New Zealand has been a dream destination of mine for decades. After spending a year Down Under in Australia, I knew I wanted to visit New Zealand and finally explore this spectacular country. I spent the first six weeks of my working holiday visa in New Zealand traveling, before settling down to work.

As always, I keep track of every single expense on each trip I take so I can give an accurate budget of how much my trip cost. New Zealand was no exception! After detailing each and every expense over six weeks, this is my complete budget breakdown for traveling New Zealand in March-May 2024. All prices are listed in New Zealand Dollars (NZD).

My New Zealand Trip Plan

Your New Zealand budget will vary based on several significant factors: whether you’re renting a vehicle (and what kind), whether you’re traveling solo or with others (and sharing expenses like fuel, accommodation, vehicle rental), what time of year you’re traveling, if you choose to go out for food/drinks or if you cook the majority of your meals, and more. Here’s an insight into my six-week New Zealand trip.

I traveled with my friend Mickael, so all of our expenses were split between two people. We rented a campervan for five weeks (33 days of vehicle rental) for road tripping. We then spent the last week (six nights altogether) in Auckland, without a vehicle, at the end of our adventure. Our campervan rental price included full insurance with the company, and just one driver – Mick was an excellent passenger princess as I drove him 4,463km around New Zealand! We had an 18L fridge, camp stove, and all dishes and cutlery included in our rental.

My New Zealand Trip Itinerary (South Island & North Island)

Your New Zealand budget will differ depending on where exactly you’re traveling, and how much ground you’re covering (aka, how much driving you’re doing). I visited both the North Island and the South Island over the five-week road trip in the campervan, and spent the last week of the trip in Auckland. We had one full day in Christchurch before picking up the van (which took almost a whole day itself) and setting off. We visited the Ashburton Lakes area, Mount Cook, Wanaka, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Haast Pass, Franz Josef, and Abel Tasman National Park before driving to Nelson and Picton to take the ferry to Wellington.

On the North Island, we had one day in Wellington and a day at my Instagram friend John’s beach house just north of the city (thanks John and Sally!). Then, we headed to Tongariro National Park, Taupo, Rotorua, Matamata (for Hobbiton!), and the Coromandel Peninsula before driving back to Auckland. We dropped off the campervan, and spent the next week exploring Auckland. In total, this trip accounts for 41 days: 2 days at the beginning of the trip in Christchurch, 33 with the campervan rental, and 6 days in Auckland at the end.

New Zealand Daily Budget Breakdown

In these budget posts, I try to always include a daily budget breakdown to give an idea of what daily costs were on the ground (after paying for accommodation, vehicle rental, etc.). But on this trip, it was really different! On many days, we spent no money whatsoever. On some days – particularly the days we’d do a big grocery shop and fill up with gas – we spent loads.

As an example, one of our first big expensive days was 4 April, when we arrived in Wanaka. We spent $160.20 at New World stocking up on groceries, and $129.39 on fuel. Our campsite in Luggate, a short 10-minute drive from the lakeshore in Wanaka, cost $10 per person, per night (hot showers were an additional $2 for 5 minutes). That would give a total cost for the day of $309.59, or $154.80 per person – which is pretty expensive! But it’s all relative. The day before that, 3 April, we spent just $5 (vehicle entry to the Clay Cliffs) in total. The previous day, 2 April, we spent absolutely nothing! So, I don’t feel giving a daily budget breakdown is all that practical in this post.

New Zealand Budget: Category Breakdown

Wondering how much money I spent in each type of category? Here’s an accurate breakdown for my accommodation, transportation, eating out, groceries, fuel, sightseeing, and miscellaneous expenses on my New Zealand trip. The miscellaneous category was mainly showers, laundry, and a parking fine at Milford Sound.

Accommodation: $1666 total – $833 per person

(Per person: £400 GBP // $505 USD)

Transportation: $3649 total – $1824 per person

(Per person: £876 GBP // $1106 USD)

Eating Out: Food & Drinks: $413 total – $207 per person

(Per person: £99 GBP // $125 USD)

Groceries: $1104 total – $552 per person

(Per person: £265 GBP // $335 USD)

Fuel: $1144 total – $572 per person

(Per person: £276 GBP // $342 USD)

Sightseeing: $1540 total – $770 per person

(Per person: £370 GBP // $467 USD)

Miscellaneous: $129 total – $64 per person

(Per person: £31 GBP // $39 USD)

New Zealand Budget Analysis

New Zealand is EXPENSIVE. I’m not just saying this as I’ve been living in a small town, with a small grocery store, and everything seems expensive AF. The country as a whole is an expensive one for travelers. It’s just not a cheap or budget-friendly destination. A block of cheese will cost anywhere from $11 NZD (for 500 grams) to $19 NZD (for 1kg). Petrol (unleaded 91) varies around $2.70 to $3.10 per liter of fuel. Going out for food and drinks, staying in normal accommodation, and sightseeing activities are also pricey. You’ll need to have a significant chunk of money in your travel budget for a trip to New Zealand, there’s no way around it. But trust me, it’s worth it.

Cooking your own food is vital to keep costs low. While this is true most anywhere in the world, it’s especially important in New Zealand. Basic groceries come with a hefty price tag, especially if you’re shopping at a more expensive supermarket. Buying groceries and cooking for yourself is one of the best ways to cut travel costs and manage your budget on a trip to New Zealand. We cooked our own food for almost every single meal over 41 days.

