PREPARATION: CAMPERVAN ROAD TRIP KE SOUTH ISLAND NEW ZEALAND - WINTER 2015

Assalamualaikum.

Those yang follow my IG and facebook may aware that I have been to New Zealand recently for my honeymoon adventure for 14 days. We covered whole south island and it was the best journey in my life ever. The adventure was beyond awesome and I never regret to get a big hole in my pocket and wallet!.. kahkahkah.

In regards of sharing my road trip to South Island of New Zealand recently, I decided to come back to my humble blog to pin up the whole story from A to Z. InsyaAllah. I promise it wont be the same like previous posts when I went to Korea. Ended up with just one post as previously I was super busy with Master study and working at the same time. 

Now? I am a wife and of course still makan gaji but I guess I have more free and ample time to write on this wall. I tied the knot to a man of my dreams on last 24th July 2015. Alhamdulillah. It been the most wonderful one month together. Well, many months and years to come,  means more wonderful and adventure to come. InsyaAllah. Amin.

Lets get started.

The idea was from my husband. He is the master mind and one yang eagerly nak pergi New Zealand. Katanya, it is number one country that he wanted to go since he was a kid. Yo yo ja..Kecik kecik dah kenai New Zealand. haha.

We talked about honeymoon location long ago before we even decide nak kawin lagi. He even yet met my father, kami sudah pun bercakap pasal honeymoon. Apa punya berangan pun tak tau lah. Alhamdulillah, angan angan jadi kenyataan, segala urusan dipermudahkan. Started with riki riki flight ticket, bincang punya bincang, sembang kencang, kemaih semua ada. heh!

FLIGHT TICKETS

Berapa kali on-off pun tak tahu, sat nak p, sat tak nak p sampai la satu tahap, dia punya turning point when Air Asia buat promo pergi Melbourne. Early January this year, kami purchase ticket return for two of us from KUL to Melbourne dengan jarak 16 hari dari tarikh pergi. It costs us RM 1924.00 return for two. At this particular time, we both still indecisive pasal nak pegi New Zealand. Apa pun perangai pun tak tau. What are we going to do for 16 days if tak jadi p New Zealand. Of course limitation kami adalah financial. I got to choose one only! Ended up...........

Then, tiap hari we browse for cheap ticket from Melbourne to Christchurch. Everyday! Alhamdulillah we secured return ticket, dengan pilih seat sendiri, with one checked in luggage 20 kg return at AUD 693.88 with Jetstar. All my bonus salary and saving selama satu tahun jagung bekerja goes to the tickets. Worth it!! I tell you...Divided by two, it was RM 1877.00 for each of us.

Ada flight lain lagi untuk ke Christchurch seperti Qantas, Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand. You all can check and pilih harga yang paling competitive. Besides stop kat Melbourne boleh jugak tukar di Sydney, or ambil direct flight from KUL tp usually transit di Singapore and Australia jugak if not mistaken. Or, MAS ada flight direct tapi ke Auckland, North Island. So, if you all ada plan to tour both North and South, boleh la naik MAS. Boleh try ya. Tapi harga jangan cakap la mahal.

Sebab tu kami ambil different airlines macam ni, due to cost saving!

REMINDER: Our trip adalah super budget trip. No mewah mewah things. If you find it not comfortable for you to follow, you can always get better than this. Please do not judge. Sekian. 

CAMPERVAN SELECTION

Perbincangan diteruskan dengan accomodation di New Zealand. Kami memilih untuk hire campervan with self contained. Tips nya kenapa campervan sebab lebih jimat bila hire campervan, tak payah check in motel. Kira punya kira, yes, it is. Indeed. Bila ada campervan yang self contained (meaning, ada toilet and water supply for kitchen), we can freedom camping tapi ada kaedahnya juga nak freedom camping. 

Rules were a bit complicated. I will explain along the way in the story. Tapi freedom camping definitely tak akan dapat power supply. New Zealand sememangnya famous dengan kaedah travel menggunakan campervan, and RV. There have lots of powered sites for these vehicles. Kekdahnya, kena bayar lah. Bayarannya around NZD 1 - 22.00 per person untuk powered campsite. Per person hokey! Yang murah tu adalah DOC campsites with just basic facilities. 

Kalau ambil motel, definitely cost will be higher. I am not sure how much for motel. Freedom camping adalah free tapi bayangkan, during winter tak ada power supply, no heater, and no shower. Redah ja lah. Campervan kami cuma ada portable toilet which kami tak pernah guna sekali pun. Apa kisah, public toilet bersepah kat sana, ikut pandai adjust la bila nak melabur. Tips nya, vehicles tetap wajib masuk powered campsites 2 hari sekali untuk proses charge battery untuk mengelak berlakunya sebarang masalah teknikal. Memang secara teknikalnya, battery tu akan charges when vehicles on move tapi adalah part lain yang memerlukan vehicle charge guna direct power.

