New Zealand Camper Hire
Discussion
Catman
We thought it might be a nice idea to do this too... It was ok for a day or two until the novelty wore off.
You've had the advice about self contained vans... but what we also found is that some of the so called wilderness spots are vigourously defended by the locals... I honestly disliked the campsites... sometimes just like car parks. Unless you really planned ahead it was tricky to find vacancies also.
We used Wilderness, who were very professional and we had a great Bürstner van..(~£3k for two weeks). but I think there are better ways to see that beautiful country...
We ended up using the van as an enormously expensive hire car to get between rented houses, hotels and cottages.
As others have suggested...your son should hire a decent car... or even buy one for 6 weeks https://www.trademe.co.nz/ and use AirBnB or https://www.bookabach.co.nz/
We thought it might be a nice idea to do this too... It was ok for a day or two until the novelty wore off.
You've had the advice about self contained vans... but what we also found is that some of the so called wilderness spots are vigourously defended by the locals... I honestly disliked the campsites... sometimes just like car parks. Unless you really planned ahead it was tricky to find vacancies also.
We used Wilderness, who were very professional and we had a great Bürstner van..(~£3k for two weeks). but I think there are better ways to see that beautiful country...
We ended up using the van as an enormously expensive hire car to get between rented houses, hotels and cottages.
As others have suggested...your son should hire a decent car... or even buy one for 6 weeks https://www.trademe.co.nz/ and use AirBnB or https://www.bookabach.co.nz/
AndrewCrown said:
... but what we also found is that some of the so called wilderness spots are vigourously defended by the locals...
Unfortunately a lot of 'freedom campers' don't respect the places they stay, leaving rubbish and sh!t (quite literally - piles of human excrement and toilet paper) all over the place. It has been steadily getting worse over the last 5-10 years as the number of campers increases, and most locals are well and truly fed up with it.Parking up in a row with a bunch of other campers isn't very exciting for sure, but its only the previous tourists to blame for the situation. Places where locals had been camping for decades without any problems have been closed outright too, because too many tourists leave a mess and the owners can't really check up on who is there each day and evict anyone without a kiwi accent.
So like others have said - probably better to get a rental car and airbnb etc for accomodation. I found the same thing for a recent trip to Canada, much cheaper to do that than renting a camper. Incidentally, they appeared to be much stricter on camping locations than NZ too.
It was some years ago, however I used www.escaperentals.co.nz as they were cheap and drove like a small van instead of a hulking wallowing truck that most traditional campers are. It was small, but worked and was fun. We even had a tree fall on it squashing the roof but the hire company wasn't fussed in the slightest!
However, as mentioned by others, a car and staying places is probably nicer. All the campsites we took our campervan to had small huts or pods or something that you could rent which were mostly quite nice and well appointed. If I went back I would just do a car and stay at them.
Just beware that in a car you will be able to go much, much faster than campervans, however the roads are clogged with them and are very hard to overtake, especially as they are mostly driven by tourists that have never driven something like that before. Easy to get frustrated, and you can't cover as much distance as you think.
However, as mentioned by others, a car and staying places is probably nicer. All the campsites we took our campervan to had small huts or pods or something that you could rent which were mostly quite nice and well appointed. If I went back I would just do a car and stay at them.
Just beware that in a car you will be able to go much, much faster than campervans, however the roads are clogged with them and are very hard to overtake, especially as they are mostly driven by tourists that have never driven something like that before. Easy to get frustrated, and you can't cover as much distance as you think.
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