My tips for NZ motorhome hire

Old Feb 9th, 2012, 10:08 AM
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My tips for NZ motorhome hire

Tips for a campervan or motorhome holiday in New Zealand with a family

I decided that I, my husband and our two boys (12 and 13) should experience a motorhome holiday down the South Island this summer holiday. My Mum and Dad had taken me on such a holiday around Europe when I was growing up and it was very memorable and something me and my siblings have all wanted to do with our own children.

We did an alternative route to many who come here ie we went down the Christchurch side of the South Island right around to Invercargill and up to Te Anau to go to Milford Sound and then on to Queenstown before heading back to Christchurch to get a flight back to Wellington. We only had 10 days which is the bare minimum to see a portion of the South Island. One of the things I wanted to do was to visit my great great grandmother’s 1896 grave in the little historic gold mining town of Lawrence in Otago.

We hired a 4 berth gem motorhome off Pacific Horizon. It was a van with no overhead sleeping cab, instead you made the front seats up at night into a bed. I found this compromised the amount of space in the van and also was timeconsuming to make the bed up all the time. Also the back seats were uncomfortable to travel on for those passengers. Just mentioning this as something to watch out for. We didn’t consider freedom camping this time round, maybe next time!

Here are my tips for taking a family on a campervan trip:

Motorhome review website
There is a bewildering array of campervan companies, a minefield in fact for first timers. Many options and configurations.

Consult the Rankers website, it seems to be the only website with reviews of the companies, similar to tripadvisor. After our holiday I would not deal with any company getting less than a 85% rating on the website. You are coming a long way and spending a lot of money and the motorhome and the service you receive from your hire company can make or break your holiday.

Compare motorhomes
Check out a website like Kiwiholiday parks, there is a motorhome hire tab whereby you can book a motorhome from several different companies and they seem to get passed on specials from those companies from time to time.
Also there is a good function on that website where you can compare motorhomes eg length, automatic etc.

Overhead sleeping cab
Check out the configuration carefully, I talked to someone with a campervan with the overhead cab who said it was awful for two adults to sleep up there especially if one of them needed to get down at night. It was claustrophobic and hot as well.

Consider 6 berth for 4 people
Consider hiring a 6 berth van instead of 4, for 4 people, it may be the same length but have more sleeping options. Once you get going on your holiday someone might not like their bed but will have no choice if there are not many options.

Will you use the toilet really??!!
Consider whether you are the type of people that want to empty the toilet out. We went around campgrounds for all our stops so in hindsight the toilet was a nice idea but took up valuable real estate in the van and it was not what we wanted to use on our holiday. There seemed to be some cool vans in the campgrounds for two people that had no toilet but were well equipped. Maybe they were cheaper.

Cheaper rates off peak
Avoid NZ school holidays if you don’t want to pay top dollar for rental
Try and avoid the New Zealand school holidays, especially the December/ January one. That is peak season and you will pay top dollar. I would consider either before Christmas (early Dec) or in February to get cheaper rates next time. There seem to be an awful lot discounts for motorhome hire popping up on New Zealand websites now that schools have gone back.

Ring the company and see if any discounts available
I found that if you just generate a quote off the motorhome company website you quite often just get the standard offering, if you ring you might strike a company with some surplus vans prepared to discount for your dates, however beware of being told you are getting a discount off a high published rate that no one pays anyway. Also remember taking the all inclusive package, nil insurance excess package can add another 20% on to your hire cost over and above the headline advertised rates.

I noticed a couple of campervan companies have discount vouchers in the entertainment book (www.entertainmentbook.co.nz) for hire that can save you several hundred dollars. This is a book of discount vouchers sold through schools for $60. I think the book runs from July to June each year. There are a lot of private member travel savings for accommodation and restaurants in this book.


Join Holiday park frequent user programmes
You will get 10% discount off camp ground fees from the following programmes:
Top 10 Holiday Park (we found these pretty good, a certain standard and some well located). This costs $40 to join for 2 years, you also get 10% off the Interislander ferry with this card.
Kiwi Holiday Parks – costs $20 to join for 2 years. Also some good parks of a certain standard.


