Planning your roadie: camp spots, routes, and the practical stuff

A handful of apps cover most of what you’ll need, and it’s worth having more than one on your phone since they don’t all list the same spots.

• CamperMate: built for Australia and New Zealand, covers free and paid camps, dump points, water fill-ups, and fuel prices.
• WikiCamps: the one a lot of long-term travellers default to, with a huge community-reviewed database of free and paid camps, public toilets, and water points across Oz and NZ. Small one-off cost, but most people say it pays for itself in fuel savings alone.
• Park4Night: a European favourite that’s also solid across Oz and NZ, with reviews and photos from other travellers so you know what you’re pulling into before you get there.
• Hipcamp: different to the others in that it’s bookable private land, think farms, vineyards, bush blocks, some with fire pits and showers, or a bit more privacy than a public camp. Good option if you want to guarantee a spot rather than turn up and hope.

Between those four, you’ll have free camps, paid camps, and private land covered, wherever you end up.

A genuine tip from us: book the popular spots ahead of time, especially in peak season. The camp with the best view and the best sunset is the one that fills up first, and turning up at 4pm hoping for a spot is how you end up parked in a servo car park instead.

This is the bit people overthink. You don’t need a spreadsheet. You need a handful of must-sees and enough flexibility to change your mind.

Here’s how to build that list:

• Our blogs: full of route ideas and spots we rate ourselves, like our guide to places not to miss in New Zealand or our East Coast finds most people drive straight past.
• Our maps: we’ve put together our own pinned hotspots for the East Coast and New Zealand. Download them for free and star your spots so you can use them offline on the road.
  • East Coast hot spots
  • New Zealand hot spots
• Social media: search the location and see what’s actually being posted right now, not just what a blog said two years ago.
• Other travellers on the road: this one’s underrated. Chat to people at camp, ask what their top spot was, and don’t over-plan around it.

Worth reading before you head off: our guide to freedom camping in New Zealand and what you can and can’t park or sleep in, so you’re not caught out by local rules once you’re on the road.

Once you’ve got your list, save every spot straight to Google Maps. Then when you arrive somewhere, you can see at a glance what else is nearby and build your day around it, instead of trying to remember what someone mentioned three towns ago.

A few things worth knowing before you plan a route:

• Rental campers aren’t set up for 4WD tracks. Steer clear of anything that calls itself 4WD-only.
• Beaches are off limits too, whether your rental is a 2WD or 4WD camper.
• Most rental campers aren’t suitable, or covered, for unsealed roads, though this varies between companies. Some allow around 12km on unsealed roads (only if you are heading to a camp or sightseeing spot) before cover changes, so always check your rental agreement before heading off the sealed stuff. Driving beyond what’s covered can affect your excess reduction cover. 

Before you head off, it’s worth running through our campervan packing list too, so you’re not working it out as you go.

Australia’s distances catch a lot of first-time road trippers out. Once you’re off the main coastal routes, fuel stops can be well over 100km apart, so it’s worth knowing your camper’s fuel range and not letting the tank drop below half in remote or outback stretches. Servo opening hours get patchy out there too, so don’t assume you can fill up whenever you like. Fuel Map Australia is worth downloading before you go, it shows fuel stops, distances between them, and live prices, so you can plan your fill-ups before you’re running low.

The other one worth knowing: kangaroos, wombats, and other wildlife are most active at dawn and dusk. Driving country roads in those windows is when most animal strikes happen, so where you can, plan your longer driving stretches for the middle of the day instead.

If New Zealand’s on the cards, the ferry booking is one thing worth locking in early. There are two operators, Interislander and Bluebridge, both crossing the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands. It comes down to sailing times and price on the day you want to travel, so it’s worth checking both before you book.

When to book your crossing

As a general guide:

• Peak season or school holidays (December to February and public holidays): book 2 to 3 months ahead, earlier if you can!
• Off-peak: a few weeks to a month out is usually enough.

Booking early gets you your preferred sailing time and the better rate, since prices and availability tighten up as sailings fill.

One from us: try to book a daytime crossing departing Picton. The scenery on that stretch is something else, and you don’t want to miss it in the dark.

Work out your must-sees, leave room for the spontaneous stuff, and pin it all to your own Google Maps as you go. That’s genuinely the best way to plan a roadie, whether it’s your first or your fifth.

If you haven’t grabbed our hotspot maps yet, download them for free above, or if you want a hand finding the right camper for the trip you’ve just planned, send us your dates and we’ll build you a personalised deal, best price guaranteed, tailored to what you’re after.

Want more before you go? Have a look through:

• Tips + Advice
• Itineraries
• Destination Guides
• New Zealand