NZ: Wellington to Picton

We traveled from Wellington to Picton, which involved taking our van in a large ferry between the two main islands of New Zealand.

Here’s an interactive map of the ferry route, starting from Wellington (on the right) and ending in Picton (on the left):

And a map of our driving route from Picton; the campground for the night was very near the ferry terminal, but we were early, so decided to take a scenic drive down the coast and back before checking in:

Heading to the ferry early in the morning:

Heading to the ferry early in the morning

Vehicle check in:

Vehicle check in

We were very early indeed; this all filled up before boarding:

We were very early indeed

Coffee vending machine:

Coffee vending machine

Boarding the ferry:

Boarding the ferry

We had booked the Premium Lounge, which included comfy seats and a buffet:

Premium Lounge

Cattle class wasn’t bad looking, though, albeit noisier:

Cattle class

Outside seating:

Outside seating

Lots of vehicles:

Lots of vehicles

Arriving in Marlborough Sound in the South Island:

Marlborough Sound in the South Island

Arriving at Picton:

Arriving at Picton

Disembarking:

Disembarking

Vineyards:

Vineyards

Vines

Nice hills:

Nice hills

Lake Elterwater Wildlife Refuge:

Lake Elterwater Wildlife Refuge

Coast:

Coast

We stopped for a coffee and snack in Kaikoura:

Snack

Heading north again:

Heading north again

Arriving at Parklands Marina Holiday Park:

Parklands Marina Holiday Park

Campground map:

Campground map

We dumped the toilet cassette again:

Dumping toilet cassette

We got to choose our site:

Our site

After parking, we took a 10 minute walk down to the marina for dinner at the Jolly Roger Bar and Cafe:

Walked down to the marina for dinner at the Jolly Roger Bar and Cafe

Dinner

Marina

Back to our site:

Back to our site

NZ: Castlepoint to Wellington

We traveled from Castlepoint to Wellington.

Here’s an interactive map of our route, with some of the stops marked:

Scenic sunrise; not a bad view out our side door:

Sunrise

We didn’t enjoy using the shower in the van, so used campground showers each day after that:

Shower

At the campgrounds in the North Island that we went to, the showers had timers, this one with a coin required:

Shower timer

Our site

Filling our water tank; the hose the rental company provided was rather short, so we usually had to move the van to reach:

Filling water

Castlepoint homes:

Castlepoint

We parked the van on the sand:

Van on the sand

Beach and lighthouse:

Beach and lighthouse

Seals:

Seal

Looking back to our van:

Looking back to our van

Walking up to the lighthouse:

Lighthouse

Fossilized shells:

Fossilized shells

Lighthouse

Castlepoint:

Castlepoint

The campground:

The campground

Lighthouse

Masterton Golden Shears; proud of sheep shearing:

Masterton Golden Shears

Entice Cafe for lunch:

Entice Cafe for lunch

Carterton:

Carterton

Featherston classic hotel:

Featherston classic hotel

A glimpse of the Interislander ferry, that we’d be catching the following morning:

Interislander ferry

Wellington houses:

Wellington houses

Wellington is a hilly city, with many tunnels:

Wellington tunnel

Wellington selfie:

Wellington selfie

We met up with two sides of extended family, one at a cafe, the other at an uncle’s house, then spent the night stealth camping on the road in front of the house.

NZ: Napier to Castlepoint

We continued south from Napier to Castlepoint.

Here’s an interactive map of our route, with some of the stops marked:

Heading down the hill:

Heading down the hill

We stopped at the dump station, for the first time dumping our waste tanks:

Dump station

Our van has a cassette toilet, our first experience with one:

Our van has a cassette toilet

Dumping the toilet cassette:

Dumping toilet cassette

Bluff Hill Domain:

Bluff Hill Domain

Napier is known for its art deco architecture:

Napier

We stopped at a Mitre 10 Mega hardware store to get some more housewares for the van:

Mitre 10 Mega hardware store

And Soho Cafe for lunch:

Soho Cafe for lunch

South of Napier:

South of Napier

Waipawa:

Waipawa

A classic NZ hotel in Waipukurau:

Waipukurau classic hotel

Dannevirke:

Dannevirke

One lane bridge:

One lane bridge

Pahiatua:

Pahiatua

Kiwi sign:

Kiwi sign

Curvy road:

Curvy road

One lane bridge:

One lane bridge

Arriving at Castlepoint Holiday Park & Motels:

Castlepoint Holiday Park & Motels

Castlepoint map:

Castlepoint map

Our site, another scenic waterfront site:

Our site

Castle Point Lighthouse:

Castle Point Lighthouse

Walk on the beach:

Walk on the beach

The Shop, the only store in town; we wanted to get some fish & chips there, but they were closing:

The Shop

Surfer:

Surfer

Beach

Lighthouse

We really enjoyed this area.