Some recent New Zealand publications I found useful were:
The Great Kiwi Motorhome Guide (2011 publication) by Jill Malcolm and Bill Savidan
Let’s Go Camping (2009 publication) by Sarah Bennett and Lee Slater
The New Zealand Camping Guide, South Island (updated every year, I found it in the library) by Gay Kerr – this lists every single campsite in the South Island – is small to carry around
The Insider’s Guide to New Zealand – a collector’s annual 2012 by NZ Life and Leisure magazine (google New Zealand Life and Leisure). You can probably pick this up at any bookshop. Good for foodies and people into the finer things in life.

These books are all probably available at our main bookshop chain Whitcoulls.

Do homework on the costs
We found that traveling in the high season, getting a less than two year old motorhome and staying at camping grounds every night was very expensive. Ie $333 (with nil excess insurance) motor home hire, $60-70 per night campground fees, $50 per day diesel. That is $450 a day. New Zealand has some beautiful accommodation and motels and we probably could have stayed at some of them for that money!!

Consider pick up one town, drop off another
You may be able to pick the van up at one town and drop off at another to save time. When sorting out the itinerary you may want to register with seeya website www.seeya.co.nz which will send you low price fare alerts on flights from all the airlines operating in New Zealand or Jetstar (like Ryanair) which has really cheap flights to Queenstown sometimes, like today they are advertising $49 Wellington to Queenstown..

Catlins scenery of Otago is fantastic
Lastly- consider taking the route past the Catlins rather than down the West Coast, the sights there are absolutely spectacular like Nugget Point and Cannibal and Curio Bay. Less crowded than the West Coast I suspect, some gravel roads you have to drive but nothing not doable. Dunedin also has a lot of eco tourism tours which I would like to go on and also the Taieri Gorge Railway trip is apparently one of the great scenic train rides in the world. That’s on my list of things to do next time…

For anyone interested our itinerary was:

Day 1 Wellington to Picton
Picton to Kaikoura (crayfish – was pricey)
Kaikoura to Christchurch

Day 2 Christchurch to Oamaru (see historic buildings)
Oamaru to Moeraki (boulders and Fleurs Place restaurant)

Day 3 Moeraki to Dunedin – Lanarch Castle
Dunedin to Lawrence (visit ancester’s grave)

Day 4 Lawrence to Nugget Point, Catlins
Nugget Point to Purakaunui Falls
Say at McLean’s Falls motor park, Catlins – Whistling Frog Café good

Day 5 McLean’s Falls – Curio Bay at low tide
Curio Bay to Invercargill
Invercargill to Te Anau via Riverton

Day 6 Te Anau – go on Jucy Cruize Milford Sound trip

Day 7 Te Anau – Queenstown
Arrowtown visit Chinese goldmining settlement and museum visit

Day 8 Queenstown (gondola and luge)
Were going to go on the Million Dollar Cruise but too windy on lake

Day 9 Queenstown to Tekapo (the ‘most beautiful drive on the planet’)
Tekapo to Christchurch

Day 10 Catch flight back to Wellington

In summarizing, I think campervan/motorhome is a great way to see isolated parts of New Zealand, the roads are very open and not a lot of traffic most of the times. I saw many young couples and older couples having a great time in their campervans. Adding more than two people into the mix means more work for the adults! It’s intense living, takes getting used to.
I would like to go again but just with my husband next time, then we can keep the bed up at the back. The time saved in not packing up clothes etc can be taken up with packing up the van if you have kids and a hectic schedule.

Lastly if you made it through this report, my public photos are on
www.flickr.com/photos/kwkiwi

Have a great trip which ever way you go ie motorhome or car and motel!!!!
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Old Feb 9th, 2012, 11:52 AM
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Thanks for your detailed post!

Nice pictures, too. Thanks for the link.

