I was looking to find out what I can do in Auckland for a few hours with a friend visiting from…read moreabroad, and had heard about a company called Stray from a traveller friend. Conveniently located with a funky bright sales office on Fort street super friendly and helpful staff can book you a free day stray bus tour around Auckland showcasing our magnificent city. The Vintage orange bus takes you to highlights of Auckland such as a Bungy jump off the Auckland Harbour Bridge for a discounted fee, or at the Sky tower the Sky Jump where you free fall with security ropes off a ledge and down to the waiting platform in a matter of seconds, what a thrill! You also take in the sights and great view at Bastion Point near Mission Bay, go for a bush walk in the Auckland Domain, have a pub meal if you feel like it and a free beer at Speight's Ale house. Last but not least you even get to wander around the world class sailing village of the Viaduct and hop on a Whale and Dolphin Safari if weather and your wallet permits. The amazing sales staff at the office can also book you any activity In Auckland which is fabulous to have as a service.

When it comes to Stray, the old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." I have…read morelearned a very expensive lesson and hope my bad experience with Stray will help you decide if this is the type of company you want to deal with. Before considering this supposed hop-on, hop-off bus service I would urge you to do a deep-dive of research. Start by sifting through all the Stray marketing surrogates who provide a glowing review (especially if it's the only/first review they've posted) or superlative photo-laden blogs since many have identified in the small print that they received their trip either free or deeply discounted. I desperately wish I had done so prior to enthusiastically falling for Stray's slick presentation. Unfortunately, I am not a travel blogger nor a social media "star" so I used my hard-earned money for a standard fare and am now paying the price in the form of a HUGE penalty for cancelling (20%) even though it was far in advance and I never stepped foot on a Stray bus. Stray's MINIMUM cancellation policy is 20% and they won't budge on it no matter the reason. You may eventually find, like I did, that there are some problems with Stray's model and not everyone has an over-the-top experience described with gleeful hyperbole. Those who have legitimate complaints like me are quickly drowned out by sarcastic on-line statements from company reps. I must stress this again - be fully aware that from the second you hit "book" Stray will immediately charge you for the total amount of the bus trip. From then on, there are no full refunds whatsoever - even if you haven't selected a start date (and maybe won't travel for months yet) and even if you haven't stepped foot on one of their buses. The policy states that there is a MINIMUM 20% penalty for ANY cancellation, no exceptions. The first problem I discovered is it isn't as easy to hop on and hop off as they portray. But you only find this out AFTER you've booked and get access to the app. They also obfuscate the fact that "Straymark" locales are MANDATORY. You MUST stay at these locations for the number of days/nights listed and you must pay the listed additional charges for doing so. There is no way around these mandatory stops without booking an alternate bus service other than Stray and you must pay out of pocket for it. If the Straymark location does not have activities that appeal to you or are too expensive, then you may find yourself sitting around a remote area for a couple of days while you twiddle your thumbs. While some people may thoroughly enjoy these stops and what they offer and are fine with spending their money at a place Stray dictates, there are others who would rather be free to do something else. Stray "guarantees" a bed for you for the first night on your stops which seems appealing. But I then learned it may be in a mixed dorm (meaning men and women sleeping in the same room and sharing a bathroom). While that may not be a problem for many it may not appeal to all and for some, it can present an extremely uncomfortable situation if their RELIGIOUS OR CULTURAL beliefs prohibit such arrangements. Also be aware there is an exclusive and COMPULSORY overnight stop at one of the Straymark locations where shooting "feral" animals is one of the optional ENTERTAINMENT activities. This may be fine for those who enjoy hunting in order to balance the natural environment but VEGANS and animal advocates may find it highly objectionable. This information should be identified very clearly and locations like these should not be "compulsory." If you do NOT want to spend a few days at a compulsory Straymark location then you must find another means of transportation (at your own cost) to meet up with the bus further down the line. Stray buses don't run every day to each location so that means finding your own lodging while you wait. BTW, trying to read Stray's bus schedule is like trying to break a cold war-era encryption code. IMO, all these issues may rise to the level of deceptive marketing practices and can be reported to the NZ government. I plan to do so and encourage others with bad experiences to do the same. I attempted to resolve my complaints by asking to deal with a member of Stray management but I was just directed to another glib staff member who abruptly blew me off. I trust the NZ government office of oversight won't. Be sure to read all - and I mean read ALL, every word - of Stray's policies! Be well aware that you will automatically lose AT LEAST 20% of what you paid should you cancel at ANY time for ANY reason!! While I certainly understand that companies may need to charge a small administrative fee for a cancellation, charging a minimum of 20% full cost when it's many months or weeks before travelling is far beyond the pale. In my experience, Stray's "fine-print" marketing maneuvers and cancellation polices are the most rapaciously egregious I've had in many years of travel.

We had such a memorable and amazing time rambling around New Zealand for a month in our Epic…read moreCamper. The owner, Andy, was very friendly, helpful and runs a great business! Our experience with Epic Campers was easy and fun and our van was in great condition and very clean. I highly recommend them!

From the owner: EPIC Campers is a local, independently-owned campervan hire company based in Auckland and…read moreChristchurch, New Zealand. Our range of modern, self-contained campervans offer a high-quality choice at a superb price that the big rentals companies can't match. We're passionate about what we do and pride ourselves on exceptional service. We hope to meet you soon.

