Ten Day New Zealand Campervan Itinerary with Toddlers

As someone who used to jam pack her vacation days with all the sites possible to make the most of my time, I have found the best advice when traveling with toddlers is keep daily expectations low and pick just a couple “must dos” for your trip. Traveling in a campervan can also make the experience smoother and more enjoyable.

When I started planning out New Zealand trip I had a long list of things to try to do. Then as I began slotting things into days and planning out the travel the list started to shrink. That’s the main challenge with New Zealand, there is an endless amount of things to do and places to go. After a few iterations, we landed on plan and surprisingly we came very close to doing everything as planned.

Post-Trip Takeaways

This was an exhausting trip that pushed us out of our comfort-zone, but it showed us we could do a campervan trip. We had psyched up our 3.5yo for the trip beforehand by getting a Lego campervan. This let us talk through where we would be staying on the trip. Post-trip he love to point out all the campervans (or delivery vans) he sees. Months later he continues to reference the trip to New Zealand regularly. If we say we are going away anywhere he asks if we’re going to New Zealand. He’s even tried to tell his teachers he is from New Zealand. So while challenging, hearing our son talk about months later makes every difficult moment of the trip worth it. He doesn’t remember a massive meltdown at The Green Dragon, but he does remember walks along the beach and going hiking.

What to pre-book

Prior to travel we downloaded the Campermate app to help us locate campsites, but we didn’t pre-book any before heading over. Even through we were traveling during a New Zealand school holiday week, it’s still low season. So we were not concerned about finding places to camp each night. We did pre-book a few tours both to guarantee availablility and to align with nap times. We pre-booked Waitomo Caves, Te Puia, and Hobbiton.

Trip Overview

Itinerary

Meals

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
1	Home	Airplane	McDonalds
2	Campervan	Campervan	Campervan
3	Campervan	The General Store	Campervan
4	Campervan	Te Puia	Campervan
5	Campervan	Hobbiton	Fish n Chips
6	Campervan	Campervan	Fish n Chips
7	Campervan	Campervan	Campervan
8	Campervan	Campervan	The Surrey Hotel
9	Campervan Food	Auckland Zoo	The Surrey Hotel
10	Campervan Food	Airport	Home

10 Day North Island Itinerary

Day 1 – Arrival

We planned to fly in, get the campervan, and drive 1.5 hours to Hamilton and spend the night there. However, we didn’t really budget sufficient time for getting the campervan, eating dinner and getting groceries. Despite it being a short flight for us, it was a long day. So we ended up freedom camping at Hingaia Reserve just outside Auckland.

Day 2 – Waitomo

Since we had planned to be in Hamilton that night we were going to explore Hamilton Gardens or Waikato Museum before driving to Waitomo. But we started our day in Auckland, not Hamilton. We lazily got ourselves together in the morning. The kids wander through the grassy area near our campsite while we figured out how to store everything in the campervan. Then we headed for Waitomo with a lunch stop in Pirongia. We arrived well before our tour time and let the kids roam around grassy areas by the parking lot. There is a walking path out the back of the parking lot. If it hadn’t been so muddy, we would have explored that before the tour. Instead, after some play time we headed up to the caves and got some coffee and snacks at the cafe.

For the tour we had a carrier for each kid. Our 3.5yo ended up walking most of the tour with a few rounds of being carried. The 1.5yo spent most of the tour in a carrier. He probably could have walked, but safety-wise the carrier was easier. During the boat ride at the end, the 3.5yo started to lose interest and started voicing that he was done. I think the darkness of the cave really started to get to him. After the tour we got more snacks to appease the kids. That gave us time to decide where to spend the night. We landed on the Waitomo Top 10 Holiday Park just down the road and headed over to give the kids some playground time before dinner.

Day 3 – Mangapohue Natural Bridge & Rotorua

Originally our plan had been to head straight to Rotorua and chose an activity like the Redwood Treetop walk or Polynesian Spa. Instead we headed about 30 min east of Waitomo to Mangapohue Natural Bridge for a short hike. Both boys walked most of the journey out to the bridge and then wanted to be carried back. We don’t go on many hikes, so both my husband and I were surprised by their enthusiasm for the hike.

Our 3.5yo wanted to continue on the loop trail on the far side of the bridge. We started down the path, but quickly decided it was a bit more than we wanted and turned around to head back to the campervan. After the hike we headed back into Waitomo for a tasty lunch at The General Store. The boys had a nice long nap on the 2 hour drive to Rotorua. We booked 2 nights at the Tasman Holiday Park – Rotorua and let the boys burn off energy on the jumping pad.

Day 4 – Rotorua: Te Puia

The morning was a pre-booked Te Ra and Haka Tour combo. The tour of the Māori Arts and Crafts Institute was fascinating and informative but not the most toddler-friendly activity. On top of not being kid-oriented, we didn’t appropriately plan for snack time before the tour and both kids started to lose it. Once we got the 1.5yo asleep in a carrier and some snacks into the 3.5yo things got better. Possibly because it was just after the kid melt-downs, but I was a little underwhelmed by the Kiwi Conservation Centre. I had purposely not booked any other kiwi tours because that was included in this tour. Luckily we got a better kiwi sighting at the Auckland Zoo later in our trip.

Pōhutu Geyser and the cultural performances with the Haka were the family-favorite parts of the tour. Our 3.5yo stayed engaged for the whole performance. After the performance we got lunch at their cafe and let the boys run around before heading back to the holiday park. Initially we had thought we’d pick an afternoon activity. Instead the boys and I played around the holiday park while my husband got gas and groceries. It would have been nice to have a stroller to take the kids on a walk to town/the lakefront, but the park had enough entertainment. After dinner the 3.5yo got some alone time with mommy in the mineral pools in the holiday park.

Day 5 – Hobbiton

Today was our Hobbiton Tour. This was the one “must do” for my husband. From the advice of family and friends who had gone before, we pre-booked a tour that included lunch. I am not much of a Lord of the Rings/Hobbit fan, but this tour is great anyway. The landscape with the set is just unreal and so idyllic. Some members of our tour group members really appreciated having our “hobbit-sized” kids on the tour to give better perspective of the hobbit holes. They had recently finished building out two hobbit hole homes to be complete homes that we could go into and explore. Our kids enjoyed the bunkbeds in the kids room.

The downside of the tour was the wait after arriving at the Green Dragon Inn. We got our complementary drinks, but still had downtime before our lunch. While we had packed snacks for the tour, we underestimated the need. Our exhausted and hungry 3.5yo had an epic meltdown until they let us in for lunch. Once food was available he was content and both kids and adults enjoyed the buffet.

Drive to Hot Water Beach

After the tour and some coffee from the cafe back at the Shires Rest we began the drive up the Coromandel Peninsula to Hot Water Beach. At this point in our trip we gave ourselves the option to pivot from our plan and head back to Hamilton/Auckland. But we were feeling good and kept going to the Coromandel Penninsula. This was one of the longest driving legs of our trip with a nearly 2.5 hour drive. The kids slept nearly the whole way.

On our previous drives I kept commenting on how there was no flat land anywhere. Well for the first part of this drive we found the flat land. The second half was the exact opposite. Cutting across the Coromandel Range with a never-ending winding road. We booked ourselves in to the Hot Water Beach Top 10 Holiday Park. Since we arrived just after the low-tide window ideal for exploring the beach, we stayed around the park. The children enjoyed the playground and we picked up dinner from the Fish and Chips shop on site.

Day 6 – Hot Water Beach

Given the tide schedule, initially the plan had been to head to Hahei for a Cathedral Cove boat tour. However, after the drive the previous day and our 3.5yo wanting to check out the beach we spent the morning playing along the Taiwawe Stream outlet to the ocean. After the boys officially soaked their pants in the water we got them back to the campervan for dry clothes and lunch. We all had some quiet time while the 1.5yo napped in a bed for the first time all trip.

After nap time we enjoyed the park facilities. The boys jumped on the bouncing pillow and we rented a pedal go-kart for some laps around the park. Then we rented a shovel and headed back to the beach to experience the hot water springs. This was truely a unique experience. Both kids were a little unsure at first as it was cold out and we stripped them down to swimwear. Once they got settled in, they didn’t want to leave. This “down day” of no driving and exploring the beach and campground was the recharging day that we needed. We even considered booking an additional night for another low-key day and getting in a tour of Cathedral Cove which was high on my “want to do” list. But after discussion over dinner from the fish and chips hut we decided to continue on with our scheduled itinerary.

