New Zealand traffic rules and self driving car rental tips

The Complete New Zealand Driving and Rental Guide

With a territory as large as the United Kingdom but with only a population of 4.5 million inhabitants, New Zealand has always been a popular travel destination thanks to its beautiful and diverse natural sceneries. Here is a driving and rental guide we prepare especially for you aiming at helping you have a smooth road trip.

Speed Limit and Traffic Signs

In New Zealand, driving is on the left with overtaking on the right. New Zealand has the same system of signs and road code as you would find in the United Kingdom. During winter, especially in the mountains or on South Island, driving can be tricky. Therefore snow chains are highly recommended when renting a car at this season.

Speed Limit

There are speed limits of 100 km/h on highways and 50 km/h in urban areas unless signs say otherwise.

Traffic Signs

There are three major types of signs in New Zealand: compulsory, warning and information signs. Here are some of the regulatory signs that you may often see in New Zealand.

Stop

Give Way

No U-turn

30 km/h Speed Limit

No Stopping

Warning signs are diamond-shaped with yellow or green background.

60 km/h Speed Limit Ahead

Merging Traffic from Right

Road Bump

Watch for Large Animals (Cattle)

Railway Crossbuck

Information signs are in rectangular shape with a white background.

Left Turn at Any Time With Care

Cyclists Cross Here With Care (to the Left)

Further information on signs for driving in New Zealand can be found in this booklet.

Seatbelt and Child Safety

Seatbelt Laws

The driver is responsible for ensuring all passengers under 15 years wear seat belts. Passengers aged 15 and over are responsible for putting seat belts on themselves.

Booster Seat Laws

All children under 7 must use an approved child restraint appropriate for their age and size.

You must correctly secure children aged between 7 and 8 in an approved child restraint if one is available in the vehicle. If not, in any child restraint or safety belt that is available.

For children aged between 8 and 14, a safety belt must be used. If not available, they must travel in the back seat.

Parking, Fuel and Toll

Parking

· Forbidden Parking

You cannot park your car in the following spots:

- Along the broken yellow lines along the side of the curb, since it means that parking is not permitted

- Near a corner, curve, hill, traffic island or intersection, if it will stop other people from seeing along the road

- On, or closer than 5 metres to a fire hydrant, unless somebody who can move the vehicle stays with it

- In front of or closer than 1 metre to a vehicle entrance

- On or closer than 6 metres to an intersection, unless there are parking spaces or a notice telling you that you can park there

· Parking Signs

Parking signs in New Zealand are marked with numbers indicating how long you can park the car and an arrow to indicate directions. Some are specified with the date of the week as well.

New Zealand Parking With Specified Time And Arrow

New Zealand Parking With Specified Time And Dates And Arrow

· Paid Parking

All machines accept New Zealand coins, and some of them have been introduced with credit cards and TXT-a-Park payment methods. Currently, you still need to go for Pay-and-Display parking. However, all machines will be upgraded by March 2018 to include Pay By Plate technology, which allows you to enter your vehicle’s registration plate number directly on the machine and pay for it by credit card, debit card, coins or TXT-a-Park. Note that there is a 50-cent fee for credit card or TXT-a-Park transaction.

New Zealand Paid Parking Metre (Image from Stuff.co.nz)

Fuel Prices

The average gasoline price in New Zealand in November 2017 is $2.22 per litre, while it is of $1.47 for diesel.

Toll

There are three toll roads in New Zealand: the Northern Gateway Toll Road north in Auckland, the Tauranga Eastern Link Toll Road and the Takitimu Drive Toll Road in Tauranga.

New Zealand Toll Road (Image from nzta.govt.nz)

How much you should pay depends on your car type. You can pay the tolls by debit or credit cards, POLi, and cash.

Debit or credit card

You can use your Visa or Mastercard to buy or pay a Pay & Go toll.

POLi

If you have Internet banking with ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank, TSB Bank, Westpac or Bank Direct, then you can buy or pay a Pay & Go toll (external link) using Payment Online (POLi).

Note: POLi is not available for business internet banking customers.

Cash

If you prefer to pay with cash (or by debit/credit card) you can pay your tolls at selected service stations (a transaction fee of $1.20 per transaction will apply).

Be aware that as a car renter, not paying for the toll fee will result in the car hire company paying it for you and collecting the toll fee along with an add-on of management fee (note that it can sometimes be costly) from your credit card.

Traffic Violation

DUI Laws

If you are 20 or over, you must not drive if you have consumed more than the legal alcohol limit, which is 250 micrograms per litre of breath or 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood (0.05%). There is a zero tolerance for alcohol if you are under 20.

