hello
travelling to NZ South Island for first time in July & hiring a motorhome. any recommendations for really lovely holiday parks to stay at. itinerary not planned yet. also will the weather be ok i realise will probably be coolish? are we likely to experience snow or ice on the roads? thanks kerry

July is the middle of winter. Depending on where you go there will probably be snow.

metservice.co.nz is the NZ weather information website, it's very good.

have you tried BIG4 holiday parks?

If you join the Big 4 Membership which from memory is $40 for 2 years, then it will give you discounts in certain holiday parks in NZ. Call into any Big 4 Parks in Australia, ask for Park Directory Book, and in the front is the membership application, and also which NZ parks.

I have not campervanned. Jasons and the NZ autoclub both have free guides that you can pick up at the Auckland airport that list holiday parks.

There will be ice on the roads in places in July, but they do grit them and have signs up.

With regards to snow it will depend some july's it will snow and maybe close the road for a day, and others it won't.

I would just plan what you wanted to see and not worry too much about it.

I also find the days are quite short when you holiday in the winter.

We stayed primarily at Top 10 Holiday parks when we were there in 2006 some were better than others.but all of them were clean and the staff friendly and helpful.In our opinion the best parks were TOP 10 in Cristchurch,the TOP 10 in Dunedin, the TOP 10 in TeAnau and the TOP 10 in Queenstown. I had misplaced my membership card and the Receptionist in Queenstown called the park where I had originally purchased the card, confirmed my info and gave me a replacement card - no charge. One other consideration. If you are used to driving on the right hand side of the road, you might want to avoid the largest campervans. This was a point of many discussions between my husband and myself before we travelled. Thankfully we had a 22ft campervan. Some of the roads ave very narrow and twist and wind. very nerve wracking if you are not used to driving on the left