Hire Car in Tauranga, New Zealand

[Ramses II Pharao]

Initially we had booked Economy Vehicle (Group B) with Hertz Tauranga for the price of 78.09 NZD per day for our own sightseeing. The drawback was that their depot is located some 7.5 km away from the port, meaning we would have to pay for a taxi from and to the harbour.

 

Then we discovered that Pacific Auto Rentals Tauranga was offering specific services for cruise ship cars on their website: “Waiting At Port Exit For Pickup And Short Ride To Our Depot Where Car is Ready For [you] To Sign Contract and Go. At The End Of Your Day You Call Back Into Our Depot And We Transport You Back to The Port Exit Gate”.

 

Therefore, we cancelled our booking with Hertz and booked with Pacific Auto Rentals instead at the price of 105.00 NZD for one day. A return taxi trip from the harbour to Hertz would have cost most likely another 27 NZD. So we thought. However, we got caught!

 

In contrast to Hertz, Pacific Auto Rentals had not disclosed their terms and conditions on their website. Instead, they requested our credit card details at the time of booking. Only AFTER we had booked, they disclosed their cancellation details: “If You Cancel Within 7 Days Of Pickup A Cancellation Fee Applies Of 1 Days Hire or 10% Of The Total Hire (Whichever Is Greater)”.

 

Unfortunately, my husband got very sick just six days before we would make our landfall at Tauranga. Despite having seen the ship’s doctor straight away and despite taking antibiotics, his condition did not improve. Therefore, we cancelled the booking already on the following day by email. Only after our second email Pacific Auto Rentals apologized for the delay and advised that they had charged our credit card for the amount of 105.00 NZD.

 

From our fellow passengers we heard later that there was a quarter hourly free shuttle bus from the ship to Tauranga’s Info Centre and back. From there, it is only a 750 m or a 10 minutes’ walk to Hertz’s depot. Consequently, there was no need for us to book the overpriced “cruise ship car” from Pacific Auto Rentals.

[ambebambe]

Thankyou for the heads up, due to the OvationOTS Dates stuff around on the relocation cruise we will now be visiting Tauranga, I haven't looked very much into options yet but I will definitely keep your advise in mind while looking into options.