Review of a Maui Campervan New Zealand

Travelling in New Zealand with Maui?

We knew we wanted to campervan around New Zealand. We therefore had to figure out which rental company to use for our family of 4 to explore the North Island and South Island for 32 days. The interesting part was that we knew absolutely nothing about campervans or travelling this way across a country, likewise campervan hire in NZ. We didn’t know the terminology with campervans and of course being Canadian we would have to drive on the opposite side of the road! So after many YouTube videos, reading reviews, and asking many other travellers we decided on going with a Maui Campervan, New Zealand.

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Guest Post By Nicole Fiorante

The Passport Kids

Why Maui Motorhomes New Zealand?

We simply liked all that was included and the overall positive reviews from previous travellers. For our family, we decided to go with the 6-Berth Maui campervans NZ because this would allow keeping our travelling seats and not have to convert the kid’s bed every day. We could quickly get up and leave the campgrounds in the morning and make our lives easier.

Interested in booking a Maui campervan or motorhome? You can do so HERE!

What was Included in the Maui Campervans NZ Rental?

We tent camp in Canada, and for our needs, we felt that Maui provided everything that we would need in the campervan.

Outside table and 4 chairs
All kitchen requirements needed for anything we cooked
Bedding, pillows, dishcloths and towels
Water hoses, broom and bucket
7 day’s worth of toilet chemicals
- - TIP: Buy more right away if you need them because there are only certain places you can buy these.

All you need is your suitcases and food! The only item we did buy was a to-go coffee cup so we could have coffee while we drive 🙂

Pickup and Drop off at Maui Rentals New Zealand

Overall the pickup and drop off was fairly easy, a little bit more involved than a simple car rental but the same idea.

Pickup

We picked up the campervan in Christchurch. The Maui NZ company picked us up from the airport and took us to the facility close by and we watched a video and ran through the details of rental with the staff member. Really easy, organized and pleasant to deal with. It took probably about an hour from the time we arrived in Christchurch until we were driving in our campervan to our camping spot.

Dropoff

We dropped off the campervan in Auckland. We simply cleaned it as we had taken it, unloaded our suitcases and then the staff at Maui did their walk around and checks. We finalized the paperwork and refunded our deposit. Then they shuttled us off to the airport.

Interested availability and prices of a Maui campervan or motorhome? You can do so HERE!

Service & Issues with Maui New Zealand

During our stay at Rotorua, our water pump stopped working suddenly. So we had to call the service line and they walked us through a few different options to try and fix it by troubleshooting the issue. It was determined that is was something a service technician would have to come to fix. He was there within a couple of hours and resolved the issue, friendly service and agreed with the phone assistant that there was nothing we could have done.

Keep in mind we were in a major centre so the turnaround time was quick. If we were somewhere more remote they were going to have someone lined up for our next arrival place.

I always judge a company by how they handle issues, and I was pleasantly surprised with how easy the issue was resolved and genuine care for ensuring we were taken care of.

Interested in other ROAD TRIPS around the world? CHECK OUT:

EUROPE:
– The Best 5 EUROPEAN Road Trips
– ICELAND Road Trip from Akureyri to Reykjavik
– ICELAND in a Campervan – Luxury on a Budget
– 5 Day Road Trip Tour of NORWAY incl. the Fjords
– SPAIN: Road Trip – 5 Days in Asturias
– UK Road Trip Tips
OCEANIA:
– AUSTRALIA – Adelaide to Melbourne Road Trip with Great Ocean Road Itinerary
– Comparing the Best Motorhome & Campervan Hire – NEW ZEALAND
– Kiwi Campers & Happy Campers NEW ZEALAND
SOUTH AMERICA:
– Why You Should Motorhome CHILE – A Unique Way to see Chile

Things to Know about Maui NZ

Models of Maui Rentals

You will not always get the exact model that you see online when you book with Maui. We assumed we would get the model we saw, but in fact, you get a model that fit within that category (ie. Sleep 4, Sleep 6, etc.) It wasn’t a big deal but we did expect to have a different layout inside the trailer and it was 1ft longer than expected.

