News, Updates & Fun Facts About Vehicle Rentals

Before driving a hire car in New Zealand check out our tips for safe driving and ensure you know our road rules as they may differ to yours if you're visiting from overseas.

Rated among the world’s best scenic train journeys, the TranzAlpine train makes its way from Christchurch, on the East Coast of the South Island, across the beautiful, remote New Zealand countryside to the sea-side town of Greymouth on the West Coast. What To ExpectFrom the comfort of your viewing-enhanced rail carriage you can fully appreciate the […]

High above the arrivals hall in Auckland’s international airport is a plane. It looks tiny in the cavernous, reverberating terminal – merely a decorative prop. But this is the plane that flew from England to Brazil in 1935, and England to New Zealand in 1936, both record-breaking achievements. And today is the birthday of its […]

It’s 1.20pm, and a catamaran idles with a baritone murmur at the wharf. On neighbouring jetties water taxis tug nonchalantly at their lines, a giant cruise ship towers over Waitohi wharf, and Picton harbour glitters in the pale afternoon sun. With cartons of groceries and canvas bags of mail safely stowed, a gaggle of eager sightseers are […]

Last week I wrote a post about “visible shipwrecks” of the North Island coastline, wrecks that you can visit on foot. Our fascination with these rust-ridden hulks comes partly from our simultaneous love/fear of the sea, and partly the fading link they provide to New Zealand’s past. You can read part one here. Sadly, they are […]

These guys will have had almost all their thunder stolen by the hubbub of the Olympics, so let’s give them a bit of attention.  Project ’64 is a team of Kiwi’s who last week broke two under-1000cc land speed records at Bonneville Speed Week, driving a 52 year old Mini Cooper. The car proved to […]

Shipwrecks have a special lure, don’t they? The spectre of tragedy that surrounds them, the resonance of loss, and a reminder of the ocean’s uncompromising power. More than most historical artefacts – restored cars, preserved buildings, antique furniture; embalmed in modern veneer; enshrined in modern surroundings – a dead ship feels like the past reaching […]

In this installment of our movie location series, we take a break from the artistic and economic gravity of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and reach for some light relief in the form of Without a Paddle. This featherweight male-bonding adventure-comedy was shot in NZ in 2004, using North Island locations exclusively for its […]

The pie. Surely our most iconic food, the lowly, unpretentious pie is at the core of any true New Zealander’s diet. In my youth these were “maggot packs”, the most basic form of nourishment you could plunk down your school lunch money for, and available in a long list of tempting flavours: mince, steak & […]

A contender for our “Shot in New Zealand” movie location series, except that Kingdom Come, a $180 million epic based on the life of Christ, was never actually filmed due to funding tribulations. And if you struggle to reconcile all that filthy Hollywood cash, tainted by sex, drugs, and Hangover sequels, with the sanctity of the […]