My husband was the one who did the research for campervan. Tips nya, jangan percaya dengan Google result. I am telling you all, result that came out from your seach are because these big companies did a lot of SEO (search engine optimization) and Google Adwards targeting Malaysia. Bukan sebab depa memang murah. Cuba try pergi Google 'campervan in new zealand'. Yang paling awal keluar ialah Jucy, Maui, Apollo, Britz and Mighty etc. These are giant operators in New Zealand and Australia but actually not that affordable for us yang dalam budget. Banyak hidden charges. We checked their quotation and studied, totally over our budget. So better than not going, we dont give up and study lagi sedalam dalamnya cari other operator yang memang ada provide budget package. 

It is OK if sedikit mahal but if terlalu mahal, itu melampau, mencekik darah namanya. But terpulang pada individu dengan penilaian masing masing.

I am not saying these big big companies tak bagus. They are all good in their own way, tapi if nak yang bajet mcm sya, tak dapat lah.

We did alot of study and we found this website, www.rankers.co.nz , recommended by many other travelers, Wendekreisen, www.wendekreisen.co.nz . A family business company. I tell you what, ada orang pilih company nak hire campervan just because their design yang cool and style. Of course not for us yang in bajet. As long as ada transportation merangkap tempat berteduh, more than enough. Katanya tak ramai orang Malaysia yang hire campervan dengan depa, dia pun tak boleh nak recall. Review yang kami jumpa dari rankers adalah memuaskan. Murah yang meyakinkan dan memuaskan. Alhamdulillah, 14 days travel with John Andrew (name we gave to our campervan), has no problem at all.


Step 1: Search and choose company/operator. Decide nak sewa kereta or campervan (with or without self contained or RV. RV will come with complete facilities, toilet and shower which mean it is self contained. Kindly take note, ada rule, if you hire RV does not mean you boleh bawak 10 orang naik. If it is 6 berth meaning to say, just for 6 people!. If 2 berth, only for 2 people. Rasanya 6 paling maximum if not mistaken.
Another tips, price may vary depending on what season you will be going. Summer and spring is peak season so you cannot bet to get a good price during this season. Not just for vehicles, others pun blh jadi extra expensive during peak season. So, plan wisely.
Step 2: Check price using their calculator or Get quote. 
Step 3: Book. Ours kena bayar 30% deposits upon booking. Balance akan due within 30days before travelling date. By 30 days before, company will send link for us to pay the balance. Payment by credit card only! Ceritanya, ada credit card, semua boleh jalan.
Step 4: Boleh pergi dah....

Wendekreisen campervans price

Wendekreisen Calculator can be used to calculate th estimate cost
 
CLICK BELOW TO BOOK DIRECT WITH WENDEKREISEN

The link will take you direct to Enquiry Form. Fill in form and click send. Wendekreisen will soon feedback to your booking Enquiry.
  

For family, you can hire RV instead, way bigger and comfortable. But there are limitations, RV adalah besar so sedikit slow nak bergerak, bigger to handle which mean susah nak parking plus limited designated parking. Ini orang kata, bukan saya. It is based on pembacaan from blogs. Depends, actually berlambak orang lain dah buat, elok ja. hehe. Dont think too much, just go with it! Or boleh sewa kereta and tidur motel or cabin which is way way comfortable. Siap duit saja! Depends.

I am not able to advise rates for RV since we hired campervan instead. Our John Andrew, Koru 2-Berth is a Budget Campervan from Wendekreisen costs,

NZD 546.00 (inclusive insurance) for 14 days.  
-Vehicles NZD 23.00/day.
-Insurance  (compulsory): kami ambil yang standard, NZD 16.00/ day. 
 
Please compare with yours found from Google. Maybe if there is any other company that is good and cheaper, please leave your comment, so others can have other option. It would be good to have more selection. Thank you!! 

Below is some details about our John Andrew. Condition was tip top! Alhamdulillah, for 14 days, we travel 3600 km all over South Island, he performed well. *claps*. Therefore, I would recommend you this company. Worth every penny! Ours was exactly same as below. Hihi. Warna cadar ja lain..OH! How I miss John Andrew. The vehicle is certified self contained in accordance with New Zealand standard. You can freedom camping for FREE!

Our John Andrew.

CAMPSITES

Next is campsites. Powered campsites is so easy to find but for freedom camping, or, in other words, CAMPING FOR FREE, you may need to do some research. Freedom camping in New Zealand, however, is not as simple as parking your camper van on the side of the road and pap done! Definitely hell no. 

