First off, a self contained campervan, according to New Zealand terms, is a van that meets certain criteria so as not to require its occupants to need public facilities – like a toilet, sink, or even a shower – while road tripping around New Zealand, and likely living full time in their vehicle. The way they see it, if you are paying a one-time fee for your van and then traveling around using the public facilities paid for by the local tax-paying residents, you don’t deserve to be a “freedom camper,” meaning you camp for free at the majority of places available. If, however, you agree to build (or buy) your van to include their list of requirements that alleviate your need for these public facilities – besides filling up your fresh water tank and dumping your grey water tank – a whole new list of possible campgrounds is then open for your use, the majority of which cost nothing at all.
Basically, getting your campervan self contained is great for you because it means less money spent paying for campgrounds and way more overall camping areas to choose from, and great for them because it means you’re not typically using their facilities and it’s one less #vanlife hippie shitting in bushes in front of a horrified old lady’s house.
If you plan on on living full time in your van for any length of time in New Zealand, I still highly recommend getting the self containment certification. I just can’t recommend doing it yourself, as we have done, for a number of reasons I will explain below. As stated in my previous post about buying and renovating a campervan in New Zealand, if you have the funds to buy an already self contained vehicle, DO IT. If, like us, you do not and figured ‘how hard can it possibly be?’ to knock off a checklist of relatively simple-sounding materials, the answer is ‘harder than it should be,’ and I recommend having three glasses of wine immediately before proceeding.
Self Containment Certification for Campervans in New Zealand: A How To Guide for the Clueless
Before I even begin explaining the tedious process of getting your campervan ready for self-containment in New Zealand, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you possess an infinite amount of patience, and at least a decent chunk of free time?
- Do you consider yourself to be somewhat handy, and know how to properly use the majority of common tools?
- Do you have money to buy aforementioned common tools, money to hire someone with tools, or a generous friend who’s at least willing to let you borrow their tools?
- Are you prepared to spend way more time than you’d like buying, returning, and most likely re-buying minuscule pieces of somehow very important hardware from your local hardware store, all while annoying a recently retired man named Ted who’d much rather be sorting hoses or playing miss-the-finger with a nail gun?
- Are you prepared to finally pay a mechanic to properly do all of this for you, only to have him give you a newer, somehow even more vague list of hardware to purchase from the nearest local hardware store and come back?
- Are you willing to delve into the weird world that is the Boys Club of the NZ Self Containment Certification process?
- Are you willing to drive hours across the country to meet one of approximately 5 available older gentleman in the parking lot of their own home or shop, only to have them certify your campervan in 11 minutes or tell you to fix 19 things and come back the next week?
- Are you then willing to hand deliver a single piece of paper across the country, or wait an inordinately long amount time to receive a sticker in the mail at an address you may or may not currently have?
- Are you still prepared, after all of this, to have to poop in your own vehicle if and when it becomes necessary, and then have residents and the government question why you wouldn’t want to do this on a regular basis since your van is, after all, equipped with a plastic portable toilet?
- Are you prepared to store said poop somewhere near your head and/or food supply while you sleep, relax, and/or travel around in your home until you locate the nearest appropriately named dumpsite? (Just for reference, we have NOT done this, so that’s at least an ounce of well-earned victory.)
- Are you willing to wash all of your dirty dishes in a sink that is decidedly smaller than even your smallest dish?
- Are you willing to ignore the petri dish of bacteria growing inside your kitchen wastewater container in your van, simply because a vent leading to the outdoors is attached to it, and it is sealed as tightly as your weak hands allow?
Glorious! You’re all set to get your self containment certification, friend. Let’s move on.
Step #1: Prep Your Car & Buy the Materials
As of 2018, the requirements for self containment certification for campervans in New Zealand are:
- Two 24-Liter Water Containers for Fresh Water & Grey Water (or 4L per person per day):Â Approximately $30 NZD each.