Lee Ann
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Old Feb 10th, 2012, 11:59 AM
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What a great idea to post this info about motorhomes / campervans, kiwikiwi.

Looking at your photos I kept seeing the same or very similar photos I took about 7 years ago on my little Sony of each place! We travelled a little earlier in January so my husband could resume work after Wellington anniversary weekend. Did you see any Hector's Dolphins in Porpoise Bay? They were just amazing, playing around the children and adults who stood still in the water. Our German daughter was excited to see the Hector's again in Akaroa. When we were at Nugget Point the seals were having a gathering and even from up by the lighthouse the smell was overpowering!
The Catlins is a truly untarnished-by-commercialism part of NZ. One day when we have more than one day to spend through there we will return for a closer exploration.
I would recommend the Taieri Gorge Rail trip - it's very interesting as well as being reminiscent of former train-travel days.

Dot
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Old Feb 11th, 2012, 05:30 AM
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As someone who has been thinking about a motorhome holiday on the South Island I really appreciate the trouble you went to with this. Some really good pointers here.

Glad to see that you had a great holiday.
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Old Feb 11th, 2012, 11:34 AM
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Thanks for feedback, I'm new to Fodors but I always read their guidebooks. I just thought with the bewildering array of options for motohomes to hire out there some tips from my experience may be helpful to someone!!

PS Am, believe it or not, planning our next motorhome holiday. Looking at Ohope Beach Whakatane this time... Not going to go in the peak season though.
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Old Feb 11th, 2012, 12:58 PM
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Nice photo set of some of my favorite parts of NZ. It doesn't look like summer, though, with all that snow on the Remarkables.

One question, are those prices in NZD? $450 a DAY?!!!!
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Old Feb 11th, 2012, 01:00 PM
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kwkiwi here again - here is my trip report (if anybody has the energy to read it, it was my letter to my brother and sister I wrote when I got back) thank goodness for copy and paste!!
BTW I am a Wellingtonian, we usually travel overseas for holidays but decided to do the an NZ trip, I'm so glad we did and have lots more NZ trips planned as a consequence. We are a family of 2 adults and 2 children (12 and 13), we normally like the home comforts of life when we travel so this was a different experience - an adventure in the South Island you might say...



Just arrived back from our 10 day adventure around the lower half of the South Island in a campervan with the kids. We did have a great time and packed a lot in but I think it’s the first time everyone has been relieved to be home-sweet -home again. Trip was somewhat marred by a too small, poorly designed van but we have learnt a lot about campervanning and some of the family, namely me and my younger son, are still starters to try another holiday with another van company. My husband says that he won’t be doing that again and has ticked ‘campervanning’ off his list of things to experience…

It’s intense living all together and the campsites are a new experience for us as well. I can’t say I’m too enamoured with the communal toilet sharing etc, even if I went camping with all my friends, however I do realize that to see some remote parts of New Zealand, a good campervan is the way to go. There are many bays on the roadside where you can pull over and take in the scenery whilst having lunch. I take my hat off to the Dept of Conservation here after seeing the work they do in the country’s scenic spots with viewing platforms, picnic areas, bird life conservation etc.

The South Island is chocker full of campervans – it’s campervan land down there. Lots of young couples and lots of older couples in their ‘50s plus, not so many families, we were one of the few NZ families I saw traveling around like that. Probably because it was the week before school started and also the cost. I reckon without kids you’d have a ball. When Mum and Dad took us campervanning in the ‘70s in Europe they did it because it was a cheaper option, for us now in the 2012’s we could have gone cheaper in a car, stopping at motels.

The South Island is amazing, the scenery is world class and we explored some corners of the South Island that not many, even New Zealanders, get to. The highlight for me and my husband was the visit to the Catlins area in South Otago, that’s the southern most corner of Otago and it’s characterized by windswept, wild coast line, thick native beech forests and lots of wildlife, penguins and seals. The region is popular now as an eco tourism destination, you see many European tourists around the Catlins, particularly germans.

