Campervan travel in New Zealand's Northland

Having grown up in Germany, New Zealand has always been a very far-away place that I wanted to visit. A few of my friends back home had gone and spent time/work & travel there and spoke highly of this country in the Pacific Ocean. So it was time for us to discover New Zealand in one of the coolest ways possible: with a campervan. 

One of the perks of living in the Pacific area is the proximity to the countries that would be too far for a short trip from Europe (at the same time, this is the downside as our families and friends are basically a world away).

Campervan + New Zealand's Northland

So, in November 2018, Amanda and I flew for ten days to the land of the Maori and travelled in style with a little campervan across the magnificent landscapes of Northland. I put together a few images of our trip. New Zealand truly was amazing!

First, we had to stock up on some food items and coming from Fiji, we were super stoked to find some amazing vegan products we cannot get in Fiji!

Hundreds of gannets in Muriwai

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First-class photographer-selfie - especially nailed the focus here.

The forest of giants - Waipoua

Although all trees might look massive in this image, there’s one that overshadows them all: the “Te Matua Ngahere” or “the father of the forest.” This giant kauri tree (Agathis australis) stands with a girth of more than 16m (!) and is believed to be the second biggest kauri tree in New Zealand. With an estimated age of more than 2000 years, imagine what this ancient tree in the Waipoua forest has witnessed throughout its lifetime

Sometimes a behind-the-scenes is not really that exciting.

The path to the father of the forest looks like this: untamed wilderness and bushes, plants, and trees everywhere.

Learning about Maori culture

We visited the historic Waitangi Treaty Grounds and learned about New Zealand's history and the Maori culture. I love Pacific history, cultures and traditions and particularly enjoyed the afternoon. Definitely, a must-see if you are in the area!

This weapon, called Patu is a traditional Maori weapon that was used for close hand-to-hand combat.

Glowing caves

Another highlight of the trip was surely our visit to the glowworm caves that can be found in a lot of places around Northland. We visited one where we had to pay and weren't allowed to take any photos and another one we had to explore ourselves and thus could also take images.  And the second visit was a great idea (Amanda pushed for it, whereas I didn't really want to go there) but damn, that was really worth the extra kilometres. When we entered the cave, we encountered a stunning night sky of glow worms. Never seen anything like it!

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Beautiful place to stop for a little break. And no, the tire tracks are not from us.

Wanted to see spoonbills for a long time!

Diving at the Poor Knights Island

The Poor Knights Island Reserve covers around 2400 ha and was established in 1981. It is a very popular destination for divers from all around the world. A warm current here attracts fish normally not present in the rather cold temperate waters. Due to the fishing ban, marine wildlife abundance has risen over the past decades, and today, diving here offers large schools of fish, colourful kelp forests and rugged rock formations below and above the waves.

The rugged cliffs of the Poor Knights Islands from a bird's perspective.

The diving there was fantastic but very cold with only 4° degrees Celsius! Being a notoriously freezing diver anyway, I stepped back on the boat with white toes that I couldn’t feel it all anymore – next time, dry suit!

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These colours..

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Campervan life in New Zealand

It didn't take us long to get used to the van life. There is an incredible lightness to living and travelling in a small campervan like the one we used. Although I had plenty of camera gear with me, we were still extremely mobile and flexible - I guess the biggest perk of travelling this way.

Happy days in Tutukaka

Usually, when Amanda and I travel to places nowadays, we are pretty bound to the place we stay at IF I take all my gear and combine the holiday with a project, which I actually always do. This time, we carried our kitchen and bed with us and thus no searching for cheap vegan food and cheap accommodation - a huge plus to the already beautiful nostalgia that campervan adventures inherently just carry with themselves.

If you want to travel with your underwater housing, it will sure be very tight in your campervan, but it is definitely worth it!

Travel Film, New Zealand Highlights

After a few weeks, I was able to put together a little travel film with some of my favourite footage. Turn your music up, set it to HD and relax for a few minutes.

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All in all, this trip really was nothing short of amazing: we visited an amazing gannet colony in Muriwai, went on to look at New Zealand’s oldest Kauri trees in the Waipoua forest, dove Canterbury wreck in the famous Bay of Islands and later the oldest of New Zealand's Marine National Parks - the Poor Knights Islands and had several hikes in the stunning coastal landscapes of Northland.

Sorting ourselves out before heading back to Auckland. The organization is really key when travelling with a campervan.

As with most holidays, this one went way too fast and left us way too curious for more discovery of the North Island as well as the South Island. But then again – Auckland is a mere three and a half hour's flight from Nadi, so around the corner 😉