Danielle Pegge
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North Island ▷ Hawkes Bay ▷ Waipukurau ▷
Kairakau Beach Freedom Camping
4.5/5
Beautiful beach, one of our favorite spots on our 3 month road trip.
The beach is great, pretty big and there was hardly anyone on the beach when we were there. The free camping was quite busy when we arrived at the weekend but then got quieter. 4G phone coverage. There's not much nearby for food or gas unless you drive out to Havelock. Only reason for not giving 10 stars was that there's only one toilet and no shower but no complaints- its free! And there's a paid campground just down the road if you do need showers.
If you are self contained we thought the free camping was nicer than the paid campground. Its on a nicer bit of the beach and in a row right along the seafront with beach access and trees between the sites (which make it feel more private but also block the wind) the paid site was completely open and lots of campers packed in together.
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South Island ▷ Canterbury ▷ Oxford ▷
West Oxford Reserve
1.5/5
A free place to park up if you're passing through but other than that I wouldn't really describe it as a campground.
There are no toilets (the nearest ones are in Oxford about 3 mins drive) or other facilities except some picnic tables. By the main road so its noisy and there's no view.
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North Island ▷ Wellington Region ▷ Wellington ▷
Evans Bay Marina Carpark
3.0/5
It's free camping in central Wellington so can't really complain but I wouldn't go there again unless I needed to park a van somewhere and go into central Wellington, or was waiting for the ferry.
We were there mid week in Feb and the car park was completely full, the only space we could fit in was pretty tight (we had a mercedes sprinter). It's just a car park so it's not like you can really sit or cook outside the van anywhere (our van had a bbq/table on the side outside but the space was so tight it was pretty impossible to use it). There were only 2 toilets so there was usually a queue for them since it was so busy. Dump station and fresh water available for vans. If you're just looking for somewhere to park up that's free and close to the city then it's fine, although there are other camp grounds a bit further out which we thought were way nicer.
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North Island ▷ Wellington Region ▷ Wellington ▷
Owhiro Bay Overnight Campervan Parking
4.5/5
Lovely camping right next to the marine reserve.
It's just a car park but the view over the beach and the sunset were awesome and you can go for a walk along the beach. It was pretty windy but...it's Wellington. The toilets were clean. Close enough to drive into Wellington but far enough out that you're not in the city. I'd never really been to the beaches by Wellington but the ones around there were actually really nice. It was completely full though by late evening (which was just during the week, no school hols and covid year so we thought it would be quieter). We also tried the Evans Marina camping spot the next night but definitely preferred this one.
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North Island ▷ Wellington Region ▷ Hutt Valley ▷
Kaitoke Regional Park Camping Ground
4.5/5
Awesome campground.
The park is beautiful and well maintained, and it's a scenic drive in/out too. You can park up or camp right next to the river. There are plenty of short walks in the park or you can swim in the river. Facilities were clean, the only thing that stopped me from giving it a 10 was that there are no showers. We were there on a weekend and it can get pretty busy but there's loads of space.