Hi...We're thinking of a possible 10+-day holiday in NZ soon and had been thinking of renting a car and driving throughout the country. I've always used local transport when in Australia and even Europe in the past, never rented a car. If anyone has had a positive experience renting and driving through NZ, please let me know what to look for and what to avoid. If it happens that there is NO such thing as a positive car rental experience, please advise and offer some suggestions as to the best way to get around the country. Thanks for your halp! Cheers!!

I've been to NZ twice before and both times rented a car...worked out very well each time. And, I am about to leave for NZ again this Saturday Oct 13. I've set up a car rental at Christchurch with Auto Europe (www.autoeurope.com) who matched a rate that I found was lower than theirs. I wanted to go with Auto Europe because I have rented cars from them many times at different places around the world and they are quite good. <BR> <BR>John Day

For what it's worth, next time we visit NZ we will avoid local "no-name" agencies in favor of the national or multi-national firms, even if it means we'll spend a little more. At one of the aforementioned outfits, we were given an elderly vehicle with lots of miles and not a lot of tread depth, a radio that worked spontaneously or not at all, and a pervasive odor - not unpleasant, just not especially car-like. We only noticed these things when returning to Auckland was out of the question. As a final zap, I discovered a hemishpere later that they'd kept my driver's license when they went off to make a copy of it on our return. Arrgh. <BR> <BR>That said, driving in NZ is a ball and you'll have a great time.

Hi <BR> <BR>I would concur with the above post - but I have bad experiences from Avis too (but at least you have come-back with them). <BR> <BR>I rented from a no-name car hire place and had lots of problems eg car wasnt there at appointed time and had to wait 3 hours for it. Another time (in australia) they made me pay for damage that was alreday on the vehicle because they had "lost" the damage report and not given me a copy so I had no proof i hadnt caused the damage. <BR> <BR>Try National - they have an easy to use website and good rates. <BR> <BR>I have done big trips round NZ both using buses/trains and by car and found that I missed many things by not having the car. <BR> <BR>Driving is very easy as there are so few cars!!!

Hi Renee <BR>We used Avis last year for 11 days in NZ. Picked up car in Blenheim then dropped it off in Christchurch. Actually the hotel arranged for the Airport location to pick up the car to save us time. We were taking the Tranz Alpine to Greymouth. Then we picked up another car in Greymouth to go to Franz Joseph, Haast Pass, Queenstown and ultimately drop off in Dunedin. We ended up with Avis because they were the only ones we could find that had locations in all the places we needed at a reasonable price. The only problem we had was that the personnel in Blenheim left before we could tell them we did not have a full tank of gas. We ended up writing a note at dropoff. They could not have charged us too much more or the exchange rate was so great we did not notice any significant amount over the price we were quoted when it came through on visa. PS just make sure you are using a credit card that does not charge a fee for foreign transactions. Ours did not, but the couple we were with got hit on every charge. They ended up paying $80 over our 3 weeks that they had not planned on due to the fees.

Hi Renee; <BR> <BR>When my wife and I went to NZ last year, we rented cars in Christchurch on the south island, and in Aukland for the north, and then did loops. This worked extremely well, and was thoroughly enjoyable. Driving in NZ is easy and fun, although there are enough steep and windy roads and fantastic scenery to keep it from being dull. I can't think of a better place for driving. <BR> <BR>We rented from a 'no-name' and were not favourably impressed. The car we picked up in Christchurch was not all that clean, and was 'worn down' a bit; i.e. it looked as if it had seen some hard use. We didn't have any mechanical problems, but were a bit worried we would. I'd go with a bigger name agency. <BR> <BR>In any case, you're making the right choice. You'd miss out on a great deal if you toured NZ and didn't drive.

We rented with Maui out of Auckland and were favorably impressed. The cars were new and clean. When one of the cars developed mechanical difficulty, the firm had a new car to our hotel for us within 6 hours. One of our cars developed a cracked windscreen as the result of a rock from the road, but as we had purchased the full LDW cover, all ws taken care of...not even any forms to fill out. The only drawback, even though they have a shuttle from the Auckland airport, the office opens at 8, so there was a 3-hour wait after our 5 AM arrival.

Be careful if you rent from National because I found out they had a per kilomter fee on their convertibles. This can really add up in New Zealand, but I'm not sure if they have that fee on all their cars.

just a quick note about the above post...I think many hire firms have seperate rules for convertibles. National has unlimited kms for normal cars.

we rented a car from apex (a nz national company) and found them to be great. i booked online and had no problems whatsoever. we were met at the airport in christchurch by an associate who dropped the car off and after we were done with the car in queenstown, another rental associate dropped us off at the airport, gratis. <BR>driving in new zealand was a dream. lots of beautiful scenery along the way and the roads are in great condition. i would definitely travel by car in new zealand again.