we are planning on traveling the Southern Scenice route for 2 days from Te Anau to Dunedin during our stay in New Zealand next month. The rental car company indicated that, if we leave the main road to make side trips, we do so at our own risk. Do we actually need 4WD for the side trips along that route or do we just need to be more careful? Thanks.
rental car in New Zealand
Recent Activity
View all Australia & the Pacific activity »
- 1
Tahiti - April 2013
- 2 Travelling then teaching in Australia - any words of wisdom?
- 3
So much to do, so little time. A long weekend in Margaret River
- 4 Australia & New Zealand tour companies
- 5 Here goes - 1st attempt at a NZ 17 night itinerary.
- 6 First visit to New Zealand and (possibly) Australia
- 7 Overnight on Hong Kong/Australia trip
- 8
16 days all over New Zealand
- 9 7-14 days in Australia in August
- 10 NZ - Trip of a lifetime. Help!
- 11 Sydney real estate and cost of living
- 12 From Ramana kumar 569
- 13 Planning Stages of Trip To Fiji and Australia
- 14 Calmest part of GBR
- 15 Port Douglas vs. Airlie Beach
- 16
Addicted to New Zealand - Trip Report
- 17
Rotorua Price List, Free Stuff and some other thoughts
- 18 Songdoc's Aussie Pix!!!
- 19 honeymoon in october
- 20
Kangaroos, Koalas, & Kookaburras, Oh, My: A Songdoc Aussie Trip Report
- 21 Need a car on Aitutaki?
- 22 Tahiti
- 23 travelling around oceania islands
- 24 November 2013 East Coast & Tasmania
- 25 Work Abroad
Most car hire contracts in NZ specify that the renter is liable for all damage that occurs from driving off of sealed roads. You don't need a 4WD for this area, but some side roads are indeed unsealed. If you are careful, you will be fine.
You will LOVE the Southern Scenic route!!!! Definitely do some of the side trips. Some that we really liked were - Monkey Island, Cozy Nook, and Waipapa Beach (we saw three Hooker's Sea Lions there). You should also go to the Southernmost point which is at Slope Point. You have to walk through a sheep field to get there, but it is really wild and gorgeous when you do. Just make sure you close the gates so the sheep don't get out!
! Then realize that you will need to take it slow and easy over those roads. But it's so beautiful you will want to. Can you tell I'd love to go back?!
You are lucky that you are going to be there during the sumer. We went in the winter and our biggest problem was running out of daylight too soon. When I first saw that you were giving yourself only 2 days for the drive I was going to say it's not enough. But then I realized that you will be able to keep going much longer than we could and start earlier.
The roads you will be on to get to some of these area will be gravel, but they are really fine for a car. We had a little 4 door econo-box and it was fine. Even over the ice and grit that was all over the place. So just don't tell them where you plan to drive and what they don't know won't hurt
Thanks so much for this information. We didn't want to rent a 4WD if a Toyota Corolla was sufficient.