South Island Travel Forum

Hi

2 adults, 3 children (13,11,5) will be visiting relatives (Christchurch) in late July, early August.

Is it too cold to travel around in a 6 berth camper van? We'd like to travel around a bit, but as the boss is pushing me to book soon, I'd rather check with the experts first before forking out several thousand NZD and then having a miserable 3 weeks!

Thanks in advance

J Pig

I am just guessing, but I think it might be a bit cold. I have heard that campervans are not the warmest in winter. Other than ski resorts it should be the off season. Try hostels for cheap accomodation you should be able to get a 5-6 bed room if you dont mind sleeping in a bunk bed and it would be roomier than a campervan.

I would wait with booking and see how the weather is when you are here. Those winter months can really be lousy cold and not for much I would travel and stay in a camper van - although I can assure you that many tourists do, and some vans have heating. But having spoken to them I can also tell you that most of them have told me that it really gets ice-cold at night. Some of them have enjoyed to stay in our house for a night or two to get warmed up again ;-)

Sometimes the winter months are not too bad in Christchurch. But the further south you go, the colder it gets. In case of ice and snow such a big six berth camper van is the worst vehicle on the road. I recommend car and motel - they have family units, good heatings, and you do not have to walk through the cold on a campground, and if you want to cook you do not have to sleep in the kitchen... ;-)

There is no problem to get a camper in July and August, so you can wait and see.

It can certainly be cold at that time of year! Make sure your Campervan has some sort of heating system. I've stayed in a 6 berth for a snowboarding trip, and it was bearable. The advantage of the cold is that the skifields are all operating full swing, so it's a great time to hit the slopes (and a lot cheaper than Australia, even more so with the favourable exchange rate at the moment).
The other bonus of traveling at this time of year is the lack of other tourists, meaning less queues, and more space at caravan parks.
As long as you're prepared for the cold, you'll have a great time!
Cheers,

www.broomevideo.com

We travelled around the South Island in March/April 02 in a campervan and it was so cold that we had to lay something over the pillows before resting our heads on them as the pillows were so cold.

We went to NZ in December 07 and the weather was very unsettled the best time to visit has to be in late Jan and February - the weather is lovely and more settled (so says my brother who lives there).

As a rule of thumb your brother is surely right. But we have also had a great winter which would have been as good for travelling as summer two years ago. Not so this time - lot of snow on the weekend, and road closures.