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These days, there is an app for (almost) anything. So, how do you choose the essential apps for your smartphone when you’re going around New Zealand? You know, those who help you have a great time and save some bucks, not those who waste your time (and data allowance).
We experienced van life around New Zealand in 2018 and December 2020. We also regularly ask fellow roadtrippers in Aotearoa what apps they would not travel without. So, this list is tried and tested (and regularly updated) by (heaps of) people in the know. All the apps listed are FREE. And you won’t find generic apps you use anyway and anywhere.
So, what are the best mobile apps for your travels around New Zealand?
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 of Aotearoa (New Zealand in the Māori language), 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, 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.
Rankers Camping NZ
When you combine Kiwi ingenuity with IT expertise, you get Rankers. Rankers Camping NZ offers every New Zealand camping location on your smartphone or tablet. It has offline maps, so you don’t need data to find your next destination.
Rankers was our primary campsite app during our road trip in December 2020. We would find a campsite on Rankers, read the reviews, and then check CamperMate to read their reviews, too.
WikiCamps
WikiCamps also works offline, so you don’t need to worry about having a cellular signal or Wi-Fi connection. In 2018, we found campsites that were not mentioned on CamperMate, so WikiCamps was a good additional app for us.
WikiCamps lets you create your road trip itinerary using its built-in trip planner (a functionality CamperMate doesn’t have). Add sites to your trip, update your progress as you drive, and share your trip with friends and family.
Campable
Campable has a listing of private properties – resorts, vineyards, working farms, cultural sites and private clubs – that you can book for camping and motorhome travel in New Zealand. It’s a bit like Airbnb, just for campervan and motorhome users.
You must set up an account online and provide your credit card to facilitate the payment process. Once that is completed, you use your smartphone to locate and filter the properties you wish to consider. And once you’ve found the perfect site on Campable, you can book (and pay for) it right through the app.
How is the information kept up to date?
GeoZone is a network of travel apps that share the same GPS travel information and comments. Local and federal governments and third parties supply the information. The network also allows users of these apps to add new information, verified and added to the network. The sharing nature of the network ensures that connected apps show up-to-date information.
While every effort is made to ensure the app information is correct, no one can guarantee 100% accuracy. The apps have great feedback loops, so if you find something incorrect, do your part and report it.
Save money – on fuel, activities and dining
Gaspy
This is an absolute must-have for anyone with a vehicle in New Zealand. It has saved us A LOT of money over the years.
Gaspy tells you where the cheapest fuel is in your area. The prices on Gaspy are crowd-sourced, which means the app relies on like-minded consumers sharing fuel prices all around New Zealand. Just confirm or update the latest price list for the petrol station you are visiting. That’s it. By working together, we can all enjoy cheaper gas and pressure Big Oil to maintain competitive pricing.
Sharing fuel prices is not just economically rewarding but also fun, as, with each share, you earn points. And the highest point scorer of the week receives a fuel voucher. How cool is that?
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 all around the country that have not sold the expected number of seats up to a week ahead put their offers on the app, giving you a chance to save up to 90% of the retail price.
Know what the weather is going to be like
MetService
With New Zealand’s notoriously unpredictable weather, a weather app is handy, especially when you plan a hiking trip or 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 customize your weather dashboard or view live traffic cameras for urban locations.
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.
Stay safe
GeoNet
New Zealand is nicknamed ‘the shaky Isles’ for a reason. Therefore, it is a must to have a smartphone app for monitoring 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 contain some useful links to prepare yourself.
Sandfly Map
Unlike on 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 them: 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.
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 based on location. AED location information is stored by the application and available offline.
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
- add items to your shopping cart to purchase multiple items at once
- pay using your credit or debit card, and
credit your TradeMe account.
BTW, jobs and properties are also listed on TradeMe. So, if you are looking for (part-time) work or want to rent a room, you may also want to check out the app.
Explore beautiful Aotearoa
Roadtrip
You can’t have a list of New Zealand road trip apps without having one called Roadtrip. The brainchild of Emory Fierlinger and Ben Robertson, this app has worked well recently for our use case. We needed to understand what it would cost when we made a recent return trip from Waipukarau to Palmerston North, including the cost of the Road User Changes, given that our vehicle uses diesel fuel. This calculator is the ultimate app for calculating expenses on your vehicle journey from A to B, tailored to your car model! The User Interface is simple. Enter your start and end points, input your car model, and press Go. That’s it!
New Zealand’s Great Walks
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.
On the Great Hikes app, you can learn more about the routes, their history and more:
- Abel Tasman Coast Track
- Heaphy Track
- Kepler Track
- Lake Waikaremoana Track
- Milford Track
- Paparoa Track and Pike29 Memorial Track
- Rakiura Track
- Routeburn Track
- Tongariro Northern Circuit
- Whanganui Journey.
This is a must-have app for those who tramp (as hiking is called) in New Zealand.
Te Araroa
Have you ever wanted to hike the length of a country? You can with Te Araroa (meaning The Long Pathway). All 3,000km (1,900 miles) from the top to the 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.
Pocket Maps
Do you want 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.
Great Rides
New Zealand is also an excellent destination for (mountain)biking. The Great Rides app helps you to pick, plan and plot your next adventure on the New Zealand Cycle Trail. Created by passionate New Zealand rider and cartographer Gary Patterson, the Great Rides app is a New Zealand Cycle Trail national partner and the only mobile app featuring all 22 Great Rides.
What New Zealand-specific travel apps could you recommend?
I wrote this article about New Zealand travel apps based on our experiences. If you have used specific New Zealand-based apps while exploring New Zealand and have something to add to this list, please get in touch with me.
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