Our Very First Campervan Adventure

Eglinton Valley, Fiordland National Park, Southland, New Zealand

Express photo post coming up! There, told ya, I’d do one. These are photos of our very first campervan adventure. And it was in New Zealand’s South Island in December 2018. I have loads of old photos stored up just for busy times like these. Unfortunately, in most cases, these also had to be sorted out, as they’d be tons of photos, thanks to our trigger-happy fingers, ahem!

Here goes.

We decided to rent a campervan. It’s summer in NZ, don’t think there’d be a problem. What better way to see the South Island than by campervan! Woohoo! We’re cheapskates (as I’ve mentioned hundreds of times before in this blog), so we rented a basic campervan, instead of a motorhome or a caravan. (Heck, I don’t even know whether I could drive those things or not!?!)


First up, let’s stock up on some supplies before we start our trip! Outside the Countdown hypermarket at Queenstown Central, Queenstown, NZ. This area is near Queenstown’s airport where we hired the campervan!


AWAY WE GO! To the south. Beautiful weather beside Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown


Wow, what’s this great expanse of yellowish grass? Lemme see. It’s the Eglinton Valley. We’ve reached the Fiordland National Park. Our destination for the day is the Milford Sound Lodge Campervan Park. In NZ, you can only park your campervans at designated locations, or you’d be fine, or worse, banned from camping… (I think)




Let’s play cowboys!!


Our campervan in the distance. Hey, let’s go before it gets too late!


Next stop, the Mirror Lakes. (How do we know all these names? All the sites are clearly sign posted. This is a National Park, OK?)


Anu, at the Mirror Lakes, Fiordland National Park, NZ


On the road again…


Next stop, uh-oh, I don’t know where this is. (Spoke too soon, not everything is bloody sign-posted). It looks like the flower field from the Hindi movie, Hamari Adhuri Kahani, where the hero was blown up by a land mine! Nope, no land mines here, only crazy tourists and flowers!


Wait, looking at Google Maps, I think it’s at the turn off to the Cascade Creek Road. In Google Maps, it’s labelled as ‘Cascade Creek Historic Campsite’ near the start of the ‘Lake Gunn Nature Walk’. There you go!


Gotta go, getting late… Look at the majestic snowy peaks! And it’s summer!


Finally, we reached our destination! Our Jucy campervan, with extended room above the van (Justin slept there, all alone), at the Milford Sound Lodge. Luckily, I booked a space in advance. The campervan parking was FULL! Summer is super busy in NZ. Book everything in advance or you’d be left with no place to sleep (even if you have a campervan). Or get ready to pay premium bucks!