Traffic Fines

In New Zealand, exceeding the speed limit results in an infringement fine range from $30 to $630. The amount of the infringement fine will depend on the difference between the actual and legal speed limit.

As for parking, an infringement notice can be issued if a vehicle is parked illegally on public land, or in breach of what a parking sign says. In some circumstances, the vehicle can also be towed away if it is obstructing traffic.

Normally, there will be a website or hotline number on the front or back of the ticket as well as the reason for the violation fine and the relevant voucher number. Please be aware that you can log onto the website or call the hotline and follow the guidelines to pay the ticket.

Failure to pay tickets will result in the car hire company paying them on the renter’s behalf, and debit the renter credit card for the fine amount plus an administration fee. Please note that you can always contact QEEQ’ 24/7 customer service team for help if you have questions concerning this matter.

Driving Licence and Age Requirements

At the time of rental in New Zealand, all drivers must present a full and valid driving licence from the renters country of residence and the licence should be held for at least 1 or 2 years ( policies may vary depending on car hire companies). An International Driving Permit is highly recommended for international drivers. If your domestic driving licence is not printed in English (Arabic, Japanese, Cyrillic etc), an International Driving Permit (IDP/IDL) or an official translation in English is required when you drive in New Zealand.

Minimum age in New Zealand is 21 years (age may vary depending on car category) and the maximum is 80 years of age. If you're 21-25, you are likely to have to pay a young driver fee. If you're 65 or older, you may have to pay a senior driver fee.

Guest reviews

1 /

S.Mcmillan

December 19, 2024

Destination: Dunedin

10Excellent

Very fast and friendly

M.Guan

December 18, 2024

Destination: Christchurch

10Overall is good, fast and easy

They give clear instructions proactively and response timely. Only thing is the finance part made me a bit concern that they didn't receive the funding from Qeeq in time and double charged me on additional driver fee and requested me to get refund back from Qeeq. This might be internal process between Yesaway and Qeeq to be improved. Too troublesome for me to work on the refund between the 2 companies.

Dene Hughes

5Use google maps reviews of rental agencies and search by “low”.

I rented there because of high rating to do with customer service. But the vehicle was really awful and when I called for help mid-rental the staff were utterly unhelpful.

K.Lim

10Good.

Thank you.

B.Geiss

December 17, 2024

Destination: Auckland

10Very good

Great cars at a great price.

wsyyc

December 14, 2024

10Magical South Island, NZ, trip made even better with the perfect rental car

Zi at Ace in Christchurch could not have been more helpful. He gave us a paper map (yes - they still exist!) and great advice. Oh yes, and the brand new car. Ace is part of Hertz.

P.Novicki

December 12, 2024

10It met all expectations

It was exactly as I expected

M.Kearns

Destination: Whakatane

10Great

Great service in Whakatane

Nathan

December 11, 2024

8Good

Awesome staff and procedures. Just the car performance wasn't great

S.McLay

December 10, 2024

Destination: Wellington

10Great company to hire vehicles from

Very positive experience easy and efficient

M.Nunez

December 8, 2024

10Easy

Excellent customer service, and the car was comfortable and worked well

ModeNZuser

9Excellent

Usual good experience at Mode Rentals. Reliable vehicles and helpful staff.

9Good car hire from Mode Rentals

Good value. Helpful staff.

M.Rahim

December 6, 2024

10Luxury and Budget. Hiring a car with QEEQ.com was the best thing I did on my New Zealand trip

It was a no brainer booking. Quick and easy. Also great deal. Only problem wish they allowed airport drop off

R.walles

December 4, 2024

8Will definitely book again. The cost of rental was cheaper than most other hire companies.

The vehicle was a basic model. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

S.Lincoln

Destination: Nelson

8Disappointed as booked for 7 days only used for and returned 3rd day

Not gave different car, said to big then gave what I ordered

W.Clarke

10disappointed.

their service was fantastic and did their best to assist me resolve the issue with getting the right size vehicle at an extra cost.

November 29, 2024

4Bargain Rental Cars are rightly named for a reason, their cars are cheap and horrible.

The minivan was terrible in condition. We booked the pickup time in such a way that it gave us enough time to leave the airport and go to the rental car place and that pickup time happened to be "after hours" of Bargain Rental Cars and it was a different pickup location. But it so happened that our flight reached Auckland ahead of time. When we called the pickup location for the after hours office, they said to call BRC directly since it was technically not "after hours". When we called BRC, they asked us to call the "after hours location" since we had to pick up the car there only. There was some confusion which was frustrating for us and finally BRC agreed to come and pick us up from the Airport.

