New Zealand Roadtrip Essentials

I associate driving holidays with freedom and adventure. I’ve done a few short road trips with friends (e.g. driving down south to small towns like Mandurah and Denmark). However, I’ve always wanted to do a longer road trip with friends. After some coordinating, my  friend and I managed to align our leave for a trip to New Zealand. In April this year we flew across the country and across the Tasman Sea to land in Auckland, New Zealand, where our road trip began.

New Zealand is the perfect country to explore by car. It’s small enough where you won’t have to drive far before you see the next small town. The roads are smooth and there are plenty of signage to get you from place to place. The hardest part of driving in South Island in New Zealand is the mountainous and whiny roads. In particular, the West Coast as we headed into Glacier Country. The drive down from Queenstown to Milford Sound is also pretty treacherous for inexperienced drivers. The roads are even more whiny and long. I’m glad we decided to skip the drive and join a day tour instead.

There were a few apps that I found handy to have for our road trips

• Navigation Apps – GoogleMaps (online map for when we had data), HereMaps (offline map for where there was no reception)
• Overcast – A great podcast app. I had a supply of podcasts to listen to during our long drives to keep us engaged. I highly recommend Serial, by This American Life. My friend and I were hooked on season 1 of the podcast.
• Campermate – A great app that shows the location of petrol stations, campgrounds, information centres, grocery stores and other useful places.  Very handy if you driving around New Zealand.
• Tripadvisor – We used this for restaurant and activity recommendations in New Zealand. While we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do, we used the app to look for recommended places to eat in each town. It was useful given it’s large user basis.
• Arrival App – New Zealand’s tourist app. It contains quite a lot of deals and discounts that you could take advantage of.
• AirBnB – The app was handy to have to look up the details of the AirBnB accommodations we booked.
• Day One – A journalling app that I decided to try out during my New Zealand holiday. The app is beautiful and simple to use. I enjoyed putting my thoughts and experiences in words when I had the time at the end of the day.

A few more practical things to prepare myself for our long drives

• A navigator. And being able to swap drivers every couple of hours to avoid fatigue.
• Good old fashion paper maps are sometimes better than GPS.
• Water . We kept a few litres in the car just in case.
• Plenty of snacks in the car in case we get hungry. What good long drive doesn’t involve chocolate and chips?
• Music. For when we wanted a break from podcasts, which requires some degree of concentration and focus.
• Camera. I had my Fujifilm X-T10 on hand when I was in the passenger seat so I’m ready for any shot. There were plenty of opportunities to stop at the side of the road and hop out of the car to enjoy an amazing view.

Lastly and most importantly, good company and good conversation is essential for a great road trip 🙂

Thanks for stopping by today.

J.