority (the red arrow gives way), relentless bends: 100 km/h on the sign, a real average of 65. Local traps: jet-lag fatigue (never drive on arrival day), gravel on secondary roads, keas stripping windscreen seals in alpine car parks, and filling up before the empty stretches — there is no petrol station on the 118 km between Te Anau and Milford Sound.
No country packs so many landscapes into so few kilometres: glaciers and fjords, subtropical beaches, steaming volcanoes, lakes of an unreal turquoise, forests of tree ferns — all without a single snake or dangerous animal. And no country has organised its geography around the van like this one: DOC campsites on lake shores, freedom-camping spots, dedicated apps (CamperMate, Rankers) and a road culture where the campervan is king. You sleep where the landscape is strongest, and move on when the light changes.
The flip side of the dream takes planning: freedom camping is only legal in a certified self-contained vehicle (a fixed toilet has been compulsory since the 2025 reform, green sticker to prove it), the Cook Strait ferry books out weeks ahead in summer, and left-hand driving on narrow, winding roads halves your averages: count on a real 60-70 km/h, never more. Three weeks for both islands, two for one — anything less is a sprint.
The destinations that matter
6No. 012 nights (Te Anau or the Milford Road DOC campsites)Fiordland and Milford SoundA black fjord beneath 1,200 m walls, waterfalls born with the rain and a road that rivals the destination: Milford Sound is the long-awaited climax that still exceeds expectation.
No. 022 nights (one at Mount Cook, one at Tekapo)Aoraki/Mount Cook and Lake TekapoA milky turquoise lake, the country's highest summit at the head of the valley and one of the purest starry skies in the southern hemisphere: the Mackenzie is New Zealand written in capitals.No. 033 nights (split between the two lakes)Queenstown and WanakaThe world's adrenaline capital and its laid-back little sister, set on two implausibly blue lakes: the beating — and busiest — heart of the South Island.No. 042 nightsThe CatlinsA coast battered by the Southern Ocean's furies, penguins commuting home at dusk and empty gravel roads: the Catlins are the South Island's best-kept secret.No. 052 nights (to give yourself two possible weather windows)TongariroNineteen kilometres between steaming craters, emerald lakes and the perfect cone of Mount Doom: the country's finest day hike crosses a field of very-much-alive volcanoes.No. 062 nightsRotoruaA town built on a boiler: geysers, bubbling mud, fluorescent pools and the smell of sulphur as wallpaper — Rotorua is also the living heart of Māori culture.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“New Zealand on Your Own”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
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