Explore the North Island of New Zealand in a campervan with tips on parking, hot springs, and camping.
Arriving in Wellington: A Start to Your North Island Campervan Adventure
We’re fresh off the ferry from the South Island and driving into Wellington on the bottom of the North Island. We’re looking, rather unsuccessfully, for a place to park our van. See, it’s Sunday, market day, and New Zealand’s capital is buzzing. We’re heading to Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, not knowing the colourful weekly Harbourside Market is on in the carpark next door.
My first thoughts of Wellington had already been smashed: I’d read that it gets 1,200mm of rain per year and only 117 monthly hours of sunshine in winter (almost five days)! But we’d arrived on a cracker of a blue-sky day in the last days of autumn. We found a one-hour carpark at the market, then played ‘better move the van’ … dashing in and out of the museum, until I gave up and left it at the local supermarket.
Exploring Tongariro National Park: A Volcanic Wonderland
The morning disappeared fast in the museum. My life partner was beside himself with the whale exhibits, while I was obsessed with volcanos. New Zealand is home to eight active ones, including Lake Taupō (in the lake), Tongariro and Ruapehu. At 2,797 metres, Ruapehu is the highest mountain on the North Island and the largest active volcano in the country. I’m not so keen on the museum’s earthquake simulator. I’ve been in a biggie before – and to be honest, I’d prefer not to be in another any time soon. But there I was, in another country on the Ring of Fire. I took a look at the museum’s map of volcanos and realised it looks a lot like our itinerary. Yes, we were driving our self-contained van right up the North Island’s volcanic spine!