One Way Fees

There was an extra cost for us since we picked up in Christchurch and dropped off in Auckland. That was what worked for our itinerary but if you are looking to save money pick up and drop off Maui in the same location.

Maui Camper Rental Itinerary

Here is a brief overview of our 32 day Maui campervan trip around New Zealand.

South Island: 15 nights

Christchurch – 1 night
Lake Pukaki – 1 night
Mount Cook – 1 night
Wanaka – 2 nights
Queenstown – 3 nights
Milford Sound – 1 night
Fox Glacier – 1 night
Motuek – 3 nights
Nelson – 1 night
Picton – 1 night

North Island: 17 nights

Wellington – 1 night
Greytown – 2 nights
Taupo – 1 night
Rotorua – 2 nights
Waitomo – 1 night
Hobbiton – 1 day
Coromandel Peninsula – 3 nights
Russell – 3 nights
Orewa – 1 night
Auckland – 2 nights

Things to Know About Campervanning in New Zealand

Campfires

No campfires! Don’t expect to roast marshmallows or sit around a campfire at night at the campgrounds.

Camping Facilities

Paid camping facilities are set up for long term travel campers – laundry, BBQ, showers, cooking centres and information desks. We freedom camped at a few spots and always tried to mix in these camping facilities to regroup.

Finding the Right Campsite

Use either CamperMate, WikiCamps NZ or Rankers Camping to help find the right campsite, dumpsites, water, fuel, etc.

Cheap Experiences

Wanting to save money on experiences around New Zealand? Use the luxury travel hack of travel deal websites to ensure you get bang for your buck. Bookme NZ is a fantastic travel deal website in New Zealand, where you can save plenty.

Interested in more information on NEW ZEALAND? Check out:

ROAD TRIP INFO:
– Comparing the BEST Motorhome & Campervan Hire – New Zealand
– REVIEW: Kiwi Campers and Happy Campers NZ
– REVIEW: Maui Campervan New Zealand
– REVIEW: Spaceship Beta Campervan
– REVIEW: Spaceships Rocket Campervan
– REVIEW: Wilderness NZ (motorhome company)

TRAVEL DEALS
– How to Save Substantial Money Using Bookme NZ

EXPERIENCES
– 12 Experiences in New Zealand
– 6 Top Skydive Locations – NZ

WORKING
– Work Abroad In New Zealand

Things We Would do Differently with Our New Zealand Campervan Trip

GPS

We wouldn’t rent the GPS, we found it useless and bought data cards for our phones for GPS instead. We also ended up using a good old roadmap! Surprise, maps still work 🙂

Planning Itinerary

Planned our itinerary a little better to optimize our travel time. By the time we got to New Zealand, it was month 10 of our world trip and we were exhausted with planning. So we just drove and figured it out along the way. My recommendation would be for anyone else to have some more planning done ahead of time with the stops you want to make.

Would We Recommend Maui Motorhomes NZ?

Yes, we absolutely would recommend Maui camper rental if you are looking for a comfortable campervan experience. We didn’t want to be roughing it too much and have space inside our campervan to play cards or watch a movie at night. We were extremely happy with the cleanliness, services, assistance, quality and newness is the campervan itself. Maui was a perfect setup for our family to travel around New Zealand.

With that review check out the availability and prices of a Maui campervan or motorhome – HERE!

About The Author

Hi, I’m Nicole and I am the person behind the stories at The Passport Kids, a family adventure travel blog. We recently returned to Canada after selling almost everything and travelling the world with our two kids. On our 1 year of travel, we explored 23 countries, 5 continents and 81 cities along the way. You can check out the places we went on our Instagram, where we shared our world adventure. A big part of our world journey was to try different forms of travel too, so when we booked New Zealand we knew the proper way to see the country was in a campervan! I hope you enjoyed reading and please feel free to follow along on Instagram and Facebook.