What are the Top Free Apps for your New Zealand Road Trip?

How do you choose the essential apps for your smartphone when you’re planning a trip around New Zealand? We experienced van life in Aotearoa (as New Zealand is called in the Māori language) for 12+ months and have lived and house-sat around the country for many years. We also regularly ask fellow roadtrippers which apps they wouldn’t travel without. So, this list is tried and tested (and regularly updated) by (heaps of) people in the know.

All the apps listed here are FREE and NZ-specific. So, you won’t find any generic apps you may use worldwide (like Flush, Maps.Me or Transit, for example). The apps are grouped by use case and then alphabetically, to make it easier for you. So, what are the best mobile apps for your New Zealand road trip? Let’s jump right in…

Make your arrival as smooth as possible

NZeTA

Travellers from visa-waiver countries can enter New Zealand without a visa, but they must obtain a New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority (NZeTA) before departure. You can submit your application, pay the required fee and receive the approval directly on your smartphone – all through the NZeTA app. Applying through the app is also faster than through the website.

NZ Traveller Declaration

New Zealand (like Australia) has strict biosecurity rules designed to protect its fragile ecology and agriculture. In the past, anyone arriving in Aotearoa had to complete a physical arrival card before landing and hand it to Border officials upon arrival (including returning Kiwis).

These paper forms have recently been replaced by the digital New Zealand Traveller Declaration (NZTD). The declaration collects information required by Border agencies, including Immigration, and Biosecurity and Customs questions. Using the NZTD app, you can complete the form before departure and present the generated pass on your smartphone upon arrival, speeding up the arrival process and ensuring biosecurity compliance.

When completing your NZTD, you need to answer the questions truthfully. You must declare all food, animal products, plants and other specific items (for example, recently used outdoor equipment). If in doubt, err on the side of caution and declare it, as failing to declare may incur on-the-spot fines of NZD400-800 (with much higher fines and even prison sentences if you try and smuggle high-risk items into the country).

Connect with the locals

Kia Rere

Speaking the local language, even just a few words, makes all the difference when visiting a destination.

Developed by Air New Zealand, the national carrier, Kia Rere is an app that introduces you to the Māori language and culture. From the basics of the Māori alphabet and correct pronunciation, to common words and phrases, and interactive language lessons, the app is a great little knowledge base for those who’d like to truly connect with the land and people of Aotearoa. It even teaches you the national anthem and the haka.

Find a place to camp for the night

CamperMate

CamperMate is one of New Zealand‘s most popular free travel apps. It is packed with campervan-related travel information and helps you find whatever you may need on your road trip around New Zealand: free, low-cost and paid campsites or hostels; free Wi-Fi; public toilets; supermarkets; laundromats; petrol stations; dump stations; tips from fellow travellers; road alerts and more. The app also offers last-minute discount deals on accommodation and activities based on your location.

NZ Camper

Do you prefer to camp in Mother Nature, on campsites administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC)? NZ Camper lists and maps DOC campsites, helping you quickly find a legal and affordable place to camp. You can even save your favourites for easy reference.

Sadly, the app is only available for Apple devices. Android users need to go to the DOC website.

Rankers Camping NZ

Rankers Camping NZ offers every New Zealand camping location at your fingertips on your smartphone. It has offline maps, so you don’t need data to find your next destination. Rankers was our primary campsite app during our campervan relocation trips. We would find a campsite on Rankers, read the reviews, and then check CamperMate to read their reviews, too.

THL Roadtrip

This app is owned by Tourism Holdings Limited, the world’s largest RV rental operator (which owns brands like Apollo, Britz, Kea and Maui). We haven’t used the app personally, but it was recommended to us by fellow roadtrippers. The app shows both paid and free campsites, dump stations, laundromats, LPG bottle swap/fill stations, public showers and toilets, and more.

Given it is the go-to app for renters of the THL brands, the app also has useful how-to videos to help travellers learn how to operate their vehicle and have a safe road trip around New Zealand.

