Car hire New Zealand

NZ car rental travellers don’t have to travel far to experience a stunning array of landscapes and cultural gems. Drive from black sand beaches, rolling vineyards, and lush rainforests to volcanic lakes, bubbling mud pools, and snow capped mountains. You can do all these in one day with your own car hire in New Zealand.

Top tips for driving a car in New Zealand

New Zealand has fairly well-maintained roads—perfect for a road trip in a hire car. In some rural areas though, you can expect narrower and winding roads than what some international visitors are used to, so be extra cautious.

Here are a few things that you will need to remember in order to have a safe car hire experience on NZ roads:

• Drive your rental car on the left-hand side of the road—all rental vehicles will have the steering wheel on the right-hand side. This is different from most of the rest of the world, so make sure you keep this in mind especially when turning and at intersections.
• Always drive clockwise on Roundabouts. Also known as turning circles, these are a major feature on New Zealand roads, replacing traffic lights at many intersections. The key to successfully navigating a roundabout is to remember to always drive clockwise and give way to traffic coming from your right. Just before you exit the roundabout, indicate to the left to signal that you’re about to turn off.
• Don’t use a mobile phone while driving your hire car. Handheld operation of a mobile phone (whether for calls or texting) isn’t permitted while you’re at the wheel of a New Zealand car, even if you’re stopped at a traffic light.
• Speed limits in New Zealand are posted in kilometres per hour. The usual speed limit in urban areas is 50 km/h, while on motorways or the open road, the limit is usually 100 km/h. Any New Zealand rental car will have a speedometer which is also in km/h.

Extra rural road trip tips for driving a New Zealand car rental

Driving your car hire in New Zealand shouldn’t be a daunting prospect. To start you off, here are some things to consider when you take your rental car to the NZ roads:

• Make sure you set aside enough time to get from place to place with your car rental in NZ. Distances aren’t huge but you may need to travel more slowly than you expect. Due to the winding roads in New Zealand (State Highways included), you’ll need to account for an average speed that’s substantially less than the maximum 100 km/h—plan for 70-80 km/h and you should be fine.
• Drive your NZ car rental carefully and keep an eye out for livestock crossing in rural areas. Farmers will often move herds of sheep or cows across the rural roads, requiring drivers to wait until the animals have passed. There should be a sign warning you that animals are crossing the road—make sure to come to a stop a safe distance away and wait until all livestock has crossed.
• Many smaller roads in New Zealand use unsealed gravel which can cause reduced visibility due to dust, and chips in the paint or windscreen of your vehicle rental if you travel too fast. Your New Zealand car hire may not be allowed on some of these roads, so always check with your car rental agent before you embark.
• On some corners you’ll notice yellow signs with black numbers—this is the suggested maximum speed for cars in dry weather. This is a safety suggestion, not a target, so if road conditions aren’t perfect you may want to go even slower.
• The New Zealand police don’t have much tolerance for those driving car rentals over the speed limit, but they can be particularly strict during long weekends when car accidents are more likely—travelling a few kilometres per hour under the speed limit will ensure that you never have to worry about this.

The Classic New Zealand Wine Trail

This covers both the lower North Island and upper South Island, where you find the best wine growing regions including the famous Marlborough. Wine lovers, this is where you should be—just make sure there’s a designated driver!

Top of the South Wine Trail

This is a little more focused and does not include the ferry trip. It covers Wairarapa and Marlborough with some lovely towns along the way—Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura are beautiful places to spend a night or two during your car hire NZ adventure.

Alpine Pacific Triangle

This is short but sweet, covering a range of tourist highlights all within two hours of each other. The North Canterbury region has everything from wineries to whale watching.

Great Alpine Highway 

A very scenic route for your rental car road trip from Christchurch. This heads cross-country to the West Coast, through the impressive Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass.