Backpacking and Climbing Europe / New Zealand: Logistics?

Hey MP Community!

So my wife and I will be done with grad school soon. We're hoping to hop over to Europe and spend as much time backpacking/climbing as possible until the weather cools off, at which point we'll fly southeast in time for the New Zealand summer. We have done a LOT of backpacking in the wilderness and have spent months living out of our car on various occasions...but this seems like a whole different beast. We're so used to being able to travel as dirtbags...no hotel, daily showers, or restaurants needed, but have a feeling this will be more difficult abroad.

I'm hoping anyone who has had the opportunity to backpack and climb abroad can shed some light on how to do this effectively and relatively inexpensively. Is it absurd to even consider bringing a rope for a long trip like this? Are we going to need to shell out a lot more money than we think for accommodations? We want to know anything about your experience. The more advice the better! Thanks.

I can only speak for NZ, but that place is a haven for trekkers/dirtbags. It's an outdoorpersons paradise honestly. You can travel the whole country without having to stay indoors, and the people are extremely traveler friendly.

Now, I can't speak for the climbing there, but everything else is pretty cheap. Cheaper than the U.S. anyway. Hostels are affordable and plentiful and hitchhiking is accepted practice. Honestly it's a great place for that sort of thing.

Just don't buy stuff in Queenstown. It's a bit pricey. Hope that helps.

My wife and I spent 2 months living out of a car in New Zealand. It is surprisingly easy to do, and can be done very cheaply.

First, buying a used car is extremely easy. We flew into Auckland, stayed in a hostel for 2 days while looking for a car. There are SO many used cars/campervans travelers are selling. It took us 2 days to buy a carm only because we were fairly picky. We ended up paying $1500 US. Insurance is not required in NZ (crazy, but true), and to change ownership of the car took about 15 minutes at the local post office. We sold it back in Christchurch when we left for the same price we bought it for.

New Zealand has a TON of campsites, do your self a favor and pick up a booklet at a department of conservation office. There are 2 booklets, one of campsites for north island, one for south. Campsites were cheap, i think 5 ish bucks a night was average (Could be wrong). We basically would have been able to camp every single night if we wanted to, there are lots of campsites distributed around the country, but we spent a fair bit of time in hostels too, as my wife was not as excited abotu camping every night. Hostels are also fairly inexpensive, we joined YHI hostels, very happy with pretty much all of them.

I hope that answers your question.

Climbing trip & you're asking if it's 'absurd' to bring a rope? hmmm....

All the climbing areas I've been to in Europe are usually FULL of people and easy to camp at. Things might get a little different if you're trying to get after remote alpine goodness in the Alps, but if no one's around, also easy to camp :)

It's much easier to dirtbag in europe as nothing is remote. If you have to drive 30 minutes to get somewhere, it's like a whole new country with people asking how you drove so far in just one day.

Also, given the unemployment rate, I doubt you'll be the only one lounging around looking for freebies.

Peteoria wrote:Climbing trip & you're asking if it's 'absurd' to bring a rope? hmmm.... All the climbing areas I've been to in Europe are usually FULL of people and easy to camp at. Things might get a little different if you're trying to get after remote alpine goodness in the Alps, but if no one's around, also easy to camp :) It's much easier to dirtbag in europe as nothing is remote. If you have to drive 30 minutes to get somewhere, it's like a whole new country with people asking how you drove so far in just one day. Also, given the unemployment rate, I doubt you'll be the only one lounging around looking for freebies.

hey, ryan, i'll actually be moving to switzerland at the end of may. luzern area. if you end up swinging through, it'd be cool to head out climbing with another SLO local.