Funkronster's guide to motorhoming New Zealand on the cheap

New Zealand is one of the top 3 global destinations for motorhome holidays - but it's not cheap if you go as a tourist and hire a van. NZ has a massive fleet of vans for hire and hire vans easily outnumber home vans. The big hire companies are Britz, Maui, Jucy, Apollo and many others. Check out their websites - an average van costs around £2000 a month. For a 6 month stay this can cost £10 to 20k depending on the size of the van.

The way to do it on the cheap is to buy a van, and then sell it. This is only worth doing if you plan to go for the full 6 months you are allowed on a tourist visa. But if you are already fulltiming in a UK van and are a competent owner, you can do 6 months in NZ for about the same expenses as in Europe, plus the air fare, which is about £1000 per person.

The only problem with buying a van is that you have to spend time finding it, and more importantly you have to sell it again before your departure day, which can be stressful. The way to get round this is to buy from a small dealer and ask for a buy back deal. What we found with NZ folk is that they are basically extremely friendly and honest. Obviously there are no guarantees, but being in an English speaking country is a huge relief in this respect.

Our deal. We found a 1992 Nissan Civilian bus conversion with a ticket price of NZ$42,000 (£21,000). The dealer offered us back a price of NZ$37,000 in 6 months, subject to condition. We thought this was a stonking deal, and additionally we also really liked the guy - he was running a long established caravan and motorhome business and had a good reputation. This meant the van was going to cost us £2500 for the 6 months. We would have paid more!

We could have bought privately, but in retrospect buying from a dealer was just more convenient and easier. Selling privately would have been a stress, although we could have also chosen to buy privately and sell to a dealer for less money and still had a good deal. 

Next was the paperwork, unlike the UK, admin and paperwork is a dream in NZ. He let us use his address, and registration was done over the counter in a few minutes. Next was insurance. He recommended the NZ AA - and they have offices in all big towns. We just walked in and a very nice lady fixed us up with insurance and breakdown for NZ$60 a month, and we could cancel after 6 months with no penalty. UK driving licence no problem. In short, there is absolutely no problem for a UK visitor buying and running a van in NZ - it's easy!

The NZ MOT (COF) only lasts 6 months, the dealer did this for us.

Diesel in NZ is half the price of UK - about 75p a litre. However diesel vehicles have to pay Road User Charges - RUC - per kilometer. Our van was under 6 tons so we paid 7c/km. Even with this charge it still worked out 30% cheaper than UK.

All in all, the admin and paperwork side was a dream.

Next we joined the NZMCA - the national caravan and motorhome club. This cost $90, and the $200 joining fee was waived on production of our UK CMHC card. NZMCA have a network of member only sites all over NZ. You don't need to join, but we chose to.

We hung around the local area where we bought the van for a few days while we got used to it, and then we hit the road seriously. 

To kit out the van we used charity shops. Everything you buy in NZ will either have to be given away or sold at the end of your trip, so unless you intend to return, it pays to economise. Charity shops in NZ are called "OP Shops" and they are everywhere, and they are cheap! We got pots and pans and crockery and cutlery over a period of a week or so, and we had lots of change from £100. Bedding we bought on the high street for reasonable money. NZ has 4 big chains of stores for practical stuff - The Warehouse, Mitre 10 (like BnQ), K-Mart and Bunnings. NZ is not expensive - stuff is cheaper or at least the same, as in the UK.

You can buy stuff very cheaply and locally on Facebook marketplace. I bought a bike for fifty quid, and you can buy kayaks and fishing gear easily and cheaply.

There are 3 big supermarkets - New World, Countdown and Pak n Save - everybody has their favourite. Ours was Countdown.

Small grocery shops are called "dairies" or "superettes". There is also a network of small supermarkets called Four Square. Prices in these are more expensive than in the big town supermarkets.

In general food is roughly the same price, but better quality. There are some idiosyncrasies though. Meat and fish are half the price and twice the quality - lovely! The steak is to die for and cheap. But fruit and veg and salad in particular are double the price. We reckon it averages out. A frugal couple can easily eat well for £100 ($200) a week (no alcohol).

