Car Hire New Zealand

New Zealand Mini Guide

New Zealand can be found sitting in the Pacific Ocean and is made up of two separate islands, North Island and South Island, along with a number of much smaller islands. In a similar fashion to Australia, New Zealand has been almost entirely isolated geographically since the beginning of the world. This has led to extremely different varieties of plant and animal life than are found around the rest of the globe, making New Zealand something of a nature lovers dream. The indigenous people are the Maori, and still maintain their traditions and practices through to modern-day, with very little change.

The capital city of New Zealand is Wellington, although it is only the second largest urban area in the country. It is also the most highly populated capital city in the entire Oceania region as well as being the most southern capital in the world. The overall shape of Wellington is defined by the mountainous terrain which surrounds it, which has forced the city to develop in a way which has had to take advantage of terrain features, and exploit almost every area of flat land available. Wellington is served by Wellington International Airport, which is a few miles outside of the city itself and makes an excellent place to pick up a hire vehicle if you are intending to use one to explore the surrounding area.

Movie and fantasy buffs can indulge their tastes by taking a tour of many of the areas and places in which the blockbuster movie trilogy Lord of the Rings was filmed. Situated to the north of Wellington about an hour's drive away is the Rimutaka Forest Park, this is an extremely popular mountain biking area.

The city of Auckland is New Zealand's second city, although the area of Greater Auckland is in fact the largest and most highly populated urban area in the nation, and is home to almost 1.5 million people, which is over a quarter of the entire population of New Zealand.

A short distance and an easy drive from Auckland are the Waitomo Caves and Rotorua. The caves are populated by glow worms, feature stalactites, mud pools and bubbling geysers. The caves have been formed over thousands of years by the water which slowly filters down from the surface. Throughout most of the year visitors can also take a boat ride through the caves and the glow worm grotto, an area of the caves where glow worms cluster upon the cave roof.

Close to the caves is the Agrodome, an entirely different experience where visitors can watch sheepdogs being trained to herd sheep and experience first-hand how it is to shear one of these woolly animals. All in all a visit to New Zealand is sure to give you a holiday experience quite unlike any other, it's two primary towns exhibit characters widely apart, almost two holidays in one if you choose to visit both locations.

Other New Zealand car hire locations:

• Dunedin Airport car hire
• Greymouth car hire
• New Plymouth Airport car hire
• Picton Ferry Port car hire
• Rotorua Airport car hire
• Tauranga car hire
• Tauranga Airport car hire
• Timaru Airport car hire
• Wanganui Airport car hire
• Whangarei car hire
• Whangarei Airport car hire

New Zealand Factfile

• The Maori culture first evolved in New Zealand back in 1250-1300 AD when Polynesians settled there
• People from New Zealand are often referred to as Kiwis
• Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand which translates as 'land of the long white cloud'
• New Zealand is one of the top five dairy exporters in the world
• The world's first commercial bungee jump took place in Queenstown in New Zealand in 1988