Back home - conclusion of our trip to New Zealand

Wow it was really a trip of a lifetime - we saw and did so much. It was a really nice family time. Of course we bitched at times, but for 6 weeks in a small space in the camper it wasn't much more than at home ;)

We covered 6,255 kilometers in our camper. Because of E we had the perfect pace, because without it we would have had too many waterfalls, too many beaches, etc., so it worked really well and we didn't have any rushed days. And we saw exactly what we wanted.

In general, we find driving in New Zealand easy and clear. You can drive really well according to signs and get around well. Once you get used to it, the journeys don't take longer than shown on the maps.

Hikes leave the most impression. Nature is just so diverse and beautiful. Mountains in the background are always an eye-catcher and the blue waters complete the view.

As much as I complained about the weather at the beginning, we were so lucky that we were always in the right place at exactly the right time and left when it got worse - so really great.

The fact that we had booked everything in advance also made it more relaxed, so we didn't have to think back and forth, we just moved on to the next point. Bookings were absolutely necessary in some places anyway, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to be at the hot spots for Christmas and New Year or take the Milford boat tour. There were one or two days too many in one place, but even then we always had something to do. So - I planned well ;)

I've always been surprised at how much this country is designed for campers. The toilets are just everywhere, cleanly maintained and with toilet paper.

A trip like that was also good for E, she became very open, of course it was 6 weeks, she grew anyway, but still, she couldn't speak English :) She really recognized when someone was speaking English and then repeated after her or even Once we said 'Thank you' on our own initiative, we were really amazed. Our girl has grown up.

Back Home - everything seems pretty big to us and very unusual to me in the apartment. But we will definitely get back to everyday life quickly.

Conclusion North Island - 3240km driven

Everything is there here, large bays, beaches, endless green meadows, mountains and waterfalls. The fuel is much cheaper here (than in Germany) and the roads are rarely gravel. The weather and wind is probably extreme this year, but as soon as the sun was there it was hot. Nature is beautiful and diverse, be it on hikes or drives.

You can take the extra detour up to Northland, the bays are beautiful and when the weather is nice, everything is definitely even more beautiful and the beach holiday is the way I had actually planned it. Matauri Bay Campground is definitely worth it, good facilities and the location in the bay is awesome. It's enough to just drive here, although I still thought the two seas that meet at Cape Reinga were cool.

We particularly liked the Hawkes Bay and Martinborough wine regions. We covered the entire North Island, from the northernmost Cape Reinga to the southernmost Cape Palliser. Benny's favorite area was Tongariro National Park, aka Mordor for us. We didn't find Wellington particularly special and I only really liked Auckland on our second (unplanned) visit.

Nevertheless, because of the little ones, our journeys were only up to 4 hours on three days, otherwise only about 2 a day. It worked so well for us and she and her nap didn't seem like too much to us. It worked out well that we left our plans open for the south, so we were always able to leave the current location when it was raining and continue towards the sun. The last 9 days on the North Island were almost exclusively sunny and we were always lucky. And so we spontaneously saw what was essentially the only and also extremely beautiful sunset.

Conclusion South Island - 3015km driven

Here the mountains are bigger, but the meadows are drier and browner. There are dead opossums lying around everywhere on the streets, probably being run over at night. We didn't have any bad roads on the South Island. Somehow the fuel isn't any more expensive (some people had told us beforehand) and there aren't any more gravel roads. But we have the feeling that it is more concentrated here because there is basically this one circular route or a route with many highlights. We kept seeing familiar faces.

Although we're not city fans because we always said we were going to NZ because of the nature, we found Wanaka and Queenstown really nice and I'm glad we had to book the minimum number of 3 nights for both. I wouldn't want to miss the Milford area either - a definite must do for us.

You can actually save yourself the west coast if you have a small child or baby who may not like driving. The three most famous stops along the route, Pancake Rocks, Hokitika Gorge and the Glaciers, were not a must-see for us. You're always smarter in hindsight. If you can drive the route faster or more in one go, you'll get through it faster and have more time for other things on the South Island. We gave ourselves more time due to the long and winding journeys. The same actually applies to the east coast, but we only made a short detour there anyway.