Holiday in New Zealand: motel or campervan?

[grendel]

DH, DD(9) and myself are off to NZ at Christmas this year. Staying for 4 weeks.
We already have an outline itinerary planned out.
We are now debating whether to stay in motels or hire a campervan. Campervan appeals to DH and DD because of the romantic idea of freedom to roam the wilds of NZ.
Although I love tent camping, which we do often, I've never tried a campervan and am wary. Anybody done this and can give advice on some of these issues:

• Two seats at the front, remaining seats are right at the rear of the campervan. With 3 of us this means that someone will always be stuck on their own away from the others when we're driving. We're usually all chatting and passing snacks and checking maps together when we drive in a car. We'll have several long driving days over the course of our stay and this layout doesn't seem very family-friendly. Am I worrying too much about this?

• So you've found your perfect pitch on the perfect campsite. Then you go out for the day. When you come back will someone have bagged your pitch? How do you stake your territory?

• And are they a pain to drive around? They seem so bulky. Will I always be worrying about parking the darn thing?

• And is wandering freely from campsite to campsite a reality? Bearing in mind we will be there in peak holiday season, I've a feeling that we will need to book in advance for the good sites. Anyone had any experience of this?

Any advice or observations from those that have done this before would be gratefully received!

Not done this myself but Billy Connolly swears campervan is the ONLY way to see NZ!
No advice but your message is now bumped!

we did it for 6 weeks as part of our round the world trip in 2002

DEFFO go campervan

I have written about it loads on here and so will try to find threads

www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2411&threadid=57329#1284625

we used this company and we were upgraded to this campervan

DS slept in the bunk over the cab and we had a HUGEEEEEEEE double bed at other end

There are 4 seats with table behind the driver

DS sometimes sat in the cab with me while DH sat behind us

BUT this campervan company have HUGE windows

Some otf the companies have very small windown

You can phone and book ahead if you like

we went in JAN - MArch

oh btw ask which way to go to be cheaper

ie North to south may be cheaper cos they need people to drive the vans south or visa versa

Also do some FREEDOM camping by a lake or anywhere you fancy

did camper van for 5 weeks in 2005. Fantastic. Do book up early though, it is their school summer holidays as well as Christmas and a very busy time of year.

Just come back from NZ yesterday. Driving was very frustrating- maximum speed is 100 km/hr and a lot of the roads are up and down steep twisting hills. Allow double the journey time you would expect for the distance. We spent more time driving than actually seeing the sites

We stayed in motels btw.

Thanks for all your feedback. That's really helpful!

We found campervans too expensive (insurance extras tot up) and they do guzzle lots of fuel. We spent 6 weeks touring NZ using cabins in the Top 10 campsites (try www.top10.co.nz if you are interested). Found them v.clean and handy to have all campsite facilities eg pool, laundry. If you do the campervan option you can prebook their sites online. Have fun- fantastic country. (not sure link is working - might need to google it- sorry!)

Meant to add - take plenty of layers and waterproofs! We were in south island at Xmas 2007 - a tad chilly and often wet!

we loved the way that in a campervan you could unpack ONCE and you have loads and loads of storage spaces

And so don't have to pack and unpack every night or few nights

also that you could just stop by a lake and spend the night completely self sufficient