Hey check you out! You’re either:
- Planning your camping trip for New Zealand with either a car or campervan
- Interested in apps made top help those camping
- In a van or car about to set to set off in the land of Kiwis and haven’t got the foggiest of what to do
In either of these scenarios, Don’t Panic. Our little guide below will point you in some useful directions and will make sure everything will be okay (in relation to getting more information on camping. The rest of life is up to you)
CamperMate
There are a lot of places to Camp in New Zealand. Lots and lots of places. On top of this you’ll either have a self contained certified vehicle or not (If you are not self contained then it will limit where you can stay. We didn’t have self contained and found it be of no real issue.
CamperMate was our trusted companion along our whole journey. It allows you to filter for what you’re looking for (e.g. low cost campgrounds) and gives you great information such as rough costing and campsite facilities. We found that using the comments tab for each campsite also helped as other would provide insights as to whether the campsite was decent to use.
Great for forward planning, or last minute (only once did we not book a campsite on the day we were driving to it) it’s a must have!
GasSpy
If you’re planning on getting about New Zealand you’re going to need to get some get fuel (unless it’s a very short road trip. In which case this probably isn’t the page for you!). When the Kilometres start staking up, an additional 5c per litre of fuel can start turning into big sums if you aren’t careful.
In comes GasSpy. This cute VERY simple to use app uses your GPS location (give it permission, if you don’t then it’ll be of no help to you) and informs you for fuel stations nearby and their price ranges. In some areas we noticed up to 35 c per litre of difference so this will pay off!
The one downside to the app is that you cant forward plan with it (i.e. search for cheap fuel in areas you are not currently in). This is a bit annoying if you’re forward planning but if that’s the case we found that NPD self service (the one brand we can remember clearly but there are others) stations generally come in cheapest!
Bookme
We only discovered this little gem far too late in our travels to make good use of it. However, we recommend having a good scan of this before arriving to, and whilst driving around, New Zealand. It has great offers for activities such as Bungy Jumping or Visiting cultural places of importance. You’ll be glad to save money where you can whilst travelling around, trust us!