After all the research, planning and packing, we are in New Zealand!!

The flight with our two kids went so smooth and purchasing the motorhome the next day went well… until we had to change the registration into our names and didn’t have a New Zealand residential address… more on that below.

We flew into Wellington on the north island and my first impressions? It’s not as cold as what I thought it would be and I’m living in an absolute dream! Everywhere you look it looks like something our of a movie. I can see us really slowing down and enjoying every moment in this beautiful country with our kids.

Why would we buy a motorhome instead of hiring one? I got a quote and for 6 months it would cost us around $58K to hire a motorhome where as purchasing a motorhome for $53K NZD allows us to sell it when we are done and get out money back. Yes it’s a massive outlay of costs but in the long run we are saving soooo much money!!

What you are really here for is to learn how to buy a motorhome in NZ without a NZ residential address as an Australian citizen, I can only speak from experience so here is a step by step guide on what we did to secure our new home on wheels to explore this beautiful country so close to our Aussie home:

Step 1: Set a budget

Ours started as 30-40K AUD but because we were looking for motorhomes with a specific tether point for our carseats to secure our 1 and 4 year old, we increased our budget to 40-50k because most of the old motorhomes didn’t have this. We could have gone through the process of installing them and getting an engineers certificate but it was one of those things we didn’t want to stuff around with when we got here.

Another work around for the tether points is to buy European standard carseats when you get here. European seats don’t have a tether point instead they have a three point harness seat (a normal seat belt in your car that goes over you’re lap and shoulder).

Step 2: Find your motorhome and ask the right questions

We were lurking Facebook Marketplace and a NZ website called Trade Me to find the perfect motorhome for our family. We ended up finding ours on Facebook Marketplace (just be careful of scams- We have heard some horror stories).

Questions we asked the seller before committing to the sale:

• How much rego or WOF/COF does the vehicle have
• Does it have a self contained certificate
• Does it have tether points for the kids carseats
• Are there any oil leaks or other major issues?
• When was it last serviced and does it have a service log book?
• Anything else to note?

Step 3: Put a deposit on the motorhome to secure it as your own

The person we bought our motorhome from runs a business and deals with overseas customers everyday so it was easy to process the deposit because he knew how the process works.

For us, we are with Westpac bank in Australia and they do have Westpac in NZ but it’s under a different umbrella so basically a different bank all together.

When I made the deposit online I through internet banking, you need to click on the “overseas transaction” button and select NZ as the country your transferring money to. It then has fields to enter the bank details of the seller and the amount you are transferring in both Australian and New Zealand dollars. For example, we made a $5k NZD deposit so entered that amount in the NZ field and it converted it to the current AUD exchange rate.

This is where it got tricky, the banks are on to scams and when I made the deposit transaction online, it made me answer some questions about who the transaction was for. After entering that it was to purchase a car/ motorhome, Westpac locked me out of my internet banking and I had to call the fraud and scam hotline to recover it which ended up taking an hour and a half…

Westpac was doing their due diligence by asking:

– Have we spoken to the person we are buying the motorhome from?

– What is their full name and address?

– How did you find the motorhome?

– What checks have you done to make sure the transaction is legit and not a scam?

All of which we had covered off already. Once Westpac was happy with the answers and looked up all the details I provided on their end, they approved the transaction and put a note on the file that said we will be travelling to NZ to purchase the motorhome and transferring the remainder of money when we get there.

Step 4: Book flights and pack your bags!

Book flights to the nearest airport and our advice? Hire a car from the airport, book a night a the local motel and pick up your new home on wheels the next day. A travel day with kids is exhausting let alone the stress of buying a motorhome all on the same day. Keep the hire car even when you pick up your motorhome so you can do the groceries to stock the cupboards, make a trip to Kmart to buy bedding and other miscellaneous items and head to Bunnings for some basic tools. This way you don’t need to worry about driving the motorhome for the first time to the shops in the busy carparks and trying to find a carpark.

We booked the local caravan park for two nights to make sure we were all settled in before setting off into the countryside.

Another thing to note when you land at the airport, get yourself an Esim card so you have a NZ phone number and enough data to use maps and the internet. We went with the company NZ ONE and so far so good!

Step 5: Pick up your motorhome!

After doing your checks and committing to your new motorhome, transfer the remainder of the money the same way as the deposit on the Westpac banking app.

On the Westpac app I was able to notify them of my travel destination and dates so they were aware of any foreign transactions which I think helped the transfer go so smoothly.

For $5 I used my normal Australian phone number (I’m with Telstra) to receive the code the bank sent to confirm the transaction and within 5 minutes it had reached the sellers account.

Step 6: Register your motorhome

This is where it gets tricky… There’s no rego papers like back in Australia… so after you have officially purchased your motorhome, drive to your nearest AA (Automotive Association), this is similar to Service NSW in NSW, to change the vehicle into your name.

At AA you need to provide them with the details of the motorhome such as:

• the registration plates
• vin number
• any other details you have of the vehicle

Firstly to note, there is no paperwork that gets sent when the registration is paid, they just need to put an address down as procedure.

All the research I’ve done was useless as you CANNOT just list your address as the local post office and if you’re like us and know no one in NZ, you can’t just enter any randoms address.

After going into the local post office, VINS mechanics and registration and calling an out of town post office we were running out of options until they suggested to call the New Zealand Transport Agency.

They said that usually people who buy a motorhome who are from Australia know someone who lives in NZ and just uses their address but since we didn’t know anyone AA need to list our address as “UNKNOWN”. New Zealand Transport Agency gave us a reference number and said get AA to call back with the reference number if there were any issues.

When we went back to AA they contacted New Zealand Transport Agency with the reference number, noted our address as “UNKNOWN” and listed our email address as our main contact method instead of a postal address. This is something they told us at AA that they have never seen before.

In summary, if you are in the same position as us and don’t know anyone who lives in NZ, call the New Zealand Transport Agency first and tell them your situation, get a reference number THEN go to AA with your motorhome details and get them to list your address as UNKNOWN.

Step 7: Insure your motorhome

AA also offers insurance so whilst you’re there you can also sort out your motorhome insurance. We opted for full comprehensive insurance as well as road side assist because we don’t know the vehicle or the country and its a safe bet. This was around $800 for 12 months which is refundable if you have the motorhome for less than 12 months.

Step 8: Fit out your motorhome to make it yours

This is the fun part! Kmart, Bunnings and Super Cheap Auto feel as though you’ve stepped into your local shop and is exactly the same as at home.

Pak & Save is your best bet for cheaper groceries (think Costco meets Aldi), as Woolies is really expensive over here.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about buying a motorhome in NZ, we would be so hoary to help make the start of your next adventure run as smooth as possible 🙂

❤ Britt

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