South Island New Zealand Road Trip Day 1 - AUCKLAND to MOTUTERE BAY

FROM: Auckland

TO:  Motutere Bay 

STAYED AT: Top 10 Holiday Park Motutere Bay

I recently spent 42 days travelling around the South Island of New Zealand.  

I planned this trip about 10-12 months in advance. This allowed for me to secure all of our accommodation and activities for the best price possible. By the time we started the trip, our only expenses were fuel, groceries, showers, parking etc. This strategy doesn't work for everyone, however I've always used it when planning trips and it works really well for me!

Planning trips can be pretty overwhelming, especially if you're not sure where to start. So I've made my full itinerary available for free here: 

The prices listed are all accurate as of April/May 2023 however, they may be different now. I also want to note that these expense totals do not include flights (as we lived in NZ at the time), travel insurance (as we were both enrolled in the NZ health system) or car/van hire (we bought our campervan in 2020). These 3 expenses are all quite large expenses that need to be considered when budgeting a trip to New Zealand. 

If you have any questions about our trip, please free to message me on any of the below links. 

I hope this information will help make your New Zealand adventure the best adventure ever!