As a result of sometimes somewhat contradictory mileage and moderately accurate maps, we reached our planned daily mileage before the planned destination. Despite a lot of headwind and two passes, we drove over 70km (almost 5h pure driving time) to a beautiful DOC campsite. The Department of Conservation (DOC) operates various campgrounds in New Zealand with different levels of development. From simple grass areas with toilet up to such with warm water shower and kitchen.
On the approx. 7km long gravel access road we had to reload the luggage for the first time to cross a creek dry. So far the fords were dry. Speaking of fords: The state highway number 1, the main connection between north and south, so something like the A1 in Switzerland, also has several fords, single-lane bridges, ungated railroad crossings.... that just goes, because there is much less traffic than in Switzerland.
Now back to the campground. The place is nice and quiet, in the middle of nature, just like a Pfadi campground :-)
The facilities are compared to the "real" campsites with kitchen, TV room, internet, washing machines,.... very simple. It has outhouses, a shower and a coin-operated gas grill (apparently New Zealanders can't survive without BBQ). Despite all the simplicity, everything is very clean, cleaner than some other campgrounds, although the standard in New Zealand is generally very high.
We really enjoy camping at the moment, cooking wonderful freestyle carbonara horns sitting on the ground and enjoying the peace and quiet (the playing children on the relatively far away neighboring campsite do not really disturb).