Introduction New Zealand trip, by hire car, Sep 2014 file= NZ2014.htm
Had not been to New Zealand for 10 years, so it was 
time we went there again to refresh our fond memories.
Its almost as easy as travelling in Oz, or USA apart
from their weird accents and rainy weather. It rained so
hard and so long we thought we were in Nth Qld., in the
rainy season. 
We had taken a battering from arthritis and sore joints
and a few other problems so it was good to escape in
comfort to an easy motoring holiday, no skiing or hiking.
As usual, Parj did an overall plan, which was fine tuned
by Yollie to pick up all her points of interest, using our
tried and tested "Trip Planner" and NZ travel books. We
are happy to make this available to anyone who may
be interested. These are simple EXCEL spreadsheets.
Started in Auckland, Nth Island, going clockwise on
the coasts into South Island and back to North Island.
We wanted to do the Nth, Sth, East and West points, and only just missed out in the last 110 km
north of Kaitaia, to Nth Cape, the northernmost tip, due to very heavy rain. Consider NZ DONE !!
Flights Costs vary greatly from day to day, try and avoid Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon if possible.
The earlier you book/pay, the cheaper the flights. Try to avoid changes after payment.
We booked with Air NZ, but unfortunately got a Virgin flight outbound. As usual, it was
3rd class standard. The seats were so tight you could barely fit your knees in and the
service was terrible and expensive. I'd guess Turkey or Zimbabwe could do better. The
return by Air NZ was much better, in a Boeing 777, rather than a Boeing 737 by Virgin.
Car Rental Apex Car rentals offered some
very good deals on "older" vehicles. We chose a Ford
Focus, 2007 model with 204,000 km and $45/day all up.
Gave us no problems, apart from a blown rear tyre in
the Coromandel Peninsula on gravel roads. Did not 
notice this until we stopped for photos, and the tyre
was ruined. It was a rear wheel on a front wheel drive
so it wasn't apparent on the noisy gravel road. The
spare wheel was one of those narrow ones, but did
the job until we got a new tyre. The TID travel insurance
was handy in case we had an accident. They cover
any claim excess, to a value of $4,000, if required.
Ferries, Cook Straight
Not as well organized as the ferries in Europe, for on/off
loading, which took much longer than expected.
The trip took about 3 hours, with all amenities on-board.
Apex car hire paid for the 2 vehicle crossings, but we
paid 4 times $65 for the two peoples returns :- $260
We were lucky on the return from Sth to Nth Island, as
the service was cancelled for many hours due to high
winds and swells, soon after we returned.
Motels We only booked our 1st night motel at Auckland airport from home. All others were done 
using selections from Booking.Com at the various towns we expected to visit. These
were printed out at home, and we used the Sat Nav to find/select motels on the move.
Very few have restaurants, but usually diners are handy, nearby. Cheap & reasonable.
Wi-Fi The promised $29 Vodaphone Wi-Fi stick was NOT available in NZ. They had a $79
version, which we declined as a rip-off. We were happy to use the Wi-Fi available in
the motels, either free or at minimal cost. These were OK, after you got some practice
getting connected to the different methods/services. No problem with emails. We could
receive emails on our home email address, but had to use Gmail to send, from NZ.
Mobile Happy to use our mobile phones on "international roaming", as we did NOT want to
phones change phone numbers and only expected to make few or emergency calls.
Sat Nav. Our trusty Garmin Nuvi 1450 came along.
As usual, it was mounted on a Perspex plate, fixed to
the dash with double sided tape. Had some problems
initially as Apex had applied "armourall" vinyl cleaner
to the dash, which had to be thoroughly cleaned before
we could make the mounting plate stick properly.
Even with recent map updates, we had some problems
in some areas, including :- Coromandel Pen., Picton,
Christchurch, Queenstown +more. We are experienced 
users, so it must have been poor mapping by Garmin ?
The Sat Nav was useful in locating motels and petrol.
Pity it didn't detect Yogie Bear radar ?
Weather Experienced much rain/wind, but only one major delay from rockslides onto the road. 
Going down Queenstown chairlift. This rain One of many rainy days, which took away
made us abandon our trip to Coronet Peak. from magnificent scenery on the coasts.
Trip Used our tried and tested "Trip Planner" for overseas rental car trips.
planning This allowed various daily itineraries to be tested and confirmed, together with costs.
Also had an equipment checklist for such trips, which is very necessary at our age.
Out  trip costs were actually $6,956 -vs- forecast $7,000
Our trip km were actually 5313 -vs- forecast 5211
After much experience, our estimates of costs, times, distances get very accurate.
Trip Cash  Followed our usual habit of getting all our foreign currency requirements from Aust. Post.
They give the best deal, as they supply the banks as well. It avoids the problem and cost
of using overseas ATM's with all the inconvenience and extra fees.
We can calculate our needs at home very accurately, so this works well.
Only needed to change back about NZ 200 to AUD on departure.
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Trip reports Auckland to Wellington, via Coromandel Peninsula and Mt Ruapehu.
Picked up the Rental Car from Apex, very close to Auckland airport. They are well organized. The
Ford Focus with 204,000 on the clock was perfectly adequate for our needs and $45/day was good.
We headed South towards the Coromandel Peninsula where we got lost. Did a few circles then 
headed south towards Lake Taupo
Scenic views, Coromandel Peninsula.....Sat Nav got us lost. Fixing the only flat we got.
Had planned to stay on the East coast heading south, but time lost made us head inland via Lake 
Taupo, using the shorter route, past some of the Nth Island Ski Fields and volcanoes.