Auckland Car Hire pre Cruise

[hammo]

Hoping for some advice  - we have just booked the 13 night Solstice cruise in and out of Auckland next year and are hoping to spend a few days touring around the North Island pre cruise. We would like to pick up the car at the airport and dropoff at the cruise port area but I cant seem to find a rental car booking engine to do this - no option available for the cruise terminal .

Has anyone done this and if so , can you tell me who you booked with .  (I guess I could call NZ rental companies , I know , just seeing if I could do this online.)

[possum52]

25 minutes ago, hammo said:

Hoping for some advice  - we have just booked the 13 night Solstice cruise in and out of Auckland next year and are hoping to spend a few days touring around the North Island pre cruise. We would like to pick up the car at the airport and dropoff at the cruise port area but I cant seem to find a rental car booking engine to do this - no option available for the cruise terminal .

Has anyone done this and if so , can you tell me who you booked with .  (I guess I could call NZ rental companies , I know , just seeing if I could do this online.)

 

I think you would probably have to drop off at the closest depot/office of the rental company chosen and take a taxi to the cruise terminal. 

 

Leigh

Edited May 24, 2019 by possum52

[OzKiwiJJ]

There are no rental car depots at the Auckland cruise terminals, however some of the major rental car agencies may have a city depot as well as the airport one. On embarkation day you could drop your luggage at the cruise terminal, take the rental car to the depot then get a taxi or Uber back to the cruise terminal if it's too far to walk.

 

For example Hertz has a downtown depot in Victoria St West, a 1km flat walk from Princes Wharf where Solstice docks. You can book different pickup and drop off locations online.

 

Note: don't try to drop your luggage off too early, wait until the disembarking passenger traffic has eased. It can be quite chaotic in the morning - we stayed in an apartment on Princes Wharf before boarding Solstice earlier this year and saw the chaos from our apartment balcony. It had eased by the time we left the apartment at 11am.

Edited May 24, 2019 by OzKiwiJJ

[SeaDog-46]

When in NZ I alwas use one of the local companies because there rates are so much lower.

The company in Auckland was A2B Rentals but is now ezi car rental.

They will pick you up at airport & you can drop car off in the city.

[Swissmiss6253]

We hired a car from Avis in the city centre, Nelson Street.  It would be a 15 minute walk or a 5 minute taxi drive to the wharf.  We dropped it off in Wellington so they definitely do different drop off points

[andlep]

You can do a location specific search on Google maps 👍

[MicCanberra]

I would also check out the pricing for just doing the airport return and then get the skybus to the CBD which is close to the dock. Sometimes the one way drop off is not worth the cost.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Downtown Auckland is pretty chaotic at the moment as they are trenching and tunneling  for rapid rail . 

[MicCanberra]

Driving in Auckland is not much fun at any time, the airport pick up and drop off is so much easier for car hire and the skybus is  nice and simple to then get into town.

[hammo]

Thankyou to everyone for all the replys and suggestions . I guess we will either do the airport return and taxi to the ships terminal or airport pickup and dropoff as close to the port as possible , having first dropped off my Better Half with the luggage , and just hoofing or taxi to the ship . Thanks again , very much appreciate the advice .

We are on Solstice again this Oct , but thats just a little cruise to show some never before cruisers what this is all about . Cheers

[MicCanberra]

Enjoy, the Solstice is my Fav ship.