Mrs Grim and I are heading to NZ in October. The plan is to fly into Auckland, hire a car or a camper then drive down to the south island (Chrischurch) to meet up with some friends for a couple of weeks.

Can anyone with personal experience recommend a company to hire a campervan from in Auckland who would be happy with us dropping it off in Christchurch? We’re flying back out from the south so won’t be back in Auckland.

Also, any recommendations on where to stop on the way? I’m hoping to allow about 2-3 days for the journey. Won’t have bikes but would definitely hire.

I hired a Jucy people carrier / van thing for Queenstown to Aukland when it became obvious i wasn’t going to ride back north fast enough. All the big firms will be happy with one way hire and bundle in the ferry crossing too. 2/3 days will be a long time at the wheel and you’ll miss out so much; maybe internal flight to somewhere like QT and car-hire from there?
Places to stop are close on limitless, but be aware that freedom camping is only possible if you’ve got WC on board, with fines readily dished out for those without. Campgrounds are cheap; the whole system is set up for budget travellers / backpackers / self drives much better than over here. If it was me I’d skip most of the N island (although Napier was cool) and get down into the abel tasman, then wanaka, queenstown, milford.
Jucy vans are all purple and green – waving like a loon when you see another approaching was de rigeur!

Plenty of bike hire in Rotorua and some nice trails on the edge of town.

Campervan tip – don’t get caught speeding at more than 139kph or you’re in the poo. 139kph just means a $400 fine which you may ignore if you’re not planning to go back there…..

We used cheapa camper in christchurch. Bear in mind the law about camping anywhere: I think you need an indoor toilet

I’m hoping to allow about 2-3 days for the journey. Won’t have bikes but would definitely hire.

Are you able to stretch 2-3 days? for reasons only i know, i drove taranaki to Coromandel in a day. Which is most of the distance your talking just for the north island, and that was a LONG DAY!!! and i didn’t get much time to sightsee. You then have a ferry and another LONG DRIVE to Christchurch.

The roads aren’t fast.

2-3 days ? Seriously, don’t bother. Auckland – Wellington is an 8 hour drive, then you have to co-ordinate with Picton Ferry crossings which takes most of a day, then it’s 5 hours drive to ChCh.

And the rental companies sting you horribly for reclocation fees, if they even permit you to take the van on the ferry which is not a given. As obviously, they will have to pay somebody to take it back across (I had a lucrative sideline as a student driving rental cars back to Auckland from Wgton)

Most tourists want to land in Auckland and leave from ChCh, so the south island would sink under the weight of he camper vans if this kind of thing was allowed !

Get an internal flight to ChCh will be way cheaper, and all you will see of the North Island driving down in that timescale is the gas station at Taihape.

I’m getting excited already 😆

I’m struggling to fit everything in. Wife wants a stopover in Vancouver one way and Singapore the other so need to fit in a night or two at both then the road trip then fitting in mates and rellies ( 😛 )

I have three weeks off work so will need to compromise somewhere.

P.S edit – the rental firms are ecstatic with one way hire going north, as they will have already charged the south driving person for the relocation, so rather than paying a student to drive it back, you will be paying them to take it back.

We used Kea and I would recomend them (although they were not the cheapest), They sorted a small issue (my fault) I had with the soil pipe (oops) very quickly in the town we were in at the time. All in all a pleasure to deal with.

I would STRONGLY agree with Spandex – skip the north island and get yourself to Abel Tasmin, followed by Wanaka, Queenstown and then try get to Doubtful Sound if you can (beats Milford hands down for my money).

We used Kea excellent service, quality and price. You can sto p pretty much anywhere in nz, we went to a camp site every 3 or 4 days for decent shower, laundry etc

OMG ! From somebody who has done this many times, don’t stopover. It just compounds the jet-lag, and you will spend most of the stopover lying in the hotel room bed wondering what time it is what day it is and what country you are in.

Especially don’t stopover both ways. I know it’s tempting, but you won’t enjoy it unless it’s a good week or so. I would even say that 3 weeks isn’t long enough for just Enzed, you will lose a couple of days each way getting there.

Straight there, NZ 1 via LA, no stops, internal flight to ChCh, get on with enjoying the South Island. You can likely get a couple of weeks of the South Island between the travelling, if you go with stopovers and drive down from Auckland, you have a week to enjoy. And last time I checked, it takes a week to drive to Queenstown ! OK not really, but it feels like it…

We used Escape – http://www.escaperentals.co.nz/

Cheap and cheerful. Car might be better for the time you’ve got though 🙂

Thanks Hels, It’s good to hear from experience that the stopovers might not be the best idea. The reasoning is we wanted to sample a couple of places to then go back on a separate holiday.

Woody – That van looks ace. Did it have a chemical toilet?

Will look into skipping the North by plane!

We used Hippiecamper and wicked for van rental in Australia. Both are available in NZ and couldn’t be more different. Hippie Campers have nice vans but are a complete pain to deal with. They overcharged us, took extra money from our credit card for ‘fees’, absolutely refused to refund and there wasn’t much we could do from here. Wicked have tatty vans but are so chilled out and relaxed. Vans come pre-scratched so they don’t charge you for any minor dinks.

If you are doing a whistle-stop tour then you might be able to do a relocation where they pay your fuel costs and give you a van for free, but you need to do a lot of miles in a day.

would hiring a car and using a decent tent be more pleasant and cheaper than one of those small vans? The campsites are so well equiped and many have huts to rent if the weathers shitty.

Did it have a chemical toilet?

