Niels Bellaar
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Pukekohe ▷
Hamiltons Gap
4.5/5
Highly recommended, amazing free site; totally isolated yet close to Auckland.
Great for your first or last night. As you get to the end of the road next to the (one of the nicest and cleanest doc) toilets you may think that's the whole spot, but there's a lot more to it; check out the grass field on your right! If it's windy there are some (semi) sheltered spots on the grass!
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South Island ▷ Marlborough ▷ Blenheim ▷
Robin Hood Bay Campsite
4.5/5
Nice little site with toilet, already very crowded at 6pm in January.
Protip: if self-contained and coming from Rarangi; drive past the DOC campsite for about 500m and you'll have a huge open grass field with awesome oceanview.
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South Island ▷ Marlborough ▷ Picton / Marlborough Sounds ▷
Ohauparuparu Bay
4.0/5
Large open grass space, lots (maybe even only) level ground.
No facilities, only for self contained. Tiny bit of cell reception. When we where there it was quite windy, however there are trees to hide your van behind. Even though it's next to the road, there is no traffic here - takes you an hour an a half on Kenepuru Road to get here. That's a long long way, but if you like to drive it's an awesome road :) Go here, take a morning swim in the fjord and enjoy freedom!
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South Island ▷ West Coast ▷ Cron street ▷
Doherty Creek (Franz Joseph)
3.5/5
Great free campsite for the self contained, yes it's next to the road but quiet at night.
Only a 7/10 because the spot is more of a muddy place than a gravel area (however it did rain when we arrived...). I bet it's perfect when it's dry though. The comment about arriving before dinner time is spot on - we arrived at 6.30 and it was pretty crowded; hard to find a level spot that's not in a mud pool. Protip: after entering the site turn right and towards the back, there are two (one large one small) elevated spots that are great. Navigate for Doherty Creek Road, take the 1st right - you can't miss it (if only because you'll see lots of vans :))
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South Island ▷ Canterbury ▷ Hanmer Springs ▷
St James Walkway
5.0/5
A very long way but halfway you get to sit on your own, private hot spring pool in the absolute middle of nowhere.
Extremely recommend! Beautiful!
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Auckland ▷
Wilderness Motorhomes
5.0/5
We have rented a van with Wilderness, a big one, because some of us need room.
Wilderness gets a 10 out of 10, very good customer service in general, especially when replacing a broken part of the van.
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North Island ▷ Coromandel ▷ Thames ▷
Kauaeranga Kauri Trail (Pinnacles Walk)
4.5/5
We saw on a friends bucket list to do the Pinnacles Walk.
We did it (it is more a climb than a walk) and had a wonderful but very tiring experience. Well recommend (if you are at least half fit).