Our total food costs (including groceries and food/drinks out) were $759 per person. Over 41 days, that means we spent approximately $18.50 per person, per day, on food. We ate well and healthily, had lots of snacks, and treated ourselves rarely. A bottle of wine from the supermarket was about the same price as one glass of wine at a bar, and we were both happy to save eating/drinking out as a treat. We were very strategic about when and where we bought groceries, planned our meals to utilize all our food before anything went off, and didn’t drink all that much alcohol.

I’m pretty impressed with our overall food budget. I’m not sure how it could have been much lower, besides just not eating quite as well. As we were hiking and active every day, we really needed filling meals and snacks to keep us going. It definitely made me appreciate the meals and drinks out so much more! I also really appreciate Mick’s budget-friendly culinary skills – he planned and cooked basically all of our meals. He would change meals or swap things around based on what was on sale when we’d go grocery shopping. It was excellent for keeping our food budget low!

Our campervan rental was $3686 total for 33 days, of which $990 was full insurance through the company. Including the insurance, this works out to be just under $112 per day – or $56 per person, per day. We ended up getting $443 in compensation due to multiple issues with our multiple vehicles, which I did negotiate with the company quite a bit on. When I’m paying that much money for a vehicle, I expect it to work properly! I booked the campervan six months in advance – I definitely would have paid more for a last-minute booking. The company also made a mistake with my booking, and when I went to pick it up they tried to charge me a different daily rate than the one I’d booked – which was almost $1000 more! Whether or not this was a genuine accident or a scam attempt, I don’t know. But I’m certainly glad I kept all of the emails from my booking.

We saved SO much money on accommodation by renting a vehicle we could sleep in. We are both experienced budget travelers, and we prioritized free and cheap/budget-friendly campsites throughout the entire trip. As the campervan wasn’t self-contained, we couldn’t free camp everywhere – we needed to stay at sites that had toilets. I spent a lot of time researching sites and planning the route, and I managed to find a good number of free or very cheap sites!

A great budget travel hack for New Zealand is buying a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite pass. You can buy a one-month campsite pass for $95 per person, or a one-year pass for $195. We each had a one-month DOC campsite pass – without the pass, we’d have spent $145 on DOC campsites. With the pass, we saved $50 each and paid just $95 for all of those campsites. Plus, it was super convenient as we didn’t have to deal with paying by cash on arrival at the campsites!

We treated ourselves to accommodation at the beginning and end of the budget campervan trip. Our first nights in Christchurch we stayed at an amazing hotel, Fable Christchurch, which is right in the center of the city. It was so nice to treat ourselves before roughing it in the campervan for 33 days! At the end of the trip, we stayed at a perfect studio on Airbnb in Auckland CBD. It was small, but after living in the van for almost five weeks, it was heaven for us. The building also had a pool, sauna, and small gym, which we loved. I highly recommend treating yourself with comfortable accommodation after a road trip!

Every activity that we paid money for was carefully chosen. I evaluated every single tourist attraction, activity, or sightseeing experience that I did. There are so many unique experiences to have in New Zealand, and you could easily double or triple this budget if you wanted to do more! I paid for the following activities, and think all of them were well worth the money:

• Hobbiton – my dream come true!
• Milford Sound cruise
• Shuttle for hiking Tongariro Alpine Crossing
• Entry and spa access at Hell’s Gate in Rotorua
• A full-day kayak/hike in Abel Tasman National Park
• One-hour kayak rental in Wanaka
• Half-day mountain biking rental in Ohakune
• Ferry and hop-on-hop-off bus tickets for Waiheke Island

Pretty much all of the rest of the things I did in the “sightseeing” category were free. The only thing that I really wish I would have done is a helicopter flight ($330) or a heli-hike ($695) at Franz Josef Glacier (or Mount Cook) – maybe someday!

How Much Money Did I Spend Traveling New Zealand for 6 Weeks?!

So, wondering how much money in total I spent on my New Zealand trip? Here’s the total cost of my trip, both in total for two people and per person!

GRAND TOTAL: $9645 NZD total – $4777 NZD per person

(Total: £4629 GBP // $5845 USD)

(Per person: £2293 GBP // $2895 USD)

Over the total trip of 41 days, this equals a cost of $235 NZD in total each day, or $117 NZD per person, per day. Considering the high cost of traveling in New Zealand, I’d say this is pretty good! We covered a lot of ground, saw a lot of the country, and managed our budget exceedingly well.

My trip around New Zealand will always be one of the most special trips of my entire life. The country is truly incredible, and I’ve loved getting to see more of it on my working holiday visa. Road tripping in a campervan for five weeks was a dream come true – literally. I’ve been dreaming of visiting New Zealand for two decades, and it did not disappoint! Whatever the cost, I am so glad I had this opportunity to see so much of the country.

I hope this budget breakdown helps if you’re planning your trip to New Zealand!

Have you visited New Zealand? What was your trip budget?

You might also like my posts:

How Much Does it Cost to Spend 2 Weeks in Thailand?

How Much Does it Cost to Spend 1 Week in Marrakech?

Australia Budget: Month 12 (March 2024)

How Much Does a 10-Day Trip to Greece Cost?

Budget Travel Bible: 101 Tips for Cheap Travel

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