We originally had the intention of ONLY going to New Zealand and bypassing Australia in early 2025 and we feel this would have been a grave mistake because we fell hard for the diversity adventure, and terrain of Australia in a way we didn’t expect, nor can we entirely explain. That said, we still were enchanted by the natural beauty of New Zealand, but we did walk away feeling like we wouldn’t go rushing back like we would to Oz. In other words, we feel like we accomplished a lot in the month we had, and only scratched the surface during two months in Australia. In addition, we spent on average $46/day more in NZ and had to work so much harder at the budget.
Below is our personal list of stats, money saving tips, and our personal upsides and downsides for the country.
In Summary…
Time Spent: 31 nights
Money Spent: $2603.07 or $83.97/day average in USD/two people, which breaks down to:
- $529.08 (Groceries)
- $1190 (Transport)
- $664 (Accommodation)
- $172 (General)
- $34 (Restaurants)
Our itinerary: Queenstown (1) Beaumont (5) Wanaka (6) Milford Sound Road Trip (2) Queenstown (2) South Island Road Trip (7) Christchurch (3) Christchurch to Auckland Road Trip (5)
Favorite Place: Aoraki/Mt Cook NP
Least Favorite: Geraldine
Would we return? Yes, but it won’t be for awhile, and only if and when we have a bigger budget. Also, we would probably only do the north island next time.
Our Top Five NZ Highlights
- Renting a ~$1/day campervan from Imoova to get from Christchurch to Auckland
- The Hooker Valley Track and Mt Cook
- Housesitting overlooking the gorgeous mountains and lake in Wanaka
- The wildlife: included playing peekaboo with baby seals near Kaikoura, seeing the kea alpine parrots at Mueller Hut, and our first albatross at Milford Sound
- Camping for free on the beach at Monkey Beach Island, which was not an island, nor were there monkeys, but there was definitely a beautiful beach
Best Takeaways for Saving Money
- Be flexible and plan to book imoova relocations and housesits at the last minute.
- Visit opp shops to stock up on blankets and warm clothing
- Shop at Pack ‘N Save whenever possible
- Camping at DOC sites, especially the free ones when you can score them
- Do a volunteer experience with HelpX to save on accommodation and food
Our NZ Upsides
- The natural beauty is unparalleled from the fjords, to the coasts to the mountains to the forests
- Easy driving and road conditions are great though there can be a lot of cones and construction, especially in the north.
- Road tripping is the only way to go in this country. It’s fabulous. Do expect a lot of roundabouts!
- But when you do go by bus, the drivers make fun, narrative announcements
- Plentiful opp shops for buying last minute camp gear
- Friendly people
- For the most part, we had amazing weather in February/March
- A wide variety of birds that you can’t see elsewhere on earth
- Beer and wine are significantly cheaper than Oz. You can get a decent bottle of red for about $6-7.
- It’s super quiet and has few big cities; we LOVED the tranquility and truly feeling so far from everything
- The peanut butter selection is the best quality and most affordable we’ve ever seen. Groceries overall are a great value.
Our NZ Downsides
- It can be quite expensive; there’s also definitely a level of tourist gouging going on, which is understandable with their short summer season
- The bus prices are also quite lofty. Definitely a better value to rent a car but if you want a good deal you must book months in advance
- It can be quite difficult to find housesits that line up which we’ve heard may be due to a short term housing shortage. We joined Kiwi Housesitters while there and were turned down three times, two which said they only wanted locals
- Although the water is delicious, we often had trouble finding stations so you need to carry plenty if road tripping. We did drink the DOC water even though it says to boil it first. No issues.
- Camping is more utilitarian; the parking lots are adequate but not exactly cozy. Also, there is very little love for the tent camper, including few picnic tables which drove us crazy
- The sand flies can be rife in certain areas
- The cities we went to (mostly Christchurch) were not very walkable and car-centric. Felt like the States.
- There is a notable lack of forests, especially on the South Island due to agricultural land. This is sad because it’s obvious how lush it should be.
