Ten summer nights of Lunar New Year on Auckland's roads
Mid February in Auckland is warm and bright, the harbour glittering and the light lingering well past eight in the evening. Lunar New Year brings family reunions, restaurant tables booked solid and visitors who want the Waitakere Ranges, Piha's black sand and the Coromandel all in one trip. That's a lot of people chasing wheels, so Auckland Downtown car rental fills up fast and prices stretch out. For 12 to 22 February we found 19 listings, the cheapest at $1724.10 and the dearest at $4411.31.
Thrifty owns the bargain end of this search, with 15 listings from $1724.10 to $2743.26. Budget has four, running from $2288.51 to $4411.31, so it only earns a look if you want something it alone stocks. Smart bookers compare the same model across both counters, because the Outlander alone differs by over $1600 between them.
Most of the fleet seats five, which handles a family and their luggage, but seven and eight seaters are rare, so lock one in early if you're travelling with a crowd. Only three are hybrids, and they're worth grabbing if you're covering long highway stretches to Rotorua or Raglan. Summer roads are dry, though Auckland's motorways clog around the airport and the harbour bridge on holiday weekends, so pick up mid morning and leave the Downtown streets before the school run and office rush.