Cook Strait ferry with a campervan: booking and boarding

Declare the vehicle accurately

Fares are set by total length and height, and total means including everything attached: bike racks, roof boxes, kayaks, an awning that projects, a towed trailer. Under-declaring produces a fare adjustment at check-in and, on a full sailing, occasionally no space at all.

Measure rather than estimate, and if you are collecting a rental, get the dimensions from the operator before booking the crossing. The gap between a car booking and a campervan booking is large enough that guessing is expensive in both directions.

Choose the operator and sailing sensibly

Interislander and Bluebridge both cross Cook Strait, with different terminals in Wellington, slightly different crossing times and different vessels. Neither is universally better; check which terminal suits your route and which sailing times leave you a usable day on the far side.

A crossing consumes most of a day once you include the check-in window, the passage itself and the drive at either end. Treat it as a travel day rather than something you slot between two other drives.

Read the change conditions before you save money

The cheapest fares are usually the least flexible, and Cook Strait sailings are cancelled or delayed by weather with some regularity. A saving of forty dollars is poor value if changing the booking costs more than that, which it frequently does.

Where your dates have any uncertainty, particularly in winter or if a long alpine drive precedes the crossing, pay for the flexible fare and record the change deadline against the trip stop rather than trusting your memory of it.

Do the jobs before the queue

Fuel, shop and empty waste tanks before you join the terminal queue. Once you are in line you are committed, the facilities are limited, and the queue can move earlier than expected. Emptying a cassette in Picton because you did not do it in Wellington wastes an hour of your first South Island morning.

Arrive within the operator's stated check-in window, which is earlier than most people assume for vehicles. Have identification and the booking reference ready rather than searching for them at the booth.

Pack what you need for the crossing itself

Vehicle deck access is restricted once underway, so anything you want during the passage has to come up with you: medication, warm layers, water, food, a charged phone, and entertainment for children. You cannot go back down for a forgotten jacket.

If anyone in the party is prone to seasickness, take something before boarding rather than after the ship starts moving. Cook Strait can be genuinely rough, and the strait is at its worst in a southerly.

Protect the day after arrival

The single most common ferry mistake is booking something expensive and unmissable immediately after the scheduled arrival. A delayed sailing then costs you a tour, a booking or a long drive done in the dark. Leave the following block soft.

Avoid scheduling a long alpine drive or a difficult road straight off the ship, particularly on an evening sailing. Queen Charlotte Drive is beautiful and slow, and it is not a road to meet for the first time while tired at dusk.

Use Picton or Wellington as a recovery night

Book a night close to the terminal on the arrival side when the sailing lands late. A short drive to a known campground beats pushing on towards a site hours away, and it means the next morning starts properly rather than as damage control.

The same applies before an early sailing. A night near the terminal is worth more than a slightly better site an hour away, because a missed check-in window is a missed crossing.

Places along the way