This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, we will receive a small commission at no addition cost to you. Please read our disclaimer for more information.
For some a campervan is a convenient and cost-effective tool to move from one place to another unimpeded by the dictates of travel itineraries and the occupancy rates of accommodation providers. For others it is a key to a dimension of adrenalin fuelled madness that can be found throughout New Zealand.
New Zealand is synonymous with pure, stupidly entertaining and wildly fun adrenalin injecting past-times. From abseiling to zorbing and everything in between, this country offers thrill seekers the full banquet of heart pounding activities – and a New Zealand campervan trip offers quite possibly the best way to unleash your inner dare-devil.
Whether you find your happy place leaping from airplanes or off buildings, or screaming down mountainsides by bike, board or giant bouncing ball, the weather will most likely play a factor. This is where the campervan gives one the edge over the itinerary bound herd. When one activity is unavailable it is a simple matter of redirecting focus and venturing on to a more accommodating one.
With that being said, here are 5 of the wildest, fun things to do on a campervan trip in New Zealand.
1. Not quite ninety miles an hour on Ninety Mile beach
Northland on New Zealand’s North Island is home to the famous Ninety Mile beach. Whilst a casual stroll along the seashore is enjoyable it is not the reason why you should head here on your campervan trip in New Zealand. Te Paki Sand dunes loom like the world’s most extreme sandpit before you. The objective here is to grab onto any kind of device that can slide downhill – body boards or plastic sleds work particularly well – and sand surf your way to the bottom.
2. Bring forth the Zorb
Nothing screams pure, silly fun quite like bouncing downhill ensconced in an oversized hamster ball – or Zorb. Whilst most campervan cohorts venture to Rotorua in search of the awe inspiring geothermal parks, the madmen and women of the extreme campervan clan opt to spend a morning or afternoon careening downhill in out of control inflatable balls – some with water inside and others with friends inside – either way you are bound to be thrilled.
3. Swoop swing
Trust the Kiwis to take something as simple and sedate as the gentle swing and transform it into a nitwit’s idea of a good time. The Swoop Swing offered by Agroventures in Rotorua (The name says it all right?) will have you coming away with a very, very different appreciation of what it really means to swing.
Forget the gentle toing and froing watching the sky arc gracefully above you and instead picture yourself being strapped into what can best be described as a bodybag and released from a platform 40 meters up to pendulum at up to 130KPH through NZ nothingness.
4. Jet boating – through a canyon
Some of you may recall that classic scene in Crocodile Dundee where he is accosted by a mugger in the city with a knife and upon brandishing his own machete sized dagger states “That’s not a knife. This is a knife”.
Well the same sentiment applies when you see what the folks at Shotover Jet operating out of Queenstown have in store for you during your campervan trip in New Zealand. Expertly piloted, high-powered jet boats will catapult you along the picturesque (not that you will see anything but a blur of water and rock) Shotover River and through the Shotover River canyon at death defying speeds, the sheer rock face hissing by just inches from the boats edge.
If you make it through you can then savour the experience of telling anyone on any form of motorized water craft ‘Mate, that’s not a boat. This is a boat’.
5. Never say Nevis – Bungy, that is!
If you are going to bungy then you may as well go big or go back, well back to the campervan. The 45 minute drive heading out of Queenstown toward the formidable Nevis Bungy jump site will give you just about enough time to review your bucket list and get your last will and testament in order.
Once you commit to the 134 meter high jump above the remarkable Nevis River, there is no going back. Well, there is, but this is not an article for sissies. No campervan trip in New Zealand will be complete without pushing the boundaries of what you think you are capable of doing, and nothing will push those boundaries harder than the A.J. Hacket Nevis Bungy Jump.
These crazy fun things to do on a campervan trip in New Zealand are sure to have kept yo
