New Year's week at Wellington International Airport, harbour light and a full tank
Dec 31 at Wellington International Airport has its own mood: long summer light over Cook Strait, gusts rattling the terminal glass, and families wheeling bags past the end of the runway. Everyone is off for the first week of 2027, whether to Wairarapa wine country, the Kapiti coast or the ferry to the South Island. Car rental at Wellington International Airport gets busy now, and the 14 listings I found for 31 December to 7 January show how tight it is. Book ahead and you'll be on the road before the queue at the Cobham Drive roundabout builds.
Alamo is the only supplier in this search, so there's no comparing brands. The cheapest quote is the Mystery Car at $1,597.78, and the median sits at $1,729.55. Prices spread 2.41 times from bottom to top, so the smart booker takes the Yaris at $1,614.25 or the Corolla at $1,647.18 and skips the $3,850 Tesla Model Y Long Range.
All 14 cars seat five, plenty for a couple with surf gear or a family with a boot full of beach chairs. Nine are standard petrol, with three hybrids, a diesel and an electric making up the rest. A hybrid suits the winding run up the Kapiti coast, and the Pajero Sport at $2,392.65 makes sense if gravel roads are on the list. Collect early, before the New Year's Day return traffic piles onto State Highway 1.