To get to some of the scenery you have to deviate from the main road onto gravel roads to get to some of the most stunning natural scenery you will see anywhere in the world. It is a truly windy area as well, more so than Wellington! You get trees that grow just about horizontally. One of the wildest beaches in the Catlins – Cannibal Bay was one of our favourites, although you could hardly stand up straight there.

You only get the truly intrepid travellers going to the Catlins. Not the busloads of (noisy, camera carrying) tourists that are everywhere in the tourist hotspots now around the South Island. My husband informs me that without them our economy would be severely compromised! The centre at Milford Sound is literally like being in Venice, teaming with tourists.

To be honest, the kids liked some of my itinerary but also refused to get out of the van at other times. Probably a little too much scenery for them, so that’s where the van came in handy as they could just sit in it whilst we went off to see some of the sights. They did get a sense of their ancestry visiting our great, great grandmother Agnes’s 1896 grave in Lawrence and also visiting the Arrowtown Chinese settlement on the riverbanks. Agnes was an irish woman who married one of the Chinese goldminers in the late 1800’s – brave woman! Her gravestone is getting a bit faint to read so I’m going to try and arrange to have it re inked so you can read the writing again. I bought a poppy flower to put on her grave and was pleasantly surprised to see that someone else in the family has also been through in recent years and also put some artificial flowers on her grave. It’s such an old graveyard and most other graves are not tended to any more.

It’s incredible to think that the Chinese came over all this way after the gold fields had already been worked over back in the 1860’s. I read that they were only invited over as the local economies were collapsing with people leaving once the big gold rush had passed. However no women and families were allowed in, just shows how desperate things must have been in China.

We did a bit of an ‘eating holiday’ and had a crayfish feed from a reknowned caravan ‘Nin’s Bin’ on the side of the road in Kaikoura, hellishly expensive – cost us $185 for the four of us, but my husband had decided he was going to do that no matter what. And then in Moeraki near Oamaru we went to ‘Fleurs Place’ a famous seafood restaurant, (that Rick Stein has even visited) and had a superb meal there. Even met Fleur who walks around the restaurant and is in her ‘70s.

Oamaru is a wonderful town now, believe it or not, it has the most number of intact Victorian buildings for a New Zealand town, that have been restored. There is a historic precinct where a lot of Victorian style shops are operating from. I think how far I’ve come since visiting an aunty all those years ago where I was unaware of such things as Victorian buildings when I was 13 or so!

We really didn’t spend long enough in each place and I would love to go back to some of these towns, our trip was really just a taster of the South Island. Going around the South Island you are really struck by how prosperous it was with the gold rush and then how it has reinvented itself via farming and tourism.

The only disappointment, (apart from the van) was that we made the big trip round to Milford Sound and it was raining and we couldn’t see Mitre Peak which was such a shame for my husband and the boys. Anyway the ride in from Te Anau was still quite spectacular if not a little misty. Fiordland is not renowned for high rainfall for nothing. The boys will remember the cruise for being wild and stormy though!

Spent the obligatory couple of days in Queenstown, although beautiful, it’s very expensive. The only activity we did in the end was going up the gondola. All those things like Skippers Canyon, Shotover Jet etc are around $500 for a family to do. You can really blow through the money traveling around the South Island with a family.

Finally, we did the drive back to Christchurch from Queenstown two days ago – someone described the first four hours of that trip as ‘the most beautiful drive on the planet’, with the, Lindis Pass, glacial lakes, Mt Cook (which was visible on a blue sky day) – I tend to agree about the beauty of this drive. If you have a look at my photos on www.flickr.com/photos/kwkiwi you can see what I mean. I can see why a lot of North Islanders retreat south to get away from the rat race. The wide open spaces and rugged country side are so different to the North Island.
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Old Feb 11th, 2012, 05:26 PM
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We own our own campervan and have never stayed in a commercial park. Saves heaps and you wake up in beautiful locations surrounded by no one. We did the same in NZ.
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Old Feb 14th, 2012, 10:48 PM
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Yep, $450 a day. Admittedly we went in high season, and wanted a van less than 2 years old but it was more than I expected but we went nevertheless. The camp qgrounds charge per person, and we stayed in several top 10s which r a better standard but you pay for it. I have also heard this comment from others that it is more expensive than you realize.

