New Zealand car hire or camper hire

[wez130]

Hi, i'm loking at car hire or camper van hire for New Zealand in December and frankly, it looks crap. I want to hire something a bit better than a Toyota, and the only newish convertible that may be available is an MX5, which i know is ok, there's a site offering an old E46 M3 for $230 a day but it looks like in general, NZ is a crap place for car hire

My other alternative was to hire a VW camper to tour North island (missus doesn't reckon there's enough time for south island in the 2 weeks we're hiring a vehicle for). But there's a premium on them too, we're looking at $4000 for 2 weeks camper hire, there obviously are the cheaper alternatives like a Toyota hiace camper etc but that's not special to me.

What would you do?

 

[wez130]

I must add, i'd love to hire an X6 to see what all the rage is about but they aren't available either.

 

[sovietspybob]

From what i've seen of New Zealand online an MX5 would be right at the top of my list of cars to drive there. On the flip side i'd activly pay money to avoid a VW camper

 

[ElliottJames]

I must add, i'd love to hire an X6 to see what all the rage is about but they aren't available either.

Hire the X6 definitely.

 

[Minstadave]

I would personally bin the North Island and do the south if you were going to do one island. 2 weeks is enough for both though.

There's so much accommodation that I've never bothered going the camper van route. We'd just book a couple of days at a time as we went round.

My folks live in NZ and I've been going for years so have a pretty good idea.

 

[[TW]Fox]

High end car hire in Australia and New Zealand is a waste of time and money. If you want a car rent a Falcon XR6/Holden Commodore SV6 as thats about as good as it gets without paying comedy prices and even when you do pay extra for a 3 Series or something it's a crap 320i or similar usually.

 

[paradigm]

Also, your missus is right about you having a lack of time for the South Island.

I was there for a month and still didn't have enough time!

 

[Minstadave]

High end car hire in Australia and New Zealand is a waste of time and money. If you want a car rent a Falcon XR6/Holden Commodore SV6 as thats about as good as it gets without paying comedy prices and even when you do pay extra for a 3 Series or something it's a crap 320i or similar usually.

Plus he speed limit is 100kph and is rather more vigorously enforced than the UK, even in places that are miles from anywhere.

 

[wez130]

Also, your missus is right about you having a lack of time for the South Island.

I was there for a month and still didn't have enough time!

Did you visit north island? If you did, where would you recommend visiting? I've got a few ideas like sky tower in Auckland, we're going for dinner here one night, then there's Waiheke island, Rotorua and lake Taupo so far.

 

[George Hincapie]

Whangarei and the Bay of Islands are nice. Auckland is a nice place to spend a few days and there are some islands not too far off shore that you can get a ferry out to. You can get a train from Auckland to Wellington and that's a really nice way to travel. Once in Wellington check out Te Papa (the National Museum - built on earthquake proof springs) and the tram and ornamental gardens.

Get the ferry over to South Island and spend the night in Picton. Then travel down to Christchurch and on to Queenstown.

Fly back to Auckland then come home.

That was what I did in 2004 - spent a month there and it really wasn't long enough.

This should give you some ideas: http://www.newzealand.com/uk/things-to-do/

 

[Topitoff]

Everything said ^ and add Milford Sound

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

http://www.maui.co.nz/ will provide a wide selection of camper vans. Very well known brand.

If you're hiring a car then get an XR6 or similar. There's a huge price increase on 'premium' models such as BMW, Audi etc which would be acceptable if the models themselves were premium but they're not, certainly not in comparison to those on offer in the UK.

I'm also not sure how you managed to get a $4k quote for two week camper hire? Does that include the massive but refundable deposit you'll be required to pay?

 

[wez130]

The first 2 weeks I'm there I'm spending time with my partners family / friends, then getting married on 12th December, leaving 13th till 29th for exploring before moving on to Sydney, I won't have time for South island this time but will definitely concentrate on South island next time.

 

[Minstadave]

It's a shame because all the real stand out bits for me are on the South Island. Auckland does nothing for me, but a day on Waiheke is nice but I much preferred heading out to the Coromandel and Hot Water Beach. Roturua is ok but not hugely memorable, Taupo and Wellington are really nice. Welly has a nice buzz to it despite being much smaller than Auckland.

We went to Napier and it was the most boring place ever unless you really like Art Deco, well apart from post earthquake Christchurch which was desolate.

 

[wez130]

Yea i know, i really would prefer to do south island, particularly Milford sound, it's something to look forward to in the future i guess.

 

[garethrobinson1]

I spent 4 weeks in New Zealand a couple of years ago - 1 week on the north and 3 on the south. I think that struck a pretty good balance to be honest.

We thought long and hard about car + motel vs campervan, but in the end went with the former and I'd certainly say that was the best choice for us. There's so many motels to stay at and also it's just easier, as well as faster getting around in a car. I lost count of the amount of slow campervans I overtook over the duration of the trip!

 

[[TW]Fox]

Surely there is enough time to get a good taste of the South Island in 2 weeks.

 

[lambada]

Did a month on both islands by car plus motels and have no regrets. Kept in mind that you'll have to pay parking fees if you stop at camp sites with a van.