Nic
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North Island ▷ Ruapehu ▷ Tongariro / National Park Village ▷
Discovery Lodge Campground
We spent three nights on a powered site in a motorhome here.
It's a lovely site with stunning views, nice and quiet as it's sheltered from the highway by large trees. It poured rain but our site remained un-bogged. Note that the restaurant is closed during winter - we went to National Park Village to eat and Whakapapa Village is very close too. Friendly staff and spotlessly clean bathrooms. Also appreciated the recycling bins.
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North Island ▷ Waikato ▷ Putaruru ▷
Te Waihou Walkway
This was one of the absolute best things we saw in New Zealand, it's completely stunning.
The walk to get there is just heavenly and the springs themselves are beautiful.
We entered from the Leslie Rd end and the day we went, which was just an ordinary weekday in the middle of winter, we could barely find anywhere to park along the entire road. There were vast numbers of people, most of them tourists so someone somewhere is directing visitors to this place. The facilities are nowhere near able to cope with the numbers of people now visiting and it's actually looking dangerous as it's a winding road, blind bends, with frequent logging trucks coming around bends. They really need to very quickly upgrade the parking to accommodate all the people wanting to see this special place. There was even a man in a van selling ice creams, in winter! With a queue of people! But do go and see the springs, it's very well worth it. Enchanting.
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North Island ▷ Rotorua Region ▷ Tarawera ▷
Lake Ōkāreka Campsite
My favourite campsite on our north island holiday.
The sight of the sunrise over the volcanic mountains, with Tarawera in the background, brought me to tears.Absolutely stunning. Very quiet campsite, we were the only ones there, we had a very restful night. Swans on the lake the next morning. Volunteers came to collect the fees early in the morning and were very friendly and informative about the local area. Just around the bay a little is a house that rents for $15,000 a night - and we had exactly the same views of this beautiful lake for just $30 for our family of four. Priceless.
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North Island ▷ Bay of Plenty ▷ Waihi ▷
Dickey Flat Campsite
This was our first campsite in New Zealand and we loved it.
Very quiet and peaceful, we slept really well and in the morning had a little walk along the beautiful river. Beautiful location. Highly recommended!
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North Island ▷ Taupo Region ▷ Taupo ▷
Five Mile Bay Recreation Reserve
Beautiful free campsite, very quiet with gorgeous views over the lake.
Highly recommended!
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North Island ▷ Hawkes Bay ▷ Te Awanga ▷
Clifton Road Reserve
This was an excellent campsite with glorious views - it only loses a point because our motorhome became bogged in river pebbles here.
We arrived just after dark and without warning the gravel road we were driving along looking for a spot to park turned into loose large pebbles and we were totally stuck. A huge thanks to the local camper who helped us dig out the pebbles and push the motorhome out of the bog to safety - he told us he's seen at least 5 motorhomes in the last couple of months become bogged in the same place and in the dark you may not notice the road surface suddenly change. Other than that it was a beautiful and quiet place to camp.
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North Island ▷ Taranaki ▷ New Plymouth ▷
Kawaroa Park
This was a fantastic camping spot!
We parked right next to the ocean and woke to the most glorious views. Right next to the walking track that leads right around the coast and there's a very cool slippery slide that leads from the carpark onto the beach track.. The carpark is next to a swimming centre so there are quite a few people coming and going into the evening but it was quiet. A group of teenagers did come into the children's playground at night but we saw a community patrol car several times making the rounds of the carpark which was very reassuring, we felt very safe. We were told by morning cleaners that it gets very busy in summer. Excellent spot, very close to town, right next to the ocean, quiet and FREE!
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North Island ▷ Waikato ▷ Putaruru ▷
Okoroire Hot Springs Hotel Camp
We stumbled upon this place almost by accident and on a dark and cold winters night up in the hills, it's quite spooky.
The campground is among the trees down the road a bit and was also a bit spooky, but we really liked this place. We had a truly excellent dinner in the hotel, the lamb was fantastic. Campground very basic but very cheap. If it's been raining beware of venturing too far down the field with a campervan as we heard about others becoming very bogged on the wet ground and having to be towed out. Also take care driving under and parking near the big trees if you have a tall campervan. It's a wonderful historic place and we're delighted we found it.
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North Island ▷ Coromandel ▷ Whitianga ▷
Cathedral Cove Recreation Reserve Carpark
We stayed here hoping to wake to the views in the photo above but it was completely fogged in and we spent a wild and windy and very rainy night here - however, it would normally have been beautiful, and
the carpark was fine to spend the night in. Despite the weather we were safe in the designated motorhome parking area.
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North Island ▷ Hawkes Bay ▷ Napier ▷
Ocean Spa Carpark, Napier
The positive part about this site is that it is only a few minutes walk to the lovely art deco historic area of Napier, which is what we came to the city to see.
However, I can't recommend it as a motorhome campsite. The information above does not mention this parking area only caters for motorhomes less than 6m long. We had no idea about that until we arrived in our 7.7m motorhome, despite me contacting the Napier i-site before our trip to specifically ask about motorhome parking in the city - no one told us. It's also totally unsuitable for tall motorhomes because the parking spaces are underneath large trees with low overhanging branches (and if you rented your motorhome you will have been told your insurance does not cover you for roof damage) - we were very lucky a fellow camper just stopped us in time from crashing our roof into a substantial branch when trying to park. We were also unaware of the new markets being held on the site on weekends until we arrived, meaning we had to make alternative arrangements for the Saturday night instead of staying in town to attend the Winter Art Deco festival. It was also a very busy site with cars driving up and down beside us all night looking for parking. It was lovely waking up beside the sea and Napier is beautiful but this really is not a suitable motorhome camping site for many motorhomes.
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North Island ▷ Waikato ▷ Te Kuiti ▷
Te Kuiti Domain Camping Ground
If I could rate this lower than a 1 I would.
They've got you over a barrel as it's the only place in the whole town to stay, and nearby towns have nothing at all. It was on dusk and our next stop was too far to drive in the dark in a storm so we had no choice but to stay here. The manager knew this, smugly telling me that my 13 year old was "regarded as an adult" and therefore charging me four adult rates for us and our two CHILDREN. Nowhere else in the whole of New Zealand charged us this price. The facilities are dirty and woeful. My husband braved a shower in the shower block, and the manager came in and turned out the lights while he was in there! We left as early as possible the next morning. Honestly, parking by the side of the road somewhere would be better than this place. The worst we stayed at in the whole of New Zealand.
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North Island ▷ Coromandel ▷ Tairua ▷
Paku Drive, Tairua
We were stranded in Tairua by highway flooding so didn't really plan to stay here but it looked pretty enough, overlooking the water.
We had a fairly terrible sleep though, as we stayed during a storm that buffeted our motorhome quite badly, so this is quite an exposed site with no shelter. We also found it very noisy with cars coming and going along the road all night and we could hear music from nearby venues quite loudly until late. We did enjoy the pleasant walk around to the marina in the afternoon (before the storm started).