Day 7 – Coromandel

We got ourselves packed up and headed further up the peninsula to the town of Coromandel and Driving Creek Railway. Driving Creek has a quirky history that you learn about on the 1.25 hour tour up to the Eyefull Tower and back down. There are many hidden pieces of art and other sites in the forest on the way up. So a game of “I spy” kept the 3.5yo occupied on the journey along with the many beautiful vistas. Driving Creek also has a ziplining adventure through the forest and a pottery studio which offers 1.5hr workshops.

The coffee shop onsite was not open while we were there. After a quick snack break we headed into town for gas, a few groceries, and a caffeine-fix before driving down the west coast of the peninsula. This drive was more narrow winding roads. It was also going to be our last night in the campervan. We found a freedom camping site at the Tararu Beach Reserve. Before sunset we did a beach walk then fixed dinner and settled in for the night.

Day 8 – Return to Auckland & MOTAT

With the winding roads mostly behind us, in the morning we set off on the two hour drive to Auckland. This was one of the harder drives just because of timing. Since we hit the road just after breakfast, we were not driving during nap time and had to keep the kids entertained for the ride. Our Yoto player was the most requested object during most drives. But on this leg we rotated through just about all the toys we had with us. We were nervous bringing the campervan into the city. I had identified MOTAT as our “must-do” attraction in Auckland and booked us a room at The Surrey Hotel in Grey Lynn near MOTAT. The hope was that they’d have more room for a campervan compared to a CBD hotel.

MOTAT

We headed straight to MOTAT. Initially I thought we’d do this the next day, but we got to town earlier than expected. The parking at the MOTAT Aviation Hall site had a lot for oversized vehicles. Aviation Hall is a large hanger with lots of different aircrafts. The front desk at MOTAT informed us the cafe at the other location was closed so we went back to the campervan for lunch before hopping on the free tram down to MOTAT Great North Road which is the larger and more diverse section of the museum. Half way down the tram ride is a stop for the Auckland Zoo. There is a cafe before the ticked entrance to the zoo had we needed to buy lunch somewhere.

The second site consists of a series of different buildings with different exhibits. There is also a soft-play area for kids under 5 and an outdoor playground. The highlights for our boys were Model Railways setup and the slide in the Science and Technology Center. Once we were thoroughly exhausted we took the tram back to Aviation Hall and drove to the hotel. We elected to just get dinner at the hotel that night.

Day 9 – Auckland Zoo

We used our campervan supplies to eat breakfast in our room. Having a whole hotel room for the boys to move around in the morning was a lovely change from the cramped quarters of the campervan. Since we didn’t have an official plan for the day, we decided my husband would drop me and the kids at the zoo. He would prepare the campervan and return it before meeting us back at the zoo.

The Auckland Zoo was not near the top of my list for things in Auckland. Zoo outings at home are a go-to weekend activity, so I wasn’t sure a new zoo would be worth it. I was wrong! The Auckland Zoo is fabulous and I’m so glad we ended up there. We mostly picked it because it was easily accessible from our hotel. That allowed us to walk back after returning the campervan. The animal exhibits, kids play space and food selection were all top notch. And I got a much better kiwi sighting than at Te Puia.

I’ve learned since having kids that zoos are just amusement parks for small kids without rides. This was the one day I definitely wish we had a stroller. Getting around the zoo solo with the little in a carrier and the convincing the big one to walk was exhausting. I only realized later that I could have rented a stroller for the day from the guest services office. Between the exhaustion and lack of a vehicle, we got dinner at the hotel restaurant again.

Day 10 – Departing

Our final day was a bonus day that we hadn’t mapped out any plan. We didn’t need to be at the airport until around lunch time. After using up the last of our breakfast food, we packed up and caught a cab downtown. My husband was staying on for a work trip and we stored luggage at his hotel. We then set out on foot for some coffee from the ferry terminal and then wandered over to the Sky Tower. While we didn’t spend a lot of time, the views form the top were a great ending to our holiday. Then it was back to the hotel to get our bags and a cab to the airport.

Journey Home

This was the first time I had flown solo with the boys in over a year. After some intense meltdowns on the flight over, I was bracing myself for a rough go. While we waited in the gate area I let them run circles and climb on chairs (away from other passengers). Two women with a school group also came up to me as we waited to board and announced they were going to help me! They assisted with getting my bags on and off the plane and I am so grateful for their kindness. The 1.5yo was asleep in my arms before takeoff and the 3.5yo was content with his tablet.