Save money – on activities, dining, fuel and travel

BookMe

Want to kayak around Abel Tasman National Park, fly over Aoraki/Mt Cook and the surrounding glaciers or book a table for dinner in one of Auckland‘s or Wellington‘s restaurants? BookMe offers significant (last-minute) discounts on travel and dining experiences, so you can do more fun stuff while you’re out and about exploring Aotearoa.

Tour operators and restaurants across the country that have not sold the expected number of seats up to a week ahead can list their offers on the app, giving you a chance to save up to 90% off the retail price.

First Table

The idea behind First Table is simple yet genius: Participating restaurants offer their first table of the evening (which they usually struggle to fill) to diners at 50% off. More recently, they also introduced breakfast, early lunch and the last booking of the evening options. You reserve your table (for 2 to 4 people) through the app and pay a nominal fee to secure your reservation.

We are early eaters anyway, so it’s perfect for us. We have used it many times over the years, including on wedding anniversaries and to take visiting friends to places that are normally a bit too expensive for us.

Gaspy

This is an absolute must-have for anyone with a (combustion engine) vehicle in New Zealand – locals and travellers alike. It has saved us A TON of money over the years.

Gaspy tells you where the cheapest fuel is in your area. The prices on Gaspy are crowd-sourced, meaning the app relies on like-minded consumers sharing fuel prices across New Zealand. Just confirm or update the latest price listing for the petrol station you are visiting. That’s it. By working together, we can all enjoy cheaper fuel and pressure Big Oil to maintain competitive pricing.

Grabaseat

If you have to dash from Wellington to Auckland, from Christchurch to Queenstown, or on any other domestic route, Grabaseat is the app to check out.

Owned by New Zealand‘s national carrier, the app displays discounted flights, short-term fare sales and last-minute travel offers on Air New Zealand flights, bookable directly through the app. Grabaseat is our go-to app for domestic flights in New Zealand.

GrabOne

Recently relaunched, GrabOne is an app that aggregates discounted experiences and dining offers across the country.

Users can browse location-based offers ranging from restaurant vouchers to spa treatments and helicopter tours. The discounts can be significant, but availability is limited, and conditions apply, so it pays to read the fine print before you purchase. Like BookMe, GrabOne can be a useful tool to find local activities at a (much) lower cost.

Handpicked North Island Experiences

Be informed and stay safe

AED Locations

If you, your travel mates and fellow road users have a medical emergency where the patient needs resuscitation, knowing where the nearest Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) is could save lives.

The AED Locations app helps you find the nearest AED. AED location information is stored by the application and available offline.

GeoNet

New Zealand is nicknamed the Shaky Isles for a reason. Therefore, it is essential to have a smartphone app that monitors earthquakes and volcanic activity in New Zealand.

The GeoNet app provides notifications when earthquakes happen based on your settings for intensity, location, magnitude and depth. You can also choose to be informed when there is volcanic activity. If you felt a rumble and are unsure whether that was an earthquake, you can view earthquakes on a customisable map or in list form and report what you felt at your location.

For those of you unfamiliar with earthquakes, the app’s FAQs include useful links to help you prepare.

MetService

With New Zealand‘s notoriously unpredictable weather, a weather app is handy, especially when you plan a hike or want to book a ferry crossing. The MetService New Zealand Weather app

• is location services-enabled to provide easy access to forecasts and observations most relevant to where you are
• provides a quick overview with morning, afternoon, evening and overnight icons; an interactive national temperature map and 48-hour forecast graphs
• includes a real-time rain radar for your area, zoomable three-day rain forecast maps, severe weather warnings, and watches for your location.

It even allows you to customise your weather dashboard or view live traffic cameras for urban locations.

Sandfly Map

Unlike the West Island (aka Australia), New Zealand has no deadly critters. But, as everyone who’s ever been to New Zealand will know, there are some nasties: they’re called sandflies (or Austrosimulium in biological terms).

We can blame our ancestors for this: When the Māori god Tu-te-raki-whanoa created the West Coast of the South Island, the locals stopped working to admire his work. The goddess Hine-nui-te-pō became slightly annoyed seeing those unproductive people. So, she created the sandfly to bite them and get them moving.