- Metal or Plastic Sink: The sink can be as large or small as you want (and as flimsy and shitty as you want), but we recommend buying one with a lip so that it is easier to install. The sink must be connected to your sealed, water-tight, completely portable grey water tank, and also fitted with an additional hose (aka “evacuation hose”) leading out of your car to act as a vent for the smell from the grey water tank. The sink and grey water and vent attachment portion of the process is by far the most painstaking, just FYI. All the parts for the sink and fittings cost approximately $80 – $90 NZD.
- Trash Bin with a Sealable Lid:Â Sealable swinging lids seem to work just fine. Approximately $6 – $12 NZD.
- Portable (or Fixed) Toilet:Â Unless you have a massive campervan, you’re going to want to buy a plastic portable toilet, preferably one that comes apart so that it’s easier to store. The minimum storage must be 3 liters net holding per person. Portable toilets normally cost approximately $130 NZD, but ours accidentally rang up as a $65 beach chair, to which we made no effort of alerting our salesperson.
*As an added challenge, as of late 2017 you are now required to have enough elbow and head room to use the toilet inside your van when the bed is completely made up. Since the majority of people buy their toilet for the certification sticker and then store it under their bed, never to be touched again, they recently added this clause to ensure you can actually use the toilet in your car, if needed, when the bed is fully laid out.
Had our friend not thoughtfully decided to build our bed with the ability to fold over with room to put our legs on the ground, we would NOT have passed this portion of the certification process, and thus wasted valuable time, money and alarming levels of sanity. And a final note on this: We were told by more than one self containment officer that technically, yes, you could have a toilet and then a tent in which to use the toilet in, but for purposes of the new, revised self containment certification process, you now have to show that you can use it in your car before you can theoretically use your pop-up poop-tent at any point after. This new rule obviously now limits the kinds of campervans that can get this certification, because once your bed is made up – which normally takes up the entire back portion of your van – how many vans actually have enough head and elbow room to allow for a useable toilet in the back, especially one that’s not sitting atop your mattress?!
Step #2: Find a Self Containment Officer
Once you have all the checks on your self containment checklist crossed off – congrats! – you’re ready to meet with a registered Self Containment Officer and have them sign off that you’ve met all the stated requirements.
But hold up, homie. This is unfortunately, and absolutely idiotically, way more difficult than it should be. Since we originally bought and renovated our campervan while living in Queenstown, we first searched for Self Containment Officers in Queenstown. I’ll save you some time – there are none. Zero. Zip. Nada, amigo. Any why would there not be a single man or lady capable of checking off a relatively straightforward checklist in the single most touristy spot in the country? Because fuck if I know, y’all!
Having read on yet another misinformed website that any registered plumber could also probably accomplish this for us, we proceeded to call every single plumber in Queenstown, to which all of them also promptly said no, they did not offer self containment certifications, and we should try calling someone else. I’ll save you more time – there is no one else. Zero. Zip. Still nada.
In addition, the arrogant tools at the most predominant Self Containment Certification Organization in the country, the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association, not only charge a one time fee of $130 and an annual $90 subscription fee just to join their association, which allows you to access their list of supposed “400-plus volunteer Self-Containment Officers located across the country,” but also recently added this to their website: “From 13 December 2017 the NZMCA has temporarily suspended accepting new membership applications from overseas applicants who are not also members of an affiliated overseas club.” So in essence, unless I am a 65 year old (likely Floridian) member of something called the ‘Good Sam Club’ in the U.S., I am shit out of luck for not only 1) becoming an unwanted member of an expensive, entirely lame caravan’ing club within New Zealand, but 2) cannot even do so to simply access a list of people who qualify to self contain my van in the first place. If you’re reading this, NZMCA staff, and I dearly hope you are, here’s an acronym I’d like you to look up, for once – GTFO.
