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No matter what your personal taste and budget New Zealand will have a camp site to suit. Listing the 'best of' anything will always be subjective as individually what we seek varies but I personally use the following criteria to decide:

• it must be somewhere beautiful
• it must be cheap
• there must be surf immediately accessible or nearby
• it must be uncrowded

The Best Two

In my book there are 2 camp sites which far surpass any others in New Zealand. They tick all my criteria boxes and then add a great deal extra; in both cases offering something that can't be found anywhere else in the country. One is way up north on the North Island and the other is as far south as you can go on the South Island.

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What is Wild Camping?

Wild camping is camping anywhere away from a designated camp ground, sometimes called freedom camping. The term wild camping will be used here to differentiate between true camping for free and the Eastland's paid system.

Wild camping is still legal in New Zealand and allows you to camp in some really spectacular places. However, in some districts laws are getting stricter due to the thoughtless behaviour of some people mainly with regards to littering and disrespectful disposal of human waste. These things are starting to have a negative impact on the environment and the government is pushing for measures to counteract this.

Where Can I Wild Camp?

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The Eastland of New Zealand’s North Island is a good bet if you are looking to get off the tourist trail and perhaps grab yourself an uncrowded wave or two. What's more, the region boasts a mega cheap camping system not found anywhere else in New Zealand known as 'Freedom Camping'. All of the sites are absolute beach front except one which has a riverside, bush setting.

What is 'Freedom Camping'?

The Gisborne district not only allows but encourages freedom camping through its system of low cost permits. Freedom camping in this area has been a long-held tradition for generations of New Zealanders - many of them will close up their houses for a few weeks of summer to camp permanently at the beach with some commuting daily from the camps to work. Travelling northwards up the coast from Gisborne there is a choice of 9 different locations, the nearest just a few kilometres out of Gisborne and the furthest 103 km away.

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