New Zealand Road Maps

You need a comprehensive New Zealand road map if you live in New Zealand or are planning a touring holiday. If you are looking for the best detailed map of New Zealand, these are my reviews of maps I have personally used.

A ring bound map atlas is definitely the best as you can have it open at the right page and it’s easy to quickly check you are on the right road :-) I would highly recommend any of the following map atlases as being much better to use than a huge piece of paper you have to fold and unfold all the time.

In the back of these road map atlases there are several major cities and towns street maps included so you don’t need to buy a separate street map when you get there. For example; Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, to name a few, are in the back just before the index.

See where New Zealand is on a World Map

New Zealand Motorhome and Camping Atlas

This New Zealand road map, motorhome and camping atlas, published by Hema Maps is the one I used myself and is absolutely brilliant. This is not just a comprehensive road map covering the whole country; it includes details of all the camp sites and their individual facilities, from motorhome and caravan parks with every service you will ever need, to those more informal camping sites with basic facilities.

Each site listed is marked on the map with a numbered icon that is colour coded so you can easily tell what kinds of facilities are available at that site, you can then cross reference the number with the description in the camp site list in the front half of the road atlas.

Basically there are two ways of using this book. You can either look at your route and the numbered camp sites along the roads or then turn to the site description pages to find the name of the site and services it provides, or you can look at the list of campsites then find the number on the road map. The numbers of the sites are followed pretty much in order so they go according to area.

The list of camp sites in the front half of the atlas also includes map references, contact information, and a brief description. It even tells you if there are walks nearby, a shop, a boat launch, a swimming pool or thermal pool, whether you can take pets, and how close they are to beaches and scenic views etc.

Tips and attractions are included on the map pages with symbols for things like thermal areas and movie set locations… Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movie sets being very popular!

New Zealand Road Atlas

The New Zealand Road Atlas is also published by Hema Maps, the road map section of this atlas is similar to the one described above but it does not include so much detail about campsites in the front and therefore is not as thick.

If you are not driving around the country and the weight of your New Zealand road map is an issue this one would suit you better.

It is the same size as the above map but about half as many pages because the comprehensive descriptions of camping sites are not in it… although it does include all the DOC camps.

The motorhome parks and campsites are marked on the touring maps along with motorhome dump stations and it is fully indexed along with main town and city street maps too.

More Atlases and Road Maps

Other NZ atlases I used some 20 years ago but also found to be good. Because it was a long time ago when I actually used the following two atlases and I do not have copies of them or updated versions I have not done a comprehensive review. I can remember that they included good driving maps so I would recommend these two.

New Zealand Travellers Road Atlas - New Zealand Compact Travellers Atlas and Guide

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Road Signs

There are some fantastic road signs around New Zealand and there are a couple of examples on this page. You will see all sorts of more interesting ones, some are really amusing and I wish I had taken more photos of them! Whoever thought of putting a cow on wheels :-) Be sure to keep your eye out for interesting road and other signs while travelling the country.

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