Profile
Olli Jarva
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South Island ▷ Mount Cook - MacKenzie ▷ Twizel ▷
Lake Poaka Campsite
Gravel road is in a fine condition - not perfect but good enough for either slow or fast driving.
Both ramps down to the campsite are in good condition for either small or large campervan.
Area is huge and as of beginning of October, there's plenty of room - especially compared to super popular free campsite right next to Lake Pukaki. Views are not as great but there's a price to be paid for peacefulness.
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North Island ▷ Taranaki ▷ Mt Taranaki ▷
Stratford Mountain House Carparks
The whole carpark is in very rough condition - at least that makes most people drive very slowly which is a plus.
On the negative side, the whole carpark is sloped, and there are very few flat spots available.
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South Island ▷ Canterbury ▷ Springs Junction ▷
Deer Valley Campsite
Basic campsite next to the river.
Of course there are sandflies - that's given with a river and otherwise covered spot.
Minus one for the road which is a few tens of meters away - you can very clearly hear cars and trucks passing by.
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South Island ▷ Marlborough ▷ Havelock ▷
Butchers Flat Campsite
Very nice, secluded campsite.
Steep cliffs are no joke.
Do note there are two small fords to get to the campsite, and the road is slightly rough at places for the last 2-3km. Do not go with a large motorhome. A normal van with not terribly high ground clearance and without 4x4 was totally fine.
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Warkworth ▷
Port Albert Wharf Reserve
Ok spot next to the wharf.
There's absolutely no way to fit in 10 campervans or even regular sized cars between the signs. Was already way overcrowded at 17:00 on Thursday in September.
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North Island ▷ Northland ▷ Dargaville ▷
Northern Wairoa Museum
Ok for dumping waste, but clean water tap is so far from where you can get a car there's no way to fill the tank - unless you have 5m hose with you.
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Auckland ▷
Spaceships
We got upgrade from the cheapest car to the newest model, which was incredibly nice.
However, the newest model (Dream sleeper mini) was clearly not as well-thought as the earlier models. On the positive side, a big fridge and two gas cookers. On the negative side, everything under the bed was really hard to access and stuff moved around all the time while driving, as the whole floor was made of slippery paneling. Turning front seats around every evening and morning was cumbersome (but well, it worked). The bed was not too flat, as significant part of it was not on flat surface but on the front seats. The car had multiple small issues all around (for example, some of the bottom covers were loose, and popped out while driving on the highway, and required fixing regularly). Overall, Spaceships customer service was good, except more than once they forgot to reply to emails/facebook messages and only responded after one or more reminders (over multiple business days; I didn't expect to get replies during weekends/NZ nights).