1 Week In A Campervan, South Island New Zealand

Last Updated on 24th June 2019

AD | Our campervan was gifted to us by Escape Rentals, however all opinions regarding our 1 week in a campervan are entirely my own. Please see my disclaimer for more.

I can’t believe that we’ve already spent 1 week in a campervan, travelling around South Island New Zealand and quite literally living on the road.

Of course, living out of a campervan certainly has its ups and downs and it definitely hasn’t been without its challenges but we’ve had the most amazing time already, and it’s only been 7 days!

I’m going to have plenty more campervan related posts coming your way over the next few weeks, but for now, here’s a life update on 1 week in a campervan, South Island New Zealand!

In terms of full transparency and disclosure, we were very kindly gifted our campervan from Escape Rentals, but we have paid for the insurance ourselves for the full three weeks that we’ll have the van for.

Obtaining this collaboration with Escape Rentals means the world to me and I’m so excited to share more of our campervan journey with you!

Wax Eye – 1 week in a campervan

Our beloved little camper is called Wax Eye; after the beautiful bird that’s painted on the outside of the van. Escape Rentals have over 210 vans throughout their Christchurch and Auckland warehouses in New Zealand and while their other designs are bloody brilliant, we really are so chuffed with ours!

I’m planning on doing a whole campervan tour over on my Instagram Stories very soon so make sure you’re following me over there to see how it all works! However, I will give you a sneak peak tour of inside Wax Eye throughout this post!

There’s over 300 litres of storage space hidden underneath the seats/beds, as well as many, many other incredible features of the van that have helped us to feel comfortable and almost at home!

Features and specifications of our campervan

In order to give you a bit more information and a better idea of how we’ve spent 1 week in a campervan so far, I wanted to give you a detailed run down on all the specs and inclusions that come with an Escape Rentals Self Contained campervan.

• 300 litres of storage space
• Free bed linen for the Queen (!!!) sized bed, 2 duvets and 3 pillows
• Collapsible table that folds into the base of the bed
• Mains powered heater and lamp
• Gas cooker, pots, pans, cutlery, crockery and sink with running water
• Porta potty (which we haven’t needed to use yet…)
• 3 beach chairs
• 24-hour roadside assistance
• Free guidebooks and Department of Conservation (DOC) campground guidelines
• Extension cable to hook up to power at campsites
• Stereo with MP3 and an AUX port (a feature that Matt loves).

We really do have everything we need inside the campervan and I love the fact that it all comes included in the price of the campervan rental from Escape!

Our 1 week in a campervan South Island itinerary

I don’t want to go into too much detailed about our South Island road trip itinerary so far as I plan to do a mammoth post all about our entire trip once it’s come to a conclusion.

However, for those of you who don’t follow me on Instagram (shame on you! 😉 ) and haven’t been keeping up with our adventures, here’s a sneak peak of some of the things we’ve done so far during our 1 week in a campervan around the South Island!

Throughout our first week travelling around in the van, we’ve already seen more beautiful sunsets and sunrises than I have during my entire lifetime.

It seems that pretty much everywhere we’ve parked up for the night so far, we’ve been greeted with the most beautiful sunsets on an evening and been woken up by the most painfully stunning sunrises.

The sunrise captured above was taken on our second morning of staying in the van, at All Day Bay Beach and as soon as I saw it, I teared up. I’ve honestly never seen anything so spectacular in my entire life and we both felt so incredibly lucky to have witnessed such a beautiful act of nature.

One thing that I really thought I’d struggle with living out of a campervan was the variety of food; or lack thereof (and I’m sure you all know by now just how much I love good food!).

And despite the fact that we’ve been living almost exclusively on a diet of soup, noodles and pasta, it really hasn’t been all that bad so far. However, we are only a week in, so we’ll see how long I can tolerate lumpy Cup A Soup and soggy noodles 😉 !

Again, I’m going to write an entire post of the best campsites in the South Island over the next couple of weeks, but I can definitely say that it’s been a luxury to stay at a paid one a couple of times!

One thing that is pretty difficult to live with (or should I say without) is a shower every day. We’ve mostly been staying at free campsites so far, which usually only come equipped with a public toilet (and oftentimes it’s actually just a long drop!) and maybe a fresh water supply if we’re lucky. The lack of shower facilities has sometimes been a little frustrating, but we’ve mainly been getting by using lots of baby wipes, cloths and antibac!

While the shower thing isn’t the most enjoyable, it really hasn’t been as bad as I imagined and when you’re staying somewhere so beautiful, it’s hard to complain about how much you smell!

One thing that I absolutely adore about living in a campervan is the sheer amount of flexibility it provides you with. If we don’t like a place, we can easily pack up and move on, rather than spending a weekend there moaning about how much we’re not enjoying it.

This was exactly the case when we visited Dunedin; a place that thoroughly disappointed us for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s just because we were a little tired, but our scheduled time in Dunedin was cut remarkably short as we just didn’t enjoy it much at all.

The flexibility of the campervan however, meant that we could just drive off to the next place without worrying about it and we were so much better off for it!

We’ve covered almost 1000km in just one week and we’ve managed to drive all the way from Christchurch, right around the East Coast, down to the southernmost point of the South Island and now we’re making our way through Fiordland (take a look at the map below to see where we’ve been so far!).

I truly can’t believe how incredible the last week has been and I feel that I’ve learned so much about myself and travelling as a whole and I cannot wait to see all our adventures to come!

I’m also so excited for all the New Zealand travel content I’ve got lined up and coming your way very soon and I would love for you to share your latest adventures with me over on Instagram too!

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Have you ever spent 1 week in a campervan? Is it something you’d like to do one day? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @imjustagirl_16.