Christchurch Airport car hire for a Summer Road Trip: What Christmas Week Really Costs
Late December at Christchurch Airport smells like sunscreen and sunscreen-warm rental cars. The light hangs around until nearly 9pm, lupins are blazing pink along the roadside, and every second person in the arrivals hall is clutching a itinerary that starts with the same thought: get a car, point it south. If you're sorting your Christchurch Airport car rental for the 2026 Christmas-New Year week (28 December to 4 January), you're in peak season, and the numbers below tell you exactly what that costs.
Across 78 listings the median sits at $1,815, with a floor of $1,092 and a ceiling of $2,669.89, so cheap rental cars Christchurch Airport style absolutely exist, they just hide in the budget suppliers. Ezi averages $1,594 while Avis averages $2,056, and GO Rentals holds both the cheapest listing of the week and the most listings overall (16), which makes it the wildcard worth checking first. A smart booker compares Ezi and GO against the big internationals before touching anything else.
The fleet skews sensible: 60 of the 78 cars seat five, hybrids and petrol dominate, and there's a Corolla Cross Hybrid going for $1,178.75 that will pay for itself in fuel on a Canterbury-to-Otago loop. Book the earliest pickup slot you can manage, because the shuttle queues at the airport gates get long by mid-morning on 28 December, and if you're hauling bikes or a boot full of camping gear, grab a roof-rack-equipped SUV rather than gambling on a compact.