South Island Car Rental Recommendations
 

Hello! Looking for any car rental company recommendations or tips. We will be picking up at/near the Nelson airport and returning in Queenstown. I believe I had read previously that Apex Car Rentals was a recommendation...and I am on board to book with them, just wanted to check in to see if there were any others we should consider? I had read some good things about Omega, but they don't seem to have quite as much selection (we need a vehicle that can hold 4 adults and luggage comfortably). We will have the rental for a little over 2 weeks. I am aware that most of the car rental companies have some restrictions on certain roads/beaches...but is any specific car company more restrictive than others? Any previous bad experiences with hidden fees or limitations?

Also, any recommendations when it comes to the level of excess we should select? Our drivers are well used to driving internationally (and on the left side of the road), but want to make the most responsible decision.

Appreciate any thoughts in advance.

Thank you!
Tracee

Moving to the Australia/Pacific board.

Moderator4

My husband and I have always been pleased with APEX. You'll be spending all your time on the South Island, but an added bonus for those traveling to both islands and renting from APEX is that their daily rental rate includes the cost of the vehicle ferry ticket for the Interislander or Bluebridge ferry..

Under APEX's Frequently Asked Questions, you'll find:
"Apex New Zealand vehicles must not be operated off-road, on any beach (including Ninety Mile Beach and Te Paki streambed), or driven on farm paddocks. ALL vehicles (including 4WD vehicles) are prohibited from driving on ALL 4WD tracks.
Apex vehicles are not permitted to travel on the following roads:

• Skippers Canyon Road
• The road to Macetown
• Matukituki Road beyond the Treble Cone access road turn off"
• Glenorchy-Paradise Road beyond Priory Road turn off

"Matukituki Road beyond the Treble Cone access road turn off", also known as Wanaka-Mt. Aspiring Road, goes to the Raspberry Creek Parking area for the Rob Roy Track. The first part of Wanaka-Mt. Aspiring Road is perfectly paved, but then it becomes a gravel road with the last 10 km or so having fords to cross.

We too, have been happy with APEX. We've been renting cars in NZ since the early 90's and other than a minor issue here or there (broken air con, worn valve stem), we've not had any problems with any car rental agency there.

Nor have we ever purchased insurance from a rental car company - anywhere. We rely on our US credit card for our insurance, and accept liability for anything not covered.

One reason we like APEX is that they also rent older cars, which are cheaper and have already been put through their paces (we tend to take the back roads and cross the occasional ford and somehow it seems wrong to do that in a newer car - and no, I'm not suggesting you break your rental car contract!)

Thank you!

we booked with hertz and did the reverse: Queenstown to Nelson and were happy. Make sure to take the maximum insurance they allow--I think it's called super cover just in case. (There's a lot of construction and some of the lesser roads which although are paved contain small rocks- one of which bounced and cracked the windshield.) There's no deductible unlike Budget which we were originally going to rent with. Hertz does not allow driving on gravel roads.