The Best Campsites on the South Island

We spent two weeks in a camper van in the South Island, and it was the best thing we have ever done! By using the Campermate app we were able to find our campsites before we arrived to the town so we knew straight where to go. Which made navigating really easy and stress free! This app is a must if you are planning on camping or renting a camper van in the South Island of New Zealand.

Tekapo DOC: 6/10 We stayed by Lake Alexandria and Lake MacGregor at a DOC campsite. The site was $10 a person and had a bathroom and outdoor kitchen to help prepare your meals. It was nice for us to use the sink there to clean our dishes because our sink in our van wasn't working properly.

Mount Cook: 10/10 This was our favorite campsite on this trip! And the best part is that is was FREE! We had a stunning view of Mount Cook and spent the afternoon sipping some vino and enjoying our view. It is about a 45 minute drive to the actual park, but this site is worth being a little farther away! It is near the town of Pukaki, on the south end of the lake of Highway 8.

Wanaka: 7/10 This was our second FREE campsite and was essentially the parking lot to a trail we wanted to hike! We will talk more about this hike in another post! The toilet was decent, but the site was pretty far out of town if you are wanting to stay in town your site will likely cost money.

Te Anau Holiday Park: 9/10 The best part about this holiday park was that there were two baby sheep that we parked right next to and had so much fun with! A close second was a hot shower and kitchen to use so we didn't need to use our own gas in the van. I forget how much this park costs but it was around $35 for 2 people.

Queenstown: 7/10 Our third FREE campsite! However this was was on a slanted hill and it was rainy so we stayed in our little minivan all evening night. But it was free and just outside of the city right by the river, so I can hardly complain.

Mount Aspiring, Makarora County Cafe: 7/10 The one good thing about this holiday park was that is had a lodge/lounge area that we could dry our clothes out, and a wood burning fire place to warm our cold bodies. There was a hot shower but the facilities were subpar. Overall it was great to get a shower and a dry place to stay where we could stand up and cook, but it was expensive ($30 for 2 people) and not very well maintained.

Lake Paringa DOC Capsite: 8/10 This was a newy renovated DOC site and had really nice and clean facilities, but the sandflies made us stay in the van all night listening to our podcast. This site was $13 per person.

Franz Josef Glacier: 7/10 Our holiday park in Franz Josef was in a great location, however given the fact that Franz Josef is literally like 3 streets, all camper van parks are in a good location. There were hot showers and a "kitchen" which was essentially a trailer with four burners that worked half of the time. Our last night there we took our van to drive to a hike, while we were gone, someone came in and took our spot, we had to park somewhere else for the day, which wasn't a big deal, but them the owner and workers knocked on our windows at 10pm and said that the other van had moved and we needed to go back to our spot now. we refused because it was 10pm and we were sleeping and it was raining, and just no sir!! What the heck! Anyway, the place was fine, but just be cautious when leaving your spot.

Arthurs Pass/Lake Pearson Freedom Site: 8/10: This was our last FREE campsite past Arthurs Pass (which was so gorgeous) that sat right on a lake and had cute little ducks :) The bathroom was clean and for a free site totally worth traveling a little farther that day.