November 26, 2024

9I will return.

Tony could not have been more helpful and accommodating. Dealing with him was a great start to my trip. This style of service is so welcome after a long flight and in a new country.

A.Jones

9A straightforward process and a car that did what was needed

An easy to follow process and essant staff

S.Chaklasia

November 25, 2024

4Frustrated

Very bad customer service. Rudeness and don’t care for customers. Two guys didn’t know English and one guy knew English but was so rude and lazy also don’t know what he is doing. Behaving like small kids.

Antony

10Overall an excellent experience.

Good service and not pushy. Gave options and shared the price difference.

rjd1961@yahoo.com.au

November 24, 2024

9On the fly to Turangi.

BRC’s car always exceed expectations as they are such terrific value for money, clean economic and a pleasure to drive.

Oscar Nova

Destination: Napier

10Buena experiencia con Qeeq y Budget, proceso de renta fácil y expedito.

El personal fue muy amable. Aunque el proceso fue algo lento debido a que presenté licencia de otro país, la atención fue siempre cordial y amable.

November 20, 2024

Destination: Queenstown

Great car in good condition. No issues at all.

H.Kahui

Destination: Palmerston North

7Expensive to drive, charging port waiting is not even worth it

When booking the Correct car it would be awesome if it’s explained that it is a different vehicle.

L.ZHANG

November 19, 2024

10Good and hope to see you again

I am happy for your service

7Good

Good customer service.

N.A'Court

November 18, 2024

Destination: Hamilton

10The process was seamless.

As above, our rental was a 2023 Ford Ranger (Wild track).

Ruby

November 16, 2024

8Inflexibility

Unhelpful staff! Given booking was done through a third party QEEQ and Apex both denied being able to help with a very simple alteration in plans once payment had been taken. I would never recommend using this platform again.

Patrick Ziercke

10Absolutely brilliant!

Excellent Employee at the Auckland airport and the Wellington airport! Car was amazing!

E.Young

November 14, 2024

8Very good

Drive NZ was great

Anthony

10One of my best evercar hires! Absolutely no reservations recommending them.

They were very cheerful and helpful. I felt they genuinely cared for me as a client.

A.ABDILLAH

10Excellent car with easy processes.

The vehicle exceded my expectation and was in very good condition and very clean. Pick up and drop off processes were very simple and fast. The staffs were also very helpfull.

I thought the car was great value for money. Friendly staff and relatively painless process

S.Clements

November 13, 2024

The car was very basic

November 12, 2024

10オススメです！

無償アップグレードを提案してもらったが、サイズが大きすぎてお断りした。車の交換も快く対応してもらえた。

G.Roberts

November 11, 2024

10Excellent customer experience.

Customer service was great and staff members were very friendly to answer any enquiries I had asked. Thank you for making this an easy and enjoyable experience .

R.Mazzitelli

November 10, 2024

8I had issues with the online booking process where I thought I had booked

The only issue was ace didn't recognise that QEEQ extra insurance

T.Ahomiro

9Awesome

No easy to use

S.Tipene

2Never sgain

Van was disgusting and they just ignored us when mentioned. Dont use them.

K.Robi

10EASYAS Would Use Again

SUV available immediately Staff very friendly and helpful

November 8, 2024

10Easy and convenient.

Everything above excellent

M.Sharpe-Taylor

November 7, 2024

10Amazing Exceeded all Expecttions - can't wait to use again!

Exceeded expectations! they were so great to deal with from when the shuttle picked us up, to signing paperwork and offering the pre-paid fuel. We even upgraded to a Hydbrid car and all was very reasonablly priced

L.Cid

November 6, 2024

10Topnotch service. We loved the car, got us where we wanted to go. Easy communication. Thanks Tony!

Topnotch easy communication. Very helpful and friendly staff.

S.Founds

10A Smooth Cost Effective NZ Journey.

Car provision and cost excellent. Customer service also excellent. Thanks.

S.Turnbull

November 4, 2024

Apex is fine

8Don't be deceived by the cheap hire per day. It will cost more.

Very disappointed about all the hidden costs. Extra costs to reduce the amount held as bond on your credit card. Extra costs to sort tolls. Extra costs for after hours drop off. Will never use this discounted car hire again because of this. Will go with a reputable company based at the airport that has an all inclusive price.

M.Guest

7Good value

For the price the car was good

Andy

November 2, 2024

10Very efficient and good value for money

The car ran very well and very economical

New Zealand Car Rentals