New Zealand | Transfercar Blog

Campers, motorhomes, high-tops… the rental jargon explained!

Australia and New Zealand have pretty much the same kinds of campers and motorhomes as anywhere else overseas. However, depending on where you intend to travel and what you need from your relocation , it’s a good idea to know what each type of vehicle looks like and what extras they come with.

Before we start, here’s a little glossary of terms or rental jargon that will help you out:

Berth: for example 2 berth. The berth quantity indicates the legal number of passengers the vehicle can sleep and also generally indicates how many seat belts are available.

High-top: A vehicle with a fixed, extended roof.

Pop-top: A vehicle with an extended roof that must be manually folded out or up.

Campervan or camper: Has sleeping and cooking facilities.

Campervan compact: Smaller campers that look like a Toyota Previa or similar.

Motorhome or RV: Has sleeping and cooking facilities as well as a shower, toilet and hot water.

Continue reading Campers, motorhomes, high-tops… the rental jargon explained!

New Zealand Winter: Skiing, snowboarding and extreme fun

People travel from all over the world to ski in New Zealand and it’s not surprising why.

Blessed with snow kissed mountains that stand as high as 3,700 metres and huge volcanoes covered with fresh powder, New Zealand is a ski and snowboarding paradise.

The ski season starts around mid-June and closes around the beginning of October, offering 4 months of play time for the serious and not so serious riders.

Slopes range from the totally novice to extreme black diamond skill levels and if you want that something special, heli-skiing will take you to remote slopes and glaciers far from the reach of road transport.

What’s even better is what the French call apres-ski. When your body needs a bit of a rest from the slopes, the local resort towns of Queenstown and Wanaka nearby the ski-fields offer anything from a blast in a jet boat, a swing from a bungy or a night out at one of the many bars and clubs that pump until the small hours of the morning.

Here’s a little run-down of some of the best ski fields on offer: Continue reading New Zealand Winter: Skiing, snowboarding and extreme fun

How can I get across the Cook Strait by Ferry this summer?

As many already know, one of The Interislander’s largest passenger ferries, The Aratere, is expected to be out of service for at least 6 months after losing one of its propellers last month. This has, and will likely have a reasonably large impact on how vacationers in New Zealand manage to travel between the north and south islands this summer. Especially when renting a vehicle with no prior booking secured.

At this stage existing Interislander passenger and vehicle bookings will be honored, with many being rescheduled to alternative services, however no new vehicle bookings will be taken – with only foot passengers accepted.

Interislander general manager Thomas Davis is quoted by the NZ Herald as saying “We originally forecast to carry approximately 200,000 passengers and 55,000 cars during December and January. We now expect to carry only 140,000 passengers and 33,000 vehicles without an additional ship.” Continue reading How can I get across the Cook Strait by Ferry this summer?

Wwoofing around the world

The concept of working for your food and accommodation while travelling is not a new one and many a budget conscious traveller has walked this well-worn path.

Wwoofing however is a little more specialised. Originally an acronym for “Working Weekends on Organic Farms”, the definition changed over the years to “Willing Workers On Organic Farms” as the need for assistance over longer periods arose. Due to the word “work” however causing some problems, the name finally settled to being “World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms”.

Sue Coppard, in 1971 was the first to recognise the need for people like herself, who did not have the means or the opportunity, to access the countryside and support the organic movement. It was here in the suburbs of London that Wwoofing set its roots, now growing as a movement with more than 50 WWOOF groups worldwide. Continue reading Wwoofing around the world

How to make a great travel journal

If you are a traveller like me and plan to continue traipsing around the world in your free rentals, then you are likely to have loads of little reminders of your journeys. Little things such as tickets to shows, a bus pass or an entry to visit some iconic artifact or concert line your travel bags, draws or hand bag well after the journey is complete.

Even though you have photos galore to back the stories, these little items are tangible reminders of epic life journeys that will eventually get lost, torn or destroyed. I wish I had made more of an effort to keep all these reminders in some order as I travelled, but I didn’t. So with that in mind, this little blog is to help anyone else out there with the same dilemma:

Here are a few tips I have found floating around that will help get you started: Continue reading How to make a great travel journal

What do Transfercar’s free 2 berth 4WD campervans look like?

So our last blog explained the general layout of the free 2 berth high and low-top campervan rentals on Transfercar New Zealand and Australia. Now we look at the 2 berth 4WD campers that are often found travelling to, from and along the Australian outback.

Before we take a look, here are a couple of things to note:

Pretty much 90% of 2 berth campervans (4WDs or otherwise) will not support children under 8 years old or who are unable to legally sit in a belted seat by themselves.
Fuel consumption on four wheel drives can be higher than regular cars and campervans as many have 6 – 8 cylinder motors in them.
They are also pretty much all manual vehicles.

Tag: New Zealand