I promise I will stop bitching after this paragraph, but if New Zealand, a country touted as one of the world’s most amazing road trip destinations, actually wants people to continue making the effort to get legally self contained, I highly recommend them taking the proper steps to make this a more accessible, doable and timely process. Otherwise, while I understand the temptation to make an example of the humans shitting on random pathways and in relatively conspicuous neighborhoods, you’re actually punishing the ones attempting to follow the correct steps to ensure they won’t resort to that behavior. Rant over! Ahh.
Thankfully, the much kinder, more reasonable souls at All Points Camping NZ currently offer their list of certified Self Containment Officers at no charge at all. The only problem? If you’re on the South Island, there are currently only 7 people on that list, one of which may have died last year (RIP), if I correctly recall from my many phone calls within the Self Containment Boys Club. Also, it is likely that anywhere from 1 to 3 of them may currently be on vacation or away for the foreseeable future, so your phone calls will end up sounding a lot like this…
“Hey Neil, my name’s _____ and I recently bought a campervan in _____. I’m calling to ask if you still happen to do self containment certifications for campervans, and if you might have any time to look at ours within the next week?”
“Ahh yeah I do, but I’m actually up in Nelson at the moment, so you should try Richie over in Gore instead.”
“Yes, well I actually just called Richie and he’s out of the country until late next month, so…”
“Well you also might try my friend Tony in Dunedin.”
“Yes, I actually just talked to Tony too, and he can’t certify vans on his own until after he’s done 20 of them. We’re hoping to get it done fairly soon if we can.”
“Okay, hmm. I believe another guy up in Christchurch might still do them, but I’m not sure.”
“Okay, thanks!” End of convo; continued nothingness accomplished.
After having actually met Tony in Dunedin, who very kindly helped us install our sink and correctly fit our grey water and hose attachments together, and who is also a stellar mechanic who will not try to rip you off and is now able to certify campervans on his own, I suggest you contact him at 027.526.4455 or pop into his Marine & Motorhome shop for your Self Containment Certification on the South Island, closely followed by Gordon of Hampden who actually certified our own van (though he didn’t seem too eager to be included in this post, so make him your alternate).
Step #3: Send in Paperwork & Get the Sticker
Holy mother of moses and a tiny blue sticker, you’re almost there! After receiving final approval from a Self Containment Officer and paying them approximately $30 NZD, they must send a faxed copy of your paperwork in for processing from the All Points Camping NZ staff, located on the North Island. You also have to mail in the original paperwork, along with a $30 processing fee, into their office at 32 Kennedy Avenue Feilding, NZ, 4702, and include a return address – which, like I said before, you may or may not have – for them to mail back your self containment sticker, card, and associated paperwork.
While we didn’t know this at the time, you can skip the whole snail mail process and instead snap a clear photo of your original paperwork, email it to [email protected], and pay the $30 processing fee via Paypal from their website, which is likely much faster than our way of doing it.
In fact, after dropping our paperwork in the mail slot on a Saturday morning in the small South Island town of Oamaru, taking a leisurely week-long road trip through Tasman, moving to the North Island via Interislander Ferry, and camping in Wellington for a 3 day weekend and still not receiving our precious blue sticker, we finally decided to just drive to Feilding ourselves and pick it up in person. Basically we beat the mail and weren’t even trying to do so.
Step #4: Add Sticker to Van & Celebrate Wildly
Put that little blue baby on your newly certified campervan, and hell, do a jig! Pop some champagne! Treat yo’self. You deserve it.
Best of luck, pals. If this post still hasn’t convinced you to splurge for a pre-certified self contained campervan in New Zealand, you must be as poor as we are, and we salute you. Also, Backpacker Guide does a solid job updating their site with the newest regulations for the NZ self containment process, so be sure to keep on eye on their site for the latest info.
Thanks for the info about self containment its been useful to me.
Happy travels!