Where you can and cannot camp is pretty well-regulated, and if you park somewhere you're not supposed to be, you'll very likely have to pay when get fined by the authority. Police may not around, but their local are so friendly with the police. You vehicle number can easily be spread to the whole island. You surely cannot run away. Dia punya denda, NZD 200.00. Hang nak bayaq? Baik buat bungy jumping noks! 

Different district has different rules for freedom camping at their town. Many towns and cities have "no freedom camping" policies in place. You'll usually see signs that say "freedom camping zone ends here" as you enter the town which strictly no freedom camping unless there is designated area for freedom camping. When you enter town in Queenstown heading towards Arrowtown, there is a sign said something likely, 'Self contained freedom camping zone starts here', means you can almost park everywhere within the zone but I would advise you to be careful. Because, not all local people would be happy with our existence in front of their house. That sign was seen in Queenstown and Franz Josef up to Haast if not mistaken. Sebab the sign was too small and hardly to spot, so I couldnt remember how many I have seen it. 

There were designated area yang di buat khas for campers to park for free. Some with toilets but some don't. So, here is an apps you can download to your mobile and use it. I used Camping NZ by rankers. It shows well where is the location for you to camp. It clearly show you a 'FREE' sign in green font.  Thats how we survive to get free campsites to park and sleep peacefully. But remember, freedom camping only for self-contained vehicles only.

Ada lagi satu apps iaitu CamperMate but I found it not friendly enough for me but you can try. Actually, CamperMate is even more complete but well, if too many information sometimes will be hard to handle and digest. hihi

Camping NZ.

Self contained sign at the back of your vehicles. Kena ada ni baru boleh freedom camp!

Example of the sign. Here is at Lake Hayes. That is motorhome from KEA.

ROUTES

Planning the routes for your road trip is essential. A little bit of study will be much help. Better than lost yourself on the road kan. Since our mission is to conquer whole South, we choose route as below. It depends on how many days you have too. There is actually a lot of routes recommendation you can find online. Ini route adalah based on multiple studies and conclude all the places we wanted to go. Yes, kami tak lalu the most scenic highway in New Zealand which are Arthur Pass and Lindiss Pass. Refer back to the mission!! It did not allow us to do so. Many of others went there for one weeks lalu Arthur Pass as it connecting Greymouth to Christchurch. Those who did not travel up to West akan cross Arthur Pass (State Highway 73) untuk balik ke Christchurch. I tell you, from picture I found from Google itself, Arthur Pass were beautifullllsssss! Tolong lalu if ada kesempatan, unfortunately, not for us.

I had no idea how to use tools on MyMaps but I managed to get it done in amateur way! Hope you get the picture. If not, please buzz me if you want to know more. I will be more than happy to share with uolss. Gitu.. 

Our route - Total 3600 ++ km.

State Highway 73 - Arthur Pass (Credit Photo: Google Images)

FOODS DECLARATION

Tak sure if ramai yang sudah tahu. Setiap makanan yand dibawa haruslah declare semasa nak keluar dari airport Australia dan New Zealand. Macam mana nak declare? 

Masa dalam flight, akan diedarkan arrival card. Kat dalam card tulah kita tick apa2 yang nak declare.

Berdasarkan beberapa tips yang kami dapat, mereka advise buat list. Kami dengan rajinnya buat list. Mujur makanan yang kami bawa tak banyak. Dalam list letak nama makanan dan ingredient. In case officer kat sna nak cek, boleh terus bagi. Proses kami di airport Melbourne and New Zealand berjalan lancar. Tipsnya ialah bertenang dan cool down. My advise, declare saja semua, tak susah pun. Rather than kena cekup and bayar denda yang super mahal. Jangan risau ini semua sekadar procedure biasa. InsyaAllah semua akan OK.

Di Australia, kasut pun kena declare but not too strict la. At first filter dia akan tanya siap2. Kalau kita kata ada kasut, kita bagitahu it is clean shoes, depa akan OK saja. 

VISA FOR AUSTRALIA 

Well, nak masuk Australia kena ada visa. Nak apply, make sure passport valid and ada lebih dari 6 bulan sebelum tarikh expire and flight itinerary. Tiket pergi dan balik.

Kami apply visa secara online dengan agent. Cuma bayar RM20.00 sja untuk satu visa. Boleh email ke, eta.australia@yahoo.com (Ms. Yusza). Selepas visa approve, sila buat bayaran  yea.

MUDAH, boleh siap dalam masa sehari saja. 

New Zealand? Tak perlu. Depa sporting!

Note that I will share all the total expenses for this trip at the end of the posts, maksudnya lepas habis cerita 16 hari. kehkehkeh. Jangan terkejut sebab ini budget trip. As I told earlier, you can always get better than this. 

So, I guess thats all for now. I will be back to update day to day activities and more tips to come. Hope you enjoy reading!

Many thanks for interest and dropping by. See ya. 

Lots of love.