NZ: Rotorua to Napier

Continuing our journey, we traveled south from Rotorua to Napier.

Here’s an interactive map of our route, with some of the stops marked:

Our van in our site in the morning:

Our van in our site

The electrical connections are a bit different in NZ… some in better condition than others:

Electrical connection

We brought our AeroPress and manual coffee grinder, and bought some local coffee and an electric kettle / hot water jug to make coffee in our van:

Coffee

Some ducks in front of our site:

Ducks

Heading out, we stopped at the Skyline Gondola:

Skyline gondola

Selecting a morning snack:

Morning snack

Snack and coffees with a view:

Morning snack and coffees with a view

Watching the luge:

Watching the luge

Gondola selfie:

Gondola selfie

Back down the gondola:

Gondola

Souvenier photos:

Souvenier photos

Geothermal power plant:

Geothermal power plant

Huka Honey Hive:

Huka Honey Hive

Huka Falls:

Huka Falls

In Taupo is the world’s coolest McDonalds with a plane:

McDonalds plane

A waterfall viewpoint:

Waterfall selfie

Waterfall

Arriving at Napier Beach Top 10 Holiday Park:

Napier Beach Top 10

Campground map:

Campground map

Rainbow:

Rainbow

Napier Beach:

Napier Beach

Tiny cabin:

Tiny cabin

Other sites:

Other sites

Our site, also with a nice view:

Our site

NZ: Tauranga to Rotorua

After spending a couple of days at Mum & Brian’s house, where we had quality time with the fam and got some basics for the van, we were going on an adventure!

I'm going on an adventure!

Just the two of us, heading towards the place where the scene in that GIF was filmed: Hobbiton. Then on to Rotorua for the night.

An interactive map of our route (with the origin vague for privacy):

We stopped at McLaren Falls for a second breakfast, crossing a one lane bridge:

McLaren Falls one lane bridge

The van parked; it fit in a normal spot fairly well:

Van parked

Second breakfast at the Falls Cafe:

The Falls Cafe

Scones and flat white coffees (of course; that’s the only style of coffee we had the entire trip):

Scones and flat white coffees

McLaren Falls Park looks like a nice park, but no time to explore it; we had places to be:

McLaren Falls Park

The falls:

McLaren Falls

Heading downhill:

Heading downhill

Arriving at Hobbiton, with (of course) lots of camper parking:

Camper parking at Hobbiton

Sausage roll and coffee for lunch:

Sausage roll and coffee

Hobbiton selfie:

Hobbiton selfie

I feel that Hobbiton deserves its own post, so I’ll do that tomorrow.

Sheep when leaving Hobbiton:

Sheep when leaving Hobbiton

Corrugated iron sheep in Tirau:

Corrugated iron sheep in Tirau

Tree tunnel:

Tree tunnel

Arriving at our first campground of the trip, Willowhaven Holiday Park:

Arriving at the campground

Campground map; we were in site 3 (but not tent site 3 or cabin 3; their map is a little confusing):

Campground map; we were in site 3

Lakefront view from our site:

Lakefront view

We just stopped there to register before the office closed, then headed out again, towards Rotorua. Past the home of Zorbing:

Home of Zorbing

You can tell that Rotorua is a major tourist town when even the grocery store has camper parking:

Camper parking at grocery store

Grocery shopping:

Grocery shopping

Then we headed to Polynesian Spa for a relaxing soak:

Polynesian Spa

We enjoyed a private lakefront thermal pool:

Polynesian Spa private pool

Afterwards, we had a lavish charcuterie platter and fruit smoothies for dinner:

Charcuterie platter

Then back to our lakefront site:

Back to our lakefront site

Our campervan

I hadn’t mounted the Starlink dish on the roof yet, so I placed it in front of our site:

Starlink dish in front of our site

It was a great day. I’ll post about the Hobbiton stop tomorrow. Before that, stay tuned for a timelapse video of our travels; I will have a video on the same day as each travel post.