But there is good news: Even for this problem, there is an app: Sandfly Map allows travellers and locals to report sandfly hotspots around New Zealand. Sadly, it’s only available for Apple devices.

SwellMap Surf

SwellMap Surf provides you with the latest surf and marine weather predictions for hundreds of spots around New Zealand. Forecasts are updated four times a day, using the latest atmospheric and oceanographic models.

SwellMap has the following features:

• Detailed daily forecasts providing ratings, summaries, set face, wave height, swell height, swell direction, swell period, tides, wind, gusts, sea temperature, sunset and sunrise
• Seven-day swell and wind forecast graphs, forecast maps of rain, pressure, temperature, wind, wave height, wave period and sea temperature to help you plan your surf trip.

It even lets you save your favourite spot forecasts.

Handpicked South Island Experiences

Explore beautiful Aotearoa

Great Hikes

The Great Walks of New Zealand showcase premier multi-day hiking trails through some of the country’s best scenery. From native forests, lakes and rivers to rugged mountain peaks, deep gorges and vast valleys, there is a Great Walk for everyone. Beyond the designated Great Walks, the app also includes private walking trails, allowing you to hike on private land that’s usually off-limits. 

This is a must-have app for those who love tramping (as it is called in New Zealand) in New Zealand.

Great Rides

New Zealand is also an excellent destination if you love cycling. The Great Rides app helps you to plan and plot your next adventure along the many designated cycle trails across the country. Created by passionate New Zealand rider and cartographer Gary Patterson (who is also behind the Great Hikes app), Great Rides is a national partner of the New Zealand Cycle Trail.

Mean Pies

If you love pies, this app is for you. Mean Pies is a fun app built around one of New Zealand‘s favourite foods: the humble pie. The app maps food outlets across the country that serve some mean pies (aka delicious and highly rated pies – based on community recommendations and reviews). Are your favourites on the list?

Plan My Walk

Plan My Walk is a free trip-planning and safety tool created by the NZ Mountain Safety Council. The app lists almost 2,000 trails around the country and helps trampers assess track conditions, terrain difficulty, weather forecasts, estimated travel times and daylight hours before heading into the backcountry. It also encourages users to share their plans with a trusted contact and provides practical safety tips.

Pocket Maps

And speaking of hikes… Keen to do day hikes? No problem. Pocket Maps has you covered. The app lets you view public conservation areas and other accessible lands, pointing out public access boundaries and where and how to traverse the land.

Maps are separated into regions and can be downloaded for offline use. App features also include route measuring and GPS positioning.

Roady

Roady helps travellers discover and plan memorable road trips across New Zealand (and Australia). The app features an interactive map with thousands of curated experiences, including hikes, waterfalls, viewpoints, beaches, and other lesser-known spots often missed in guidebooks. Travellers can save destinations to personal bucket lists, track places they have visited and upload photos or tips to share with the community.

Te Araroa

Have you ever wanted to hike the length of a country? You can with Te Araroa (meaning The Long Pathway): approximately 3,000 kilometres / 1,900 miles from the very top to the very bottom of New Zealand (or the other way around).

The Te Araroa app is the go-to app for those hiking the Te Araroa trail. Users can view maps and elevations (including offline topo maps), campsites and huts, and official trail notes and user comments.

Buy stuff you need for your road trip (and sell it afterwards)

TradeMe

TradeMe is New Zealand‘s equivalent of eBay and Craigslist. Most people looking to buy or sell their car or campervan use this online platform. We even used TradeMe to find parts for our campervan that were unavailable (or too expensive) at nearby auto shops.

The app gives you the ability to:

• list items to sell and edit them later
• search, browse and filter by category
• add, view and remove watch list items
• bid on items or buy them straight up
• make/receive online payments via Ping.

BTW, jobs and properties are also listed on TradeMe. So, if you are looking for (part-time/seasonal) work or want to rent a room, you may also want to check out the app.

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