Hi everyone,

We have an upcoming trip to NZ in January, and I was wondering if I could have any advice on the best campervan companies out there. Someone suggested Wendekreisen, but I didn't see many good reviews about them, so I'm wondering if you had any good alternatives. For reference, we will be taking the campervan in Auckland and leaving it in Christchurch at the end of the trip.

Thank you in advance!

We have done several (Long) Campervan trips around New Zealand. The first time was with a small family company who were very nice people and the van was generally ok but when we had a few mechanical problems it was difficult to get it fixed. The second time was with Maui who are the biggest provider in NZ and Australia. The also have sister brands, Britz and Mighty , the only difference being the age of the vans and of course, the rates. We rented for two months with them but did have a lot of vehicle problems but they were quick to fix each one it just became a bit tedious and time consuming to have to take the van in to be fixed every week. They did however compensate us and I think we were just unlucky.

Our last thrip we used Wilderness and they were absolutely superb. The vans are excellent and are capable of going for much longer without recharging batteries than most so we did a lot of free camping and DOC sites as well as commercial sites. The layout of the vans was also much better than the Maui as we had a fixed bed in a separate bedroom which made life on the road a lot more comfortable. They are not the cheapest but our experience was that with camper vans, you get what you pay for.

Wendekreisen did use to have a great reputation but I recall reading of lots of problems on Tripadvisor around the time of the pandemic when they allegedly refused to refund client who couldn't enter NZ when the country closed down.

Renting a van is IMO the best way to experience New Zealand. It provides a huge amount of flexibility, you get to stay in some amazing places that would otherwise not be possible but dont for one moment imagine it is a cheap option!

Some photos and details from some of the places we visited are in our blog @ https://accidentalnomads.com/category/new-zealand/

I'm not sure if you would consider this as an option, but we actually bought a van when we went to NZ and sold it before we came home. Depending on the length of your trip, this could be an option? Alternatively, Britz and Apollo seemed to be the most popular vans around. Have a fabulous trip!

If you want to see the Jucy van and hear a report about the experience and costs, this is a good youtube video I found in planning for our own trip.