Golden Shore RV Resort

We stayed at Golden Shore RV Resort in Long Beach, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A fairly convenient location in the greater Los Angeles metro area.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-11-01
Check out: 2025-11-06
5 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps 70-73°F, lows 55-57°F
Little wind, gusts to 13 MPH

Noise:

Nearby road noise
No train horn noise
Some neighbor noise
Nearish container terminal noise

Site:

#68, back-in, sand
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Level site; used hydraulic leveling
Sand driveway about 42 feet long by 22 feet wide
9 feet to neighbors on both sides
Trees between sites
Picnic table
A few tall trees
Clean site
Elevation 10 feet, front facing SW

Utilities:

50 amp power, very conveniently located
60 PSI water, very conveniently located
Loose sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 65-110 Mbps down, 15-25 Mbps up, 25-45 ms ping
RoamLink: 30-40 Mbps down, 20-25 Mbps up, 100 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
AT&T: 350-315 Mbps down, 26 Mbps up, 22 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool
Package delivery to a table outside the office

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Green space behind our site:

Our site

We had originally booked this site, near the pool, but they moved us to a different site (as above) due to a fire around the bathrooms. We wouldn’t have enjoyed this site anyway, being closer to the road, and less private:

Other sites

Other sites:

Other sites

Pool:

Pool

Office:

Office

Entrance gate:

Entrance gate

Nearby water:

Nearby water

The nearby Long Beach container terminal had a lot of noise and light:

Long Beach container terminal

Not the quietest park, but not bad for in the LA / Long Beach area. We’d stay here again.

Bakersfield KOA Journey

We stayed at Bakersfield KOA Journey in Bakersfield, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

We do like the convenience of KOAs for one-night stops. This was another fairly fancy one, and we appreciated the on-site restaurant.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-10-31
Check out: 2025-11-01
1 night

Weather:

Sunny
High temp 78°F, low 52°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 6 MPH

Noise:

Nearby road noise and sirens
Distant train horn noise
Some neighbor noise

Site:

#136, pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
Used air leveling, since only one night
Gravel driveway about 105 feet long by 16 feet wide
12 feet to neighbors on both sides
Picnic table
Tall trees, too close to the couch
Clean site
Elevation 360 feet, front facing NE

Utilities:

50 amp power, a little inconveniently located near the front of the site
Didn’t hook up water or sewer

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 40-60 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
RoamLink: 7 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 120 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
AT&T: 270-330 Mbps down, 8-16 Mbps up, 70-130 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool
Onsite restaurant

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

A tree is a little too friendly; really should be trimmed more:

Tree

We always enjoy when a RV park has an onsite restaurant; this one has the Crest Bar & Grill:

Crest Bar & Grill

Menu:

Dinner

Sites are a bit tight, and very few long enough for us to not have to untoad, but we’d be happy to stay here again.

2025 campgrounds

Another interesting summary of 2025 — the places we stayed during the year. See also the posts for 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021.

You can also see all of these summary posts together via the Campgrounds Summary tag, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

For each location, I’ve included a link to the corresponding blog post, so you can click through to see a lot more information, and a picture of our site.

You can also see all of the campground-related blog posts via the campsite category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.

Read to the end for some sneak peeks of places we stayed that I haven’t yet posted about!

Rainbow Springs State Park:

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort:

Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground:

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort:

Thousand Trails Peace River:

Crooked River State Park:

James Island County Park:

Holly Point Campground – Falls Lake SRA:

Emporia / I-95 KOA:

Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay:

Cherry Hill Park:

Thousand Trails Lake & Shore:

Thousand Trails Hershey RV Campground:

West Branch State Park:

Thousand Trails St Clair:

Traverse City KOA Holiday:

Shipshewana Campground – South Park:

Punderson State Park Campground:

Four Mile Creek State Park:

Cooperstown KOA Journey:

Quechee Pine Valley Campground:

Thousand Trails Moody Beach:

Narrows Too Camping Resort:

Normandy Farms Family Camping Resort:

New York City North / Newburgh KOA Holiday:

The Bellefonte Campground:

Mountain Top Campground:

