New Zealand-Motorhome Hire/Exchange

[Charles Chodkowski]

Hoping to plan a visit to New Zealand for 2-3 months starting January 2009, can anyone give advice on hire companies, exchanges or buy and resell schemes? Also any other advice would be greatly welcome.

 

Happy Christmas and a good New Year's travelling to everyone.

[crinklystarfish]

Hi there,

This firm www.wellhouseleisure.com who are base in Yorkshire have just started a ‘hire in New Zealand/>/>’ service that I’m sure they’d be happy to talk you through. I have no connection with the firm; I just remember reading about the launch of the service somewhere.

Good luck.

[vaila2]

Do a Google for Kea Campers and Maui Campers. They seemed to be the most commonly met ones when we were in NZ. We hired from Kea and their vans seemed to be Transit based while the Maui's were mostly on Mercedes chassis. All seemed to be locally converted as I suppose the shipping cost to NZ would be pretty high.

[Hughmer]

Depending on how long you're staying, and how practical / competent at mechanics you feel, there's the popular pre-owned route. We backpacked around New Zealand in 2000 and found that there were quite a few vehicles on sale in the larger cities advertised inside backpackers' hostels. Some were wrecks and have millions of k's on the clock! There was a regular auction in Wellington. Buy cheap and sell without reserve at the end of your stay.

 

On a personal note, - backpacking is probably as cheap without the hassle of owning a truck in NZ but accom costs are higher in Oz. So when we go again we'd prob not bother with a camper in NZ but WOULD in OZ.

 

For backpacking read "with a suitcase and a box of pots and pans bought in the thrift stores" You don't have to lug a rucksack around to qualify.

 

Happy travelling