Vista 2 is the money mobile! We spent two weeks exploring the country in this bad boy and had an…read moreabsolute blast. We must've seen about a thousand other motorhomes and camper-vans out on the road and I can confidently say that the Wilderness Vista 2 was the sexiest machine out there. Aside from the motorhome being pristine, comfortable, and a beast in the mountains - the people at Wilderness are equally spectacular. We didn't encounter any major issues while out on the road - except realizing that we wanted to spend a little more time down on the S. Island and 'wished' we could drop the Vista 2 off at Christchurch rather than all the way back up in Auckland before catching our flight. "No worries and no extra charge" said the good folks at Wilderness! I did a good amount of research before booking w/ Wilderness - and like some of the others have said - price is a little higher - but our smiles couldn't have been bigger...which to us is priceless. Danny & Sarah

We traveled for 3 weeks and had never RV"d before much less the other side of the road. Have to…read moreadmit we were very anxious driving a large vehicle as well. The staff was thorough with the walk thru and took us around the block a few miles to get adjusted and comfortable. They had said in about 20 minutes we would be more adjusted and we were. The Vista was perfect for my niece and I ... Bed was very comfortable and slept like babies. Had all the amenities needed. We did have a small issue with the grey water fitting; called them and within less than an hour we were back on the road. They were on it.! Only issue was Wi-Fi rarely worked. Yes they are a bit more expensive than other choices but meeting, talking and seeing other choices as we traveled throughout NZ I know we made the correct choice with Wilderness. Planning on coming back to see more of the country and will be using Wilderness. Thank you!

The worst car rental car experience in 50 years. No signage in the Auckland airport, walk a mile to…read morethe pickup location, not an upgraded SUV but rather a rubbish 200,000+ km vehicle that was damaged on all sides with poor tires, non-working wipers, no power seats, no power rear lift - a bad, bad vehicle. To make matters worse, we were charged a one-way fee of $450 because of a Queenstown drop-off and they do not have a functioning location. I was instructed to leave the car in a church parking lot. After dropping my wife off in the Queenstown airport parking lot (in the rain), I had to walk a mile from the church back to the airport in the rain. Avoid Scotties - whatever you do! New Zealand is a wonderful country with wonderful people, Scotties of NZ does not fit the mold.

RENTER BEWARE: -Their cars have 170,000 km on them !…read more-our AC broke within hours of renting the car -they are DIRTY, CLOTH seats soaking up all that sweat of hundreds of stinky renters. -Worst of all, they do not offer any prorated refunds, even on the insurance! I understand the car, that's a tangible asset. But I am now paying insurance on a vehicle for two more weeks ($300!!!) and they don't care at all. I am following up a fraudulent charge with my credit card. -also, if you're still reading and haven't been scared away to choose a reputable company, when you arrive at the airport to pick up your car, if you have not "pre-arranged" (we bought on PriceLine and it was "EZ Rent A Car" and they have changed their name to Scotties and NO ONE knew anything about an EZ Car. So we paid an Uber to get there).

I have mixed feelings about this car hire place. The products that they hire out are good, and once…read morewe were able to drive away, our trip went smoothly. It's just hiring the vehicle in the first place that was a little bit more complicated than it could have been. First of all there was quite a long line, so we had to wait while the staff member had to deal with the customers, which I can understand is unavoidable at times, but perhaps hiring some more staff (or at least one) would help this problem. The next issue was that my credit card didn't have the required limit that they needed for a bond, which was a massive amount, but rules are rules. I didn't have a problem with this though, I was just a bit annoyed that while I was sorting it out, they didn't bother to get the vehicle ready for us. Instead more time was just wasted unnecessarily, and we ended up being in the place for an hour before everything was ready to go. Apart from the initial waiting, everything else was great.

AVOID Hired a car from Melbourne to Adelaide for 3 days. Car…read morebroke down on the morning of the second day. Only part refunded. No replacement car brought to us. 3hr trip in tow truck back to Melbourne. Took over 10 hours to get back after the initial call in the morning. I did the right thing and reported the issue straight away and for that my trip was ruined.

We picked up our van and had to bring in back right away because the A/C didn't work. They fixed it…read moreand then we drove off to our next destination 3 hours away. When we got there we realised we couldn't lock the van. We called right away to let Jucy know. It took 5 very stressful days for any kind of resolution to be made, and we only got a resolution by driving back to Auckland and back. This took a whole day, but was preferable to the previous two days when we had been stuck on the phone on hold. The phone service was totally useless. At the branch they were able to swap the van, but over the phone they had been telling us there were no vans available. There were several other couples at the branch as well waiting for issues with their vans to be fixed. This set us back on our trip by a day, making us lose a booking. And the time that we had the first van, we weren't able to do things because we didn't want to leave it unlocked. A week or two later we were contacted by a manager who was able to offer a refund for the 5 days we had the unsuitable van, which was appreciated, but I would still never recommend Jucy to anyone. Additionally, the van setup isn't very practical or comfortable, and we wished we had just hired a regular car and stayed in cheap accommodation. It wouldn't have cost much more to do so and it would have saved so much stress and been a lot more comfortable. We have told everyone we know to stay far away from Jucy.

Easy process of rental, staff was amazing and service was very efficient. Campervan has everything…read moreyou needed for travel and camping.

I should have looked at Yelp before booking. Arrived at 3:30 pm and by the time we cleared cusroms…read moreit was 4:30, hunted around to find Jucy with no luck so called the office for a little direction only to be told they close at 4pm and I would need to come back the following day, WTF? I just landed in in another country at an international airport that still has flights arriving and they have gone home for the day. Well, found another local rental car company (ezi Car rental) and got a nice SUV. When I called Jucy they explaind that they would be kepping my $166.00 deposit because I did not wait in the airport area till the next day for them to return. My advice is don't go cheap, you always pay more in the end. To Jucy, tacky way to get money by closing early and burning your customers.