Thanks for the info I am wanting to turn a 4wd into a camper I was going to have a roof top tent so shouldnt have an issue with the toilet. I live in chch and by the time I finish it I will have about a month before my trip. I agree with you you should by one pre certified but you can’t buy a decent 4wd pre certified. What do you think the overall cost will be time it will take in hours and the waiting process
Hey Elliot, thanks for reading. The rooftop tent is a great idea! Honestly I have NO idea how much this would cost or the hours it would take to accomplish. The waiting process is supposedly ~2 days if you pay the self containment fee online, otherwise it took us about 10 days all said and done.
Loved this
Hi Elliot,
Did you have a problem with self containing your vehicle using a rood top tent? i am looking to do the same thing to maximise my space inside the 4WD.
Hey man! Where did you get your 24 L Water and waste tanks from?
Cheers
Loved this.
Thanks for reading, Gary! 🙂
http://www.selfcontained.co.nz in Auckland can also do cheap testing and have appliances to make your van self contained.
Great summary. How did you vent the grey water tank outside the car?
Thanks, Jared! We had Tony (the mechanic/self containment officer in Dunedin) drill a hole in the bottom of our van, which we attached to the grey water tank. Hope that helps!
Thanks! reading this was very helpfull, I did notice that you dont have a tap with your sink, is that right? We are having a lot of trouble finding a tap without spending a couple hundred dollars….
Hey, Merith! We found the taps to be way overpriced as well, so we simply put our water tank on top of the kitchen portion near the sink and used it that way, and often washed our dishes in a separate bowl outside the van entirely. This seemed to work just fine in terms of getting the SC certification, too. Hope that helps!
Good work on ratting out the NZMCA and its not us its them attitude. The self containment saga is really a battle between local town residents pressuring local councils to control freedom camping. Although this is all phrased around “health” and “toilets” and “pooping in playgrounds”, its really about stopping random people camping and partying outside your house. Some councils have reacted to this pressure well, providing cool spots for freedom campers, other councils have more or less banned it. All in all its been handled with the blunt tool of the law rather than culture change.
Well said, and I totally agree!
You mentioned in the comments you ran your grey water vent hose through the bottom of the van? how did you manage this as there is a rule stating the vent must be 150mm above the highest appliance? also it doesn’t appear you have a s shaped water trap which i also thought was a requirement? Thanks for any help you can send my way!
Hey Dave, good questions. My boyfriend, who remembers these details in well, way better detail, tells me this: an s-shaped water trap isn’t a requirement, but rather a requirement that you simply know how one works. Any kind of trap will work, as long as it functions like an s-shaped trap would, and we were given a design to replicate that accomplishes that. Also technically, yes, there is a rule stating the vent must be above the highest appliance, but because ours was designed so that it wouldn’t overflow, they pretty much let it slide. This was, as a reminder, before the most recent updates to the rules, though, so perhaps we just got lucky? Hard to say, really, but I hope that helps a little.
Best of luck.
According to the man at the hardware shop.. the vent needs to go up in a u shape (up past the highest point as you note) then down through the van floor to the outside through a hole you will need to drill ie u shape.
Thanks for the clarification!
can the police fine you if you are at the side of a normal road? and they check your van with a bed inside and not self contained?
or yuo need to be at the specific public camping points with facilities paid by nz taxpayers to get fined?
please let me know guys
thanks
Hey Number9, that’s a lot of questions but generally, yes, you can definitely count on being fined for sleeping in random places on the side of the road, whether your vehicle is self-contained or not. You do not need to be only at the specified public campgrounds in order to be fined. Stick to paid spots (or free, if you’re self-contained) or make a friend with a driveway. Best of luck, bro.
Some rules changed in the last year.
Regards
and all of you that got self contained certification fell for the biggrst scam in NZ
I see what you’re getting at, Johnny, but it’s still a better alternative than paying $20 – $40/night for campgrounds or playing a daily game of Dodge the Ticket.
The only requirement should be that you are responsible, maybe with evidence of some education and maybe passing a quiz such as found at Accredited Campers NZ. That program is unofficially being recognised by Councils all over nZ, which when added that less than half require self contained certs is massive. It is honestly believed that the self containment certification requirements will be on the trash heap before next summer. Scam and only available to less than 20% of freedom campers as defined in NZ law.
