Welcome Back to Breakfast with Lisa & Josh!

Soundtrack for this newsletter: Before You Leave - six60

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We’ve been learning the hard way.

Per usual.

This newsletter comes to you from the Bluebridge ferry going from Picton to Wellington, in Aotearoa New Zealand. For the past 14 days we’ve been driving a tiny campervan all around the South Island, and are on our way to the North Island via ferry today. It’s an absolutely beautiful journey, honestly comparable to cruising Milford Sound.

I know, heresy, but just check this out.

In these short 14 days I feel like we’ve made just about every mistake one can make while campervanning around NZ, and I feel like we’re just starting to get the hang of it. They say the third time’s the charm, right?

Here’s 5 surprising things we’ve learned so far: 

1 - You can camp for little to zero dollars at all (if you’ve got the right van)

In our first 2 nights on the road, we spent just over $100 on campsites alone.

In our other 12 nights combined, we’ve spent a grand total of $30.

What changed? 

We learned about the literal hundreds of free campsites and freedom camping spots all around New Zealand. Just about every city has a few of these, with parking lots and lots in parks around the city that have been laid out specifically for people traveling in camper vans to stay in for free. Many come complete with bathrooms, picnic benches, and sometimes clean drinking water. 

Then there are the free campsites. Located outside of the cities (generally very, very, very outside) these freedom camping sites are usually a bit wild and invariably beautiful. 

You need to have a self-contained campervan with a certified sticker on it (which should be most of them now that the rules have gotten stricter against non-self-contained vehicle freedom camping), so make sure that you check with your rental company before you get here. It’s worth paying that little extra for a toilet in your campervan so that you can unlock all these great camping spots around the country.

Ticket to ride. Er, camp.

With a bit of extra driving and flexibility, and lots of care and responsibiilty to take care of these precious sites, it would be totally possible to not pay for a single campsite during your entire trip here. It wouldn’t necessarily be the most luxurious, nor the most convenient, but some of these campsites are absolutely breathtaking. 

And tons and tons of them are free. What a country.

2 - If you do have budget to spare, the DOC pass is a steal.

If you’re the type of camper that Is more comfortable staying further afield, there are also hundreds of campsite built by the Department of Conservation here. They have a campsite pass that’s $95 NZD (~$55 USD) per person that allows you stay at any of the DOC-managed campsites an unlimited number of times within 30 days. 

Considering how many DOC campsites there are, this pass can be an absolute steal for people (like us) who love beautiful remote campsites, but don’t necessarily want to spend half of their nights in a parking lot in a city. 

3 - Somehow, steaks are the cheapest form of protein here.

I know, it doesn’t make any sense.

Cost of a package of spaghetti and a jar of sauce from a grocery store? $4.16 USD

Cost of a 5 pack of budget ramen noodles from that same grocery store? $6.55 USD

Cost of a 1-lb steak from that same grocery store? $3.13 USD.

It truly defies all logic.

Going grocery shopping around here might shock you, depending on where you’re from. We picked up a dozen eggs, for example, for almost $6 USD, the other day. They were the freshest of fresh, from a cart on the side of the road, but still, woah, we had to pause a little to do the math.

Avocados were apparently so expensive at some point that they were blamed as the single reason why younger New Zealanders couldn’t afford homes (this feels personal.)

But the one shining value in every grocery store across the country?

Steaks. Beautiful, delicious steaks.

Honestly, I couldn’t be happier. 

4 - The roads, man.

We read on countless social media posts and forums that New Zealand roads are different and to never underestimate them, and now we know why.

To summarize, the entire country, all of it, is connected via a network of 2-lane, tiny, windy roads, with one-lane bridges smattered in every few kilometers.

Add on to that fact that the speed limits change approximately every 2 KM you’re driving (I counted, in one 174 KM stretch the speed limit changed 89 times), and just how significant and frequent the elevation changes are, and just how much distance you’re driving every day…

It can be exhausting to drive here. A few hours of driving a campervan in this country leaves me absolutely beat. It’s also unbearably beautiful.

There aren’t too many breaks, not a lot of easy stretches, no time that you can be less than 100% focused for even a moment (despite all the blue lakes and views calling out to you.)

It’s like the person designing the road system here boiled a whole package of spaghetti, threw it all on the floor, took a photo of the mess that ensued, and said to themselves - 

“This is perfect. This is it. This is New Zealand’s highway system.”

However, the biggest danger out there is not actually the windy roads. It’s those Toyota Hiluxes (is it Hilices for plural?) with the back of their truck cut off and filled with 3000 lbs of concrete driving at mach-19 tailing you so close that you can smell the concrete mixed with mince and cheese pie. 

We’ve been literally run off the road multiple times by these homing missiles in truck form. 

I’m not sure why they are always in such a hurry, but I assume it has to be a life or death thing. It’s the only possible explanation for going 100 on a wet windy mountain road in the middle of the night that’s under construction and marked as a 30 zone.

Driving here is fun, and certainly never boring. Just, don’t put yourself into a position where you have to be in any kind of hurry. Slow down, pull ALL the way over for the tradies, and you’ll have a great time. 

And do take breaks frequently, even if it’s at the world’s most beauitful dump station.

5 - This country has everything.

Within 1 day of driving we - 

Saw a massive mountain from our campsite

Ate fresh caught salmon in front of a glacier lake

Took pictures of #thatwanakatree

And then stayed in this absolutely stunning campsite for $0.

Honorable mentions (which we will save for our full-length documentary coming soon): ate the most delicious burger I’ve ever had in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, witnessed clouds part just in time for us to see a glacier in real life, walked across a beautiful suspension bridge over a massive roaring river, and spent hours at a national museum that made Lisa cry.

Where else can you do all of that?

I can’t think of a single place. 

Aotearoa New Zealand truly is unbelievable. 

Today

Eating fish and chips in this beautiful campsite somewhere near wine country on the North Island.

The (Near) Future

3 Days in Sydney on a Budget.

And then, the big one, 3 Weeks in New Zealand on a Budget.

Our Latest Videos

Travel (Support) Thursday from our campervan in New Zealand!! We answer your questions about our favorite backpacks, how we decide where to eat when we travel, when we'd throw in the YouTube towel, and how we think about safety while traveling.

In this episode, we answer your questions about eSIM data speeds, creator burnout, and what it feels like to travel as an Asian American woman.

3 days in one our most favorite cities in Japan—Fukuoka just hits different.

In this one we walk through how to make an Airalo e-sim work, how to get a trip to Europe for 4 in the summer for free-ish and more!

See you next week…ish :)

- josh (and lisa)

Oh, and if you want to learn how we afford to take all these trips after quitting our jobs 3 years ago, you’ll likely be interested in our Skillshare course on Travel Hacking and Frequent Flier Miles.

Check it out here: https://skl.sh/3UzMqUx

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