Our initial plan was to rent the campervan and still stay in some hotels/ lodges. Now, I am wondering if we should just do the rental car the entire time! I am a bit concerned about some of the winding roads BUT the campervan is appealing because we don't have to book hotels in advance. We really want to be flexible (we're going to New Zealand for 3 weeks in March). Does anyone have advice?!

I've done both and would advocate a car rental.

We've never rented a campervan, but we looked into it and decided a car rental was the way to go for us - less hassle.

I'd think you'd be limited with a campervan somewhat - having to plan your stops according to where camp sites are located - I assume they fill up just like hotels/motels(?)

I gather from your other post that flexibility is your main objective. You might want to consider booking the lodges/activities you absolutely don't want to miss out on, and winging the rest.

If you do some research in advance on motel/hotel options, you can call and make your bookings from the road a day or two in advance. I'd make several choices, just in case your first choice is booked.

Several companies in NZ publish catalogs with extensive motel/hotel listings just for this purpose. You can probably order a copy online before your trip.

Here's one site that might help:

http://www.tourism.net.nz/accommodation/

Car rental. You should be able to find lodging by phoning a few days ahead. There are a few reservations that you might want to make, such as first night/last night. Also lodging near the west coast glaciers can be tight. Otherwise, you should pick up an AA guide, a Jason's guide, etc. at the airport in Auckland. Also don't forget the B&B/homestay choices, you can either buy a guidebook there, or check the website bnb.co.nz. With those, you should ideally book a few days ahead.

I would check to be sure you're not running into school holidays, in which case you would want to book during those days.

I'd go with the campervan - you can get a small one that is quite nimble and will still make up into a good bed at night, and a table and seats during the day.

There are so many holiday parks around NZ, it is hard to end up with no place to stay. In 6 months, we only had one day when we could not get into a park, and that was during Christmastime. You can also stay places in a pinch just by pulling over. Example: There is a day hut at Arthur's Pass, and you can park behind it for the evening, so you are ready for sunrise in the Southern Alps.

It is also a little-known fact that many B & Bs will let you plug in for the night and stay on their property. We had several nights were we had dinner and/or breakfast with our hosts, then retired for the night into our van.

Lastly, we particularly enjoyed chatting with our fellow travelers that frequent the communal dining areas at most holiday parks. We rarely used the stove in our van, opting to use the cooking facilities in holiday parks instead.

We saved a lot of money making many meals ourselves, and perhaps more importantly, we saved a lot of time that would have been used to check in/check out, and pack up/unpack in hotels.

It looks like I'm in the minority, but I still think that you should look into Toyota, Ford, or Mazda hi-top campervan.