We did not consider freedom camping with the kids and to be honest you have to be extremely careful, for security reasons, where you stop ,in isolated parts. I noticed many parts of the isolated south island have no cellphone coverage as well.
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Old Feb 15th, 2012, 12:08 AM
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Loved the photos kwikiwi. We too, love the Catlins, especially in the off season when we have all that wind to ourselves!
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Old Feb 17th, 2012, 01:49 PM
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Hi kwkiwi.

Thanks for sharing the letter/report. The Arrowtown Chinese settlement you mentioned - was it at Macetown? When we went through there 38 years ago with a tour it was a very narrow track, and I was petrified, but it was worth the trip. There were the remnants of buildings and a few graves to see, but in those days there was not a lot of maintenance and care and we wondered if it might become non-existent. However, I am pleased to see it has now been restored to its almost-former glory - a really fascinating part of NZ's history.

My DH and I went South for 3 weeks every January for 9 years, always through to Motueka, then down the West Coast to visit family. However, that was the only constant part of the trip. Each year we did different sections of the lower South Island before ending up in Timaru to stay with a friend. Often we would revisit familiar places because they were on the route, we passed through them to get to the 'new' place, or just because we loved it. I love the South Island because the scenery is so different and rugged, as you said. Mind you, I would never tell my DH this as I am a true-blue Wellingtonian and he a dyed-in-the-wool Cantabrian!!

When our children were young they found the regular two-yearly South Island trip rather onerous and B-O-R-I-N-G, but when they were older were grateful they had seen as much of NZ as they did!! However, we never did try campervanning. It is just something that does not appeal to me - unless of course it has all the home comforts within, making me totally self-sufficient! But you know what, I used to feel slightly envious of those campervanners we saw! I was rather shocked at your costs though. As you said, it would be cheaper to travel by car and stay in motels - and less cramped!.
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Old Feb 18th, 2012, 08:02 AM
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Hi kwkiwi.
Enjoyed your report, tips, and photos. Perfect timing as my husband and I just booked our plane tickets, campervan rental for six weeks and accommodations in Auckland (either side of the road trip) for Dec-Jan. First timers for NZ and very excited. We know it will be high season but we are Canadian snowbirds and will need the sun! I was shocked to hear how expensive the commercial campgrounds were. WOW! We were planning to do as much "freedom camping, and use DOC campsites and Regional Parks and Native Parks as much as possible anyway because we have never liked commercial places and will be self contained. We own our own campervan in Canada and try to do as much independent camping as possible except for hookup stops as needed to top up the batteries. But your comment about security issues concerns me. Is this a major problem in N.Z. ?
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Old Feb 18th, 2012, 11:31 AM
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Dottyp - thanks for your replies, sounds like we're going to do the same as you, go back to the South Island frequently, and hopefully our kids will look back and have got something out of the campervan trip!! Sorry I don't know if Arrowtown is also known as Macetown, the chinese settlement is just next to the main town centre in Arrowtown.

Encantadora - great to hear you are coming over, I'm sure you'll have a great time - be prepared for any weather though (even in Dec/Jan!) and be flexible as a lot of the sights down south are weather and tide dependent - By the way don't bring too much clothing, we have some awesome outdoor clothing companies where you can get very lightweight travel clothing ie Kathmandu, Bivouac, IceBreaker. (I even have a lightweight shirt from Kathmandu that is impregnated with insect repellent...) The little town of Otaki, near Wellington has a lot of outlet shops where those outdoor clothing companies sell off last season's clothing at good prices.