I agree about the responsibility part and even quiz portion, Rob. I obviously thought this process was unnecessarily expensive, tedious and at times completely ridiculous, so let’s hope they come up with a better way of managing this process moving forward.
The self containment process doesn’t even really achieve anything. there is no education and the persons themselves still have to decide to be responsible. That does matter if you have certification or not. No wonder Australia chose not to implement it.. Leave no trace is the process to follow not focusing on the facilities in a vehicle.
Agreed, sometimes over regulation has the opposite effect too. Australia – and the U.S., semi shockingly – are way more lax about camping regulations. High time NZ rethought some of these ideas so that both locals and visitors could benefit.
Well written (hella entertaining – I felt your pain) and informative. Thanks for the great blog! Possibly buying a self contained camper tomorrow. Cheers!
Ha, anytime Ben! Enjoy your self contained camper adventures, yew!
Hi. We just bought a self contained Toyota Estima van. It has the certification letter and sticker until end of 2022. There is obviously clean water and grey water tanks, sink and a tap. The bed is a timber frame with ply sheet and the middle can be folded up into a table. There is a portable chemical toilet, but it just slides under the bedding and with the size of the van, I can’t see how it could be made to be used with the bed made up. Do we need to modify our van before the next certification sticker is issued or can we just use a external toilet tent? I am not sure how the van would have passed its test like that. The letter was issued back in 2019 so past the 2017 rule change.
Hi Jake, if I were you I’d make the argument that if it passed the last time, it should pass this time. Always easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, and you may get lucky and the person won’t even care or notice. Wish I had a better answer for you, but I do not. Good luck!
You do realize that self containment is nothing short of a scam? It voluntary and unenforceable in law and the Ministry of the environment said that after they stopped being the adminstor for it
You do realize this post is years old and also that it was very much enforceable at the time, right? Scam or not, for someone on a temporary Visa visiting the country, what would you rather them do… gamble with the legal and fiscal consequences because someone in a blog’s comment section said it was dumb? Get real, bro.
was always a scam – always been voluntary. Just sucked in a few thousand gullible people for the benefit of some private RV group trying to reserve freedom camping sites for their own members and to hell with everyone else.
Of course *getting* the certification is voluntary. But camping in the designated ‘freedom camping’ areas without a self containment sticker and certification can, and at least would when I lived there, get you a ticket. Therefore enforceable.
I agree it’s a scam. Did you even read the post? I’m obviously no fan of this process. I’m just saying that the answer isn’t to tell people to say ‘fuck it’ and go full anarchist, especially when it’s not their own country.
Are we sufficiently done disagreeing about stupid shit now? Word.
No, it has never been legally enforceable. It may have appeared that way but the reality is totally different. Search through Justice Dept Court Judgements – not one concerning Certified Self Containment has ever been to court – why? Because Councils knew they were not enforceable and withdrew the alleged infringements before it went to Court. I know groups that advocate for campers claiming every case they have been involved in, Council has withdrawn as soon as they said it would be defended in law courts. The best Councils have achieved is a few gullible campers paying unlawful instant fines.
Andrew… genuinely, at what point of this interaction did you think me searching through legal judgements was a thing I would add to my to do list for a country I no longer live in? I appreciate any and all corrections and updates about this type of stuff, really, but I still don’t share your confidence about this in particular. So if you’re reading this, interpeople, please direct all future concerns of self containment fines to Andrew from the Internet, whose email is most likely [email protected].
Thanks for the article you wrote back in 2018 – I have just finished having a bloody good laugh reading through it on a Sunday morning over me cuppa’ while we are in Level 4 lockdown here in NZ. Thanks guys, hope your travels are still awesome 🙂
Thanks, Rachel! Lol they are indeed, and have a butter chicken pie and another cuppa for us. Hope lockdown isn’t total crap.