Olive Branch Campground:

Scottsburg Raintree Lake KOA Holiday:

Indiana Dunes State Park:

HWH Corporation:

Milton KOA Holiday:

Kewaunee RV & Campground:

Hancock City Park:

Cloquet / Duluth KOA Journey:

The Pines of Kabetogama Resort:

Minneapolis Northwest KOA Journey:

Mitchell KOA Journey:

Custer’s Gulch RV Park:

Buffalo KOA Journey:

Fishing Bridge RV Park, Yellowstone National Park:

Jim & Mary’s RV Park:

Ephrata RV Park & Campground:

Our Washington home:

Portland Fairview RV Park:

Sutherlin/Umpqua Valley KOA Holiday:

Red Bluff KOA Journey:

Thousand Trails San Benito:

Bakersfield KOA Journey: [post coming later]

Our site

Golden Shore RV Resort: [post coming later]

Our site

We camped in lots of places in New Zealand at this point, but I’ll summarize those sometime after I’ve published the blog posts about them.

Orangeland RV Park: [post coming later]

Our site

Thousand Trails Palm Springs: [post coming later]

Our site

Lots of interesting (and not so interesting) places to stay last year.

Thousand Trails San Benito

We stayed at Thousand Trails San Benito in Paicines, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our second stay here. Our first stay was our very first experience of a Thousand Trails park. Not a super great experience, but not bad enough to put us off TT. (Which we have some misgivings about, but it has been mostly worthwhile.)

This time, the campground was in the midst of a much-needed major improvements to their electrical system, with new 50/30/20 amp pedestals on all of the sites. At the time we stayed, only about the third of the park was open.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-10-20
Check out: 2025-10-31
11 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps 65-82°F, lows 48-54°F
Little wind, gusts to 17 MPH

Noise:

No road noise
No train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#C-010, back-in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Somewhat level site; a little high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 60 feet long by 12 feet wide
75-95 feet to neighbor on passenger side
32 feet to neighbor on driver side
Just grass between sites
Picnic table
Fire pit
Tall trees
Somewhat clean site
Elevation 720 feet, front facing north/east/south/west

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
60 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 76-108 Mbps down, 22-44 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
RoamLink: 50 Mbps down, 3-5 Mbps up, 125 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
AT&T: 101-145 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool

Campground map; much of the campground was being renovated at the time of our stay:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

The tree next to our site:

Tree

During our stay the electricians needed to make some modifications to the pedestal; replacing one of the breakers:

Electrical pedistal

And installing a ground rod:

Electrical pedistal

Can’t get packages at the campground, so we used Amazon lockers in Hollister (30 minutes away):

Amazon lockers

And the nearby post office in Paicines (9 minutes away):

Post office

Pool (and ex-hot tub):

Pool

While there, I added a Pokémon Pokéstop at the playground:

Pokémon Pokéstop

Other sites:

Other sites

New big solar array over storage area:

New big solar array over storage area

A big stump with a bird box:

Stump with bird box

Lots of gnomes around the place:

Lots of gnomes around the place

Cat:

Feral cat

Deer:

Deer

Birb:

Birb

A mostly peaceful campground. We’d be happy to stay here again.

Red Bluff KOA Journey

We stayed at Red Bluff KOA Journey in Red Bluff, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our second stay here. One of the nicest KOAs, though a pity about the location near a noisy freeway and train track. We enjoyed walking across the road to a Shari’s for dinner.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-10-19
Check out: 2025-10-20
1 night

Weather:

Sunny
High temp 78°F, low 52°F
Some wind, gusts to 22 MPH

Noise:

Nearby freeway noise
Occasional train horn noise
Little neighbor noise (some dogs)

Site:

#114, pull-through, concrete
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
Level site; used hydraulic leveling, since on concrete
Concrete driveway about 63 feet long by 15 feet wide
13 feet to neighbor on passenger side
0-23 feet to road on driver side
Picnic table
No fire pit
Some trees
Clean site
Elevation 280 feet, front facing west

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
70 PSI water, conveniently located
Didn’t connect sewer

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 80-134 Mbps down, 24-30 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
RoamLink: 44 Mbps down, 14 Mbps up, 145 ms ping (RoamLink uses whichever is best of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile)
AT&T: 340-360 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 40 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities: