The cost to travel New Zealand is expensive, so I have reproduced them in this post, to give you a better idea of the money needed.

Of course, everyone’s travel style and budgets are different so my cost to travel New Zealand list may not reflect your trip.

To give you a better idea of how we travel, here are some key points.

Cost to travel New Zealand in brief

Duration – 34 Days

– 34 Days Car – Spaceship hire campervan

– Spaceship hire campervan People – 2

– 2 Distance – 3800km

– 3800km Alcohol – few beers from the supermarket

– few beers from the supermarket Food – Cooked mostly

– Cooked mostly Travel Style – budget when possible, but happy to have a Macca’s

– budget when possible, but happy to have a Macca’s Rough Route – Christchurch – Arthur Pass – Franz Josef – Wanaka – Queenstown – Fjordland National Park – Wanaka – Picton – Wellington – Tongariro Park – Waitomo – Rotorua – Coromandel – Auckland

Our Cost Breakdown

$5,130 is our personal cost to travel New Zealand and equates to around $4,871 per month and $80 per person per day.

This includes the hire of the car however, and we also stayed in AirBnb during our city time.

The Picton Ferry for 1 Car and 2 people was around $220, which gets you from South to North Island.

We didn’t do too any expensive sight seeing activities apart from Waitomo Caves and Milford Sound Cruise.

Fuel

Apart from car hire, fuel is a big cost to travel New Zealand. Unlike Australia, NZ is not as remote and distances are not as huge, so you don’t have to worry about running out of fuel and not having access to a station. However, the further you go into the middle of nowhere, the more expensive the fuel will be. The average price per litre is around $2.18.

Food

Cooking is the way to go if you want to save money, and I love the feeling of cooking outdoors. My table above shows that we spent an average of $14 a day on supermarket shopping. Tis might seem like a lot, but we bought lots of snacks for our hikes etc. We also bought some beers every now and then. All this increased our average daily spend. I think we probably ate for no more than $10/day between 2 people (not including snacks etc). This is for 3 meals a day.

Camp Gear

The hire car includes much of the gear, which is the great thing about hiring. However we didn’t pay for the table and chairs package, as it’s cheaper to go to KMART and buy them yourselves. We bought some other bits to make life a bit easier as well, such as water tanks, frying pan, torches etc.

Camping

If you’ve just done a road trip in Australia and think you’ll get a similar priced experience here, think again. Camp sites make the cost to travel New Zealand significantly more than Australia. There isn’t as many free sites in NZ, unless you are a self-contained vehicle. This means that you have a working toilet in your car. Some sites are strict about this and others are perhaps more forgiving.

In hindsight, a good thing would have been to hire a car with Self Contained certification. Although it would have cost more in terms of hiring and fuel.

Despite some of the sites being expensive, they are high quality and have fantastic facilities. Some of them give you access to the hot springs in their centre too, which we took full advantage of. Bathrooms tend to be big and clean, and the kitchens are really good too.

We did find some free and cheap campsites though. Make sure you download some apps like, Wikicamps and Rankers. These provide excellent information about the prices and locations of sites. All with user reviews and pictures too.

Campsites we stayed in ranged from $5 to $50 in Queenstown

Campsites are extremely expensive in Queenstown, as it is a very popular tourist destination. There don’t seem to be many cheap alternatives unless you go further out. One good tip is to drive to Moke lake, there is a campsite here which is run by DoC and is much cheaper, than the $45 ones in the centre. It offers a basic toilet and stunning views, like in the two pictures above.

Rental Car

I decided to rent a car from Spaceships. This cost around $2000 for 32 days. This equates to around $62 a day, which includes the highest level of cover. This covers you in case of damage. If you choose a lower level, and you damage your car, be ready for the company to screw you over. We went in April and the cost of hiring the car is half as much as if you go in the summer.

Because I was only in the country for a month, it didn’t seem feasible to buy and then waste time selling the car.

The great thing about the rental is that you don’t have to worry about the car having mechanical problems or the time selling it after. It also came with a fridge which is super convenient.

My advice is to shop around and see what the best deal is. At the time, to hire an Apollo campervan would have been only a little more. They offer bigger vehicles and electricity ports. However, they aren’t as nice to drive due to their large size and fuel consumption would also be worse.

AirBnB

We decided to splurge a little, and stayed in AirBnB when we arrived in the cities (Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland). Some backpackers choose to sleep in car parks and residential streets in their cars, but in was nice to sleep in a bed and if you can afford it into your trip, why not? We stayed 6 nights in AirBnBs.

Top tips to limit your cost to travel New Zealand

Look for free sites/accommodation

Download apps like Wikicamps, Rankers and Campermate

Shop at Pak n Save – this is the cheaper of the supermarkets

Arrange Couch Surfing – plan it before-hand, if you know when you will arrive in a city

Go to New Zealand in the low season. Going in the high season, hire costs can be super high. It also means that all the sites will be packed full of people.