Southern island of New Zealand preparation

We went to Southern island of New Zealand on the new year’s day in 2015, the reason is the relatively cheap airline priceJ  we decided to spend 12 days there and arrival/departure in Christchurch, to travel in a more flexible approach using campervan instead of traveling by car.  I have been preparing for a long time, renewing our visa in Australia, booking airlines from the Zujin, booking  a campervan,  although I am not a newbie to vans, I am still not quite confident to drive a campervan, so I choose to rent a small van called lucky rental,  originally I want to rent lucy juicy, but I was too late, they were rented out.

At this stage, my advice is booking campervan as early as possible; I booked too later and got the lucky rental, which gave me so much nervousness during the trip.   Another tip is that travel insurance usually does not cover the big scaled vehicle such as campervan.  Looking for a voucher or promotion for a car parking in the airport as early as possible will save you some money on car parking.

    

As for the finance, you’d better have a Citibank plus  account or a bankwest platinum credit card, there is a tread here:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1809874

To exchange some cash before setting off will give you some flexibility.

After these preparations, I began to figure out my travel route so that I can book camping site later.   I searched many posts on the internet,   originally we wanted to arrive Christ church, then travel along the middle route to Lake Tekapo,  mountain cook, arrow town, queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Glenorchy, Wanaka, Fox Glacier , Franz Josef,Greymouth and pancake rock, but things changed in the mid.

https://goo.gl/maps/QJLnD

After making up the route, I can book camping site, I’d like to book mostly power sited camp. However, reflecting what happened, this is quite stupid; I would rather advice book power site after one day or another. 

Tips:

1. book airline months in advance;
2. book  a medium sized campervan months in advance;
3. looking after vouchers for airport car parking 1 or 2 months before;
4. exchange some cashes a week before setting off;