Nope, it had pretty much nowt aside from a bed, a sink and a bit of space to store your stuff. We were following the well beaten track so facilities were never really that far away. 🙂

Sorry for this being text heavy

I spent two weeks travelling around the South Island in Dec 2009 using this company http://www.newzealandcampervanhire.co.nz/

At the time, they were the cheapest I could find for the LWB Hi-top 2.5Tdi Transit. The met us at the Picton ferry (the missus and I) & we dropped it back at the owners house in Christchurch, even ran us to the airport. The van was almost brand new, I’m sure we were the 2nd/3rd hirer. Spoke with Tony on the phone a few times, nice guy. I’m sure he’d meet you at Auckland, but they’ll probably be an additional charge for that.

TBH and not meaning to put a damper on it, I wouldn’t take a camper van around NZ again, although I’d say this depends on how much wild camping you want to do. We did 2 weeks in North Island with my aunts little Sirion (petrol was 70p, diesel 50p litre then), so we didn’t need to pay for car hire, but we ended up staying in the best hotels we could find wherever we stopped (Copthorne at Martins Bay & Waitangi most memorable). They only worked out about £60 for the two of us per night with breakfast. I worked out that you could hire a car for around £20 per day. So for anywhere from £60-£100 per day you’ve transport sorted & somewhere to sleep. The Campervan was working in around £220 per day.

If you’re definitely hiring a campervan, I’d say you have two main options due to the “hidden” fee of caravan parks. We made the mistake of not “Wild camping” enough. Out of the 12 days touring, we only did this for 4 of them. The rest was spent around caravan parks hooked up. This is great when you need to empty the septic waste (which can be done in most of their petrol stations for nowt) and use the leckie to power the microwave/kettle. You’ll pay around NZ $25-$30 per night, it can add up quickly.

Option 1 – If mainly wild camping, get a decent diesel van with a shower. You can’t use appliances that draw lots of power (M/Wave & Kettle) but you have a gas stove, kettle, TV & Aircon that’ll work fine.

Option 2 – If mainly using sites, get a cheaper “Wicked” van as the sites have showers, laundry, kitchens/toilets, some even have TV rooms.

Drop me an email if you’ve any questions. Should be in the profile.

Whatever way you do it, you’ll absolutely love it….I’ve been lucky enough to travel quite a bit and NZ is my favourite place.

We used these guys. Handy enough for 2 adults. Pickup in Auckland, left it back in Christ Church.

http://www.spaceshipsrentals.co.nz/?gclid=CI701Nu4ua8CFeUEQAod70dRjA

No Toilet though

Did some biking in Nelson. Rotarua is where the best trails are. QT is awesome.

We hired a 1966 VW splitty, collecting in Christchurch and returning in Auckland. The company were great and so was the van.

http://kiwikombis.com/

one word of advice, if your getting low on fuel don’t pass the garage and think there will be another a few miles one!!!!!

We did 6 weeks around both islands last year. I looked at a camper but in the end it was loads cheaper to just get a hire car and stay in youth hostels, hotels and b and b’s.

With that little time I would skip n island and head directly to ChCh, fly from Akl. As said its 8h from Akl to wgtn then about 6h all up for ferry then another 9 to queenstown…
All the major hirers are good – Maui, escape etc. all within spitting distance of CBC airport. Alternatively consider a car and use campgrounds which almost always have units which are cheap. Or reverse it and do n island only – don’t try and do both in that time.
For stopovers – Singapore is doable even if just for a few hours as you can have a swim and a kip if you want at the transit hotel. Well worth it.

Just been to South Island in Jan. We hired a “wilderness” campervan based on reviews online.

They are a good price (similar to KEA spec but cheaper) and the van was superb (VW t5). Really well designed interiors, excellent to drive, good clean bedding, proper glasses and cutlery, subtle design which doesn’t scream grockel. Having owned VW campers in the past I was very very impressed with them.

On the other hand Wicked campervans which we hired in Oz – wouldn’t go near them again.

Kia were very good to deal with. Would recommend them happily
As above the south island is the place to be.

Queens town for furge burger

I spent 4 weeks in NZ with a car and used hostels/cheap hotels, and worked out all good. We planned our route to a certain extent, and with the help of a Lonely Planet guide phoned ahead most mornings and secured a bed in a hostel to where we were heading. Had to use a shared dorm of a few nights, but not the end of the world considering the cost.

they will have already charged the south driving person for the relocation, so rather than paying a student to drive it back, you will be paying them to take it back.

Some of the big rental companies offer one-way trips for very cheap (sometimes $1 a day, sometimes free ferries, sometimes both) through http://www.standbyrelocs.com . If you’re doing it the “wrong” way, you might have a good chance of picking one up. The downside is that they don’t often become bookable until closer to the trip.

Wicked have tatty vans but are so chilled out and relaxed.

They’re certainly chilled out and relaxed about the maintenance and basic safety of their vans. They suspended use of most of their Queensland rental fleet after (possibly politically-motivated, possibly not) spot checks: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/travel-news/campervans-not-wicked-says-operator-20100110-m0je.html
http://australia.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=390&catid=67:travel

Those Mitsubishi Express campervans are awful enough when they’re brand new (I drove one from the factory in Sydney to the rental place in Melbourne). Driving one of the ancient, shagged-out, teenagery Wicked ones for 5000km would be a great way to ruin an epic trip.

I suppose it depends what you want from the trip. They are certainly at the back-packer end. Ours was cheaper than a car to rent, gave us free accomodation and access to the outback. It made for an epic trip as we went to loads of places we couldn’t have gone to any other way. I believe NZ is a bit more accessible that Aus so maybe that isn’t an issue.

This guy we met (Not us) got his full deposit back!