I wouldn't be overly concerned with freedom camping. I think it's a personal preference as to whether you feel safe camping alone in isolated areas. There have been a couple of incidents with campervans, they were isolated ones though I stress. There are Dept of conservation campsites which are low fee, basic facilities, but in fantastic scenery areas of New Zealand. The one I was reading about was the Mt Cook one that people reccommend highly.

There is a DOC campsite directory you can get, I suppose if you contact our government department for the outdoors called the Ministry of Conservation. The list of them is at:

http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-rec...tes-by-region/
I guess with the Doc campsites you get the power points, others around you camping but less of the ra ra and kids you get in the commercial campsites. We weren't in for the cold showers at those Doc campsites! There are also dump stations to empty campervan toilets and waste water located at gas stations. To find those I think they're on the AA travel website here at http://maps.aa.co.nz/browse/amenities/dump+stations. If you look on the rankers.co.nz website, there are unbiased ratings of all those campsites.

Sorry I'm no expert on campervanning here, just been on the one trip. I found a very good magazine at the library for campervanners here called 'Motorhomes, Caravans and Destinations' on http://www.nzmcd.co.nz/Articles.aspx. I'm sure if you could contact the editor there she might be able to give you information on freedom camping. I was reading she is a passionate motorhomer and her and her husband have been living in a motorhome travelling around for the last year! She is the author of the book I mentioned called The Great KIwi Motorhome Guide - by Jill Malcolm. The destination reports they have and photos of NZ spots in the motorhome magazine are very inspirational and motivating to get you travelling, I found.

Hope that is of some help.

kwkiwi
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Old Feb 19th, 2012, 08:40 PM
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Just be aware that some towns ban freedom camping, rather you have to go to designated sites you can't just park up, Nelson/Tasman area is one place that is doing this.
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Old Feb 21st, 2012, 10:01 AM
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Actually I think this rule only applies to motor-homes that don't have a self-contained toilet.
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Old Feb 21st, 2012, 11:26 AM
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Thanks for the helpful links kwkiwi and the added comments nelsonian. Although we will be renting a self-contained campervan with toilet and shower we still will opt for official DOC campsites when possible and will only "freedom camp" et al. after checking with locals I also doubt we will ever be in isolated areas since we are there in high season ;-) but if we are, we will be careful. I imagine most of of the incidents are petty theft? As experienced campervan owners, campers and outdoor enthusiasts I think we already have all the requisite personal clothing and gear AND my husband sez "no shopping on this trip" in a very firm voice!
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Old Feb 24th, 2012, 02:49 AM
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Great tips!! Thanks for sharing thoughts of your mind with us.
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Old Feb 26th, 2012, 12:26 PM
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Thanks for the great trip report! I remember when my wife and I hired a car out of Christchurch back in 1999 we had gotten to the airport and had forgotten to reserve our car. Finally we had managed to get the last one from a family that owned the business, an old car that I drove over the Alps on our way to Greymouth to see glowworms and the brakes were smoking on the way down the mountains, the car had over 140,000 kilometers on it and it was quite old but we made it! Even saw the Beach Boys in concert in Queenstown! Again thanks for the trip report I can't wait to get back there to New Zealand, as my wife said: NZ is like Hawaii only more beautiful. Thanks again!
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Old Mar 8th, 2012, 05:28 PM
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Thats an awesome itinerary did you find you had enough time? I am wanting to embark on a trip, and was thinking about using this itinerary but do you think I need more time: http://www.travelsavernz.com/camperv...ern-encounter/

Thanks in advance
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Old Mar 16th, 2012, 12:47 PM
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I didn't think we had enough time. We were rushing quite a bit. Kids slow you down so if it's just adults probably it's ok to rush around. We didn't really see Dunedin, the eco tours there sound good. I looked at your itinerary, on the link. It looks fairly rushed as well. Two days in Queenstown would be the bare minimum. To be honest I would take it more leisurely if we had more leave available and without the kids! There is a lot to see in the South Island and quite a lot of driving. I regarded our trip as a touring one so expected to be on the road a lot.
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