NZ fish and chip shops are amazing - half the price and twice as good. Fish and chips for 2 can be as little at £6 - a bit more in tourist areas.

Restaurants are pretty good - generally a bit cheaper than UK for the quality.

Booze is the same price as in the UK, but the wine is better for the same price. Good NZ wine is $10 a bottle. Beer is $1 a bottle. Whisky is $37 / litre. Tobacco is ridiculous - treble UK prices.

Camping sites with all the facilities average $40/£20 a night (for two persons). Many campsites charge by the person, not by the pitch, so make sure. Wildcamping is called freedom camping in NZ and there are plenty of places. There are 3 apps that list all the places - Campermate and Rankers. If you are in the NZMCA then they also have an app. There are also many other places you can stay and these vary from free to $5 a night to $10. Some are in the apps, other you get by word of mouth.

There are also DOC sites. Department of Conservation. These are government owned sites in areas of outstanding natural beauty. They cost $15 per night per person, and most if not all are just gorgeous. If these are the places you want to be, you can even buy a pass (not for the 3 week peak period at xmas) that gives you unlimited stays for about £100 - it's all on the NZ DOC website, and there is a discount for NZMCA members. These are the gorgeous sites that you see in all the magazine photos.

There is a good network of disposal points - called dumpstations in NZ. They are in all the apps. Most dumpstations have potable water - but not all.

Gas - gas is a dream in NZ. Everybody uses 9kg bottles. There is only one bottle and it can be swapped or filled anywhere. All big towns have at least one garage that fills bottles, or if not, you can just swap a bottle. It is really simple, not confusing like in the UK with competing companies and separate systems for refillable bottles.

Internet. Internet and mobile phone coverage is excellent, but there are areas of very low population that have no coverage. The coverage maps are online. In 6 months we probably had only 3 or 4 days with no coverage. The main networks are Spark, Vodafone and 2Degrees. SIMS are easy to buy. Prices are a bit more expensive than UK but affordable. Most UK networks roam in NZ, but not for the full 6 months. We bought local SIMs plus a data only SIM for our router. We use a lot of internet - most folk don't.

Health - we have been travelling for many years. Insurance is expensive. We chose not to insure. You get free emergency treatment in NZ no problem. Over the counter stuff is generally more expensive.

Driving is easy in NZ, very similar to UK, but with more of a USA and Oz flavour. The trucks are bigger, the roads are wider. Driving manners are generally good. Basically after the first couple of weeks it's no problem. No speed cameras outside of the cities, and patrol cars are generally a rare sight - you won't be speeding anyway! When planning your route be aware that gravel roads are very common, and often the only road to get there. They are fun, but the dust gets literally everywhere - it's almost impossible to keep out of the van. Make sure you know from your map and planning whether a road is tarmac or gravel - you can see 80% of NZ on tarmac.

Safety - we felt safe everywhere. The Maoris look a bit frightening with all their tattoos but we found them very friendly. NZ folk are in general extremely friendly and generous. However, according to Facebook, there is some crime, so take the same precautions as you would at home.

All in all, we reckon we did 6 months in NZ and spent approx £8k more than we would have done if we had done our usual 6 winter months in Europe in our own van. We think that was a bargain.

North Island or South island? South gets all the headlines - Lord of the Rings, mountains, Milford Sound, Fijords etc. It's the place to be if you like that sort of thing. But realistically it's no different to the Alps in Europe, or even Scotland. We chose the North - it is so varied - especially the volcanoes and the coast. We didn't regret our decision at all, although we did do a 2 week tour in the South in a car, before we went North to buy our van. Queenstown and that region has a reputation for being the most motorhome unfriendly place in the country. It is chock full of international visitors in peak season. Of course, in 6 months you can do both, and NZMCA membership gets you a big ferry discount. But we found North Island delightful. Our favourite place was the Coromandel peninsula - we stayed a month, and went back for our final few weeks.

Any questions feel free to email funkyronster@gmail.com and if the info is useful then please paypal me a bottle of wine to the same address. Cheers!