Comments on: Auto Route: Driving NZ’s South Island

By: James

James — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:38:06 +0000

hi,
good information on traveling through NZ south island.
thanks.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:26:47 +0000

I’ve had problems with not getting what I ordered through NZ car hires Co.s – seems they want you to end up with some dodgy car which costs them next to nothing when you are prepared to pay for a nice car.

The roads are that good but not sure I’d risk the cost of a return flight, accommodation and car hire on being stuck with a crap car for the duration.

It would be an eternal disappointment

By: dave

dave — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:14:46 +0000

i did pretty much the same trip (in reverse) last november with my father and sister, except we went south from Christchurch.
our first night was in Teanau before heading to Milford Sound then to Queenstown for a night, then to Wanaka for a night, Franz-Josef for a night then up the west coast and across through Arthurs pass and then down to Ashburton to stay with friends.

while we were in NZ we caught the NZ v8′s @ Ruapuna, they are more entertaining than our aussie v8′s.

im going back in march 09′ to do the east coast, Dunedin, Timaru to catch some NZ Ute, pre 65 and OSCA Racing, Omaru & it’s motor museum and up to Picton, Nelson and through Marlborough country.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:31:08 +0000

Great story. I’ve travelled the South Island twice, although we went right around since we came in through Picton and have not done Arthur’s Pass. The second time was much better in a Focus instead of an ancient Capella, averaging 7.7l/100km. We also noticed loud road noise, and agree that the one-lane bridges slow you down, but then NZ roads are remarkable (it’s remarkable that they have such little-travelled quality roads in amazing and difficult country!). My wife wants to do the trip again, but in the colder months so she would enjoy this story.

By: Captain Mainwaring

Captain Mainwaring — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:42:49 +0000

You missed one of the best roads – the shorter and quicker route from Wanaka to Queenstown via the Crown Range, from where there are views to die for. Was it closed by snow that day?

By: Josh McKenzie

Josh McKenzie — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:50:46 +0000

Thanks for the comments guys, it truly is an amazing place to drive. Highly recommend it to all!

I’m not quite understanding how people can consider me calling the Corolla merely adequate as praise though. I certainly wouldn’t consider my opinions on the car to be worth any sort of money to Toyota. I’d be quite worried if Toyota was happy with producing mediocre cars, paying me for pointing out that fact and then telling people to “shop around”.

By: Karl Peskett

Karl Peskett — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:36:12 +0000

Reckless, this trip was self-funded by Josh. This is a car site, and so he made comments about the car. Big deal.

Funny how if we write something good about a car, the article was paid for by the manufacturer in question, yet if we bag a car we get slammed for being too harsh.

You can’t have it both ways, you know.

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:20:16 +0000

Great write-up and I agree 100% the comments about the Corolla. I wish the weather had been a bit better for you but winter this year has thrown everything at us.
We hired an identical car while we were in Australia and as much as I recommend Corollas to people if they need a small car, I do not like this model as much as our 99 – 01 model (hatch) here in NZ. Our 99 – 01 model here in NZ at least was a ripper. This one feels less of a quality and to me looks like a bread van in comparison.

By: Reckless1

Reckless1 — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:50:28 +0000

Yes, we are enjoying the innovation, but please in future make the advertorial for a very ordinary car a separate article.

Then we might not “twig” that Toyota paid for the trip.

By: David Twomey

David Twomey — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:57:23 +0000

Auto Route will be a regular, infrequent future feature of CarAdvice.
We’re glad you are all enjoying this innovation