Wicked Campers New Zealand Omdömen 56

Hired a camper van from Wicked for a trip around both the North and South Island of New Zealand and had a great experience throughout. The van was reliable, comfortable, and perfect for the trip. Communication from Shai was excellent and everything was straightforward from pickup to drop off. Had no issues at all and would definitely recommend Wicked to anyone planning a New Zealand road trip. 5 stars

We traveled the south island during 12 days in the Freedom Camping Aventus, (Toyota Voxy- Self contained vehicle). We picked it up in Christchurch and was a very good experience because we could sleep in all free campings around the island while we enjoy the incredible landscapes. Also the price is fair for the service they provide and we didn’t have any issues either with the booking or the vehicle

Great experience! The van was not new, but the price was great.

Company was always available via WhatsApp. Respond very fast. Campervan was in a good condition. What you get for the money is very good. Had a great time
Only 4stars cause the doors sometimes didn’t open properly and the location of the kitchen isn’t idealy

The van got us around the South- and Northisland for 5 weeks without any problems, reliable and easy to drive. The interior was basic, as to expect for the price. We mostly used it for getting arround, didn't use the seating option, kitchen and toilet (can't really imagine using the toilet in this position and without curtains in the car, that seems really made only for the self contained sticker). We were surprised about the touristic infrastructure throughout NZ: there is so many nice picknickgrounds and freedom camping near well maintained public toilets, that we didn't need these options. For more comfort it would be great to have thicker matresses and the option to book some bedding with it. Also some upfront information, how to get to the pickup place would be helpful. Customer service per whatsapp and e-mail worked very well (thank you Eleanor ;-)

We booked the scooby doo van for our 10 day road trip around the South Island of NZ. We knew it was a budget and very basic option but were surprised honestly by how little comforts were offered in the van. I will walk through everything specifically.

The modifications done to the van are extremely basic and cheap. You essentially have some wood cupboards for storage and two thin mattresses that sit atop this once the bed is converted. The mattresses are actually pretty comfortable but they don’t really fit in the space…They are slightly too big to fit so you essentially have a bit of extra mattress around your head that sticks out rather than fitting flush, which I thought was really strange…

You also aren’t provided with any bed linens, blankets or pillows. So you have to essentially bring everything with you or go to Kmart on day one and spend some money buying up the essentials. Bring your own bath towel too as that is similarly not offered.

We never converted the space to use the table/chairs inside the van, as it was honestly was so rickety and silly that we decided to only use the van either drive or sleep. With that in mind, be careful around the colder/wetter months as there isn’t anywhere comfortable to sit inside (other than the front seats or bed once it’s converted) so you will be outdoors a lot.

There’s also no curtains on the windows which is frankly crazy. This is a very basic addition that would improve the comfort/privacy of the vehicles a lot. We had to fashion window covers with our bath towels and extra clothing every night to maintain some small amount of privacy which we thought was a bit ridiculous.

The toilet and water setup is very basic and frankly not to be trusted/used. It is just there as a namesake to get you a self contained sticker, but you need to be prepared to never use it. This means you’ll either need to stay in proper campsites or find free camps that have a toilet facility (which is actually surprisingly common).

The cooking equipment is also super basic. I wish we at least had a double burner stove as the single burner was pretty inconvenient. The cooler was also TINY so you were needing to cook your meals pretty much daily as you couldn’t store anything of substance in the cooler.

The van was also poorly kept inside and out. Lots of dents, scratches and worn paint on the body of the vehicle, and then the roof on the inside of the vehicle had lots of little spots that looked like dirt or mould which was a bit gross.

I still give the vehicle three stars as it actually was very easy to drive, pretty reliable and cheap to fill (as it takes 91 petrol and is decently fuel efficient). We did also get an okay nights sleep most nights once we had our setup/routine worked out.

The long and the short of it is that you need to be prepared for a very basic, budget experience and be okay with that. Don’t expect huge comfort or niceties with this one - they are essentially doing the bare minimum to allow themselves to run a profit. But if you are extremely low key and price is your number one concern, it does do the job. You have a vehicle to drive and a place to sleep, just not much more!

Amazing experience

The van was dirty and had mold on the ceiling. Contacted them about and nothing changed. Never renting from this company again. We ended up finishing our trip earlier as we had headaches and allergies.

Zero zero zero rating from my side. Very bad experience van had no cruse control, no one pick from airport, no one pick phone in early morning, no one give any pick up instructions before we landed in newzealand and van is very small in size. My best advise is that do not book with them they have very bad management.

Clean, good working capervan for a very good price! We loved spending time in the mystery machine and got in talk with quite a few people just because of our van.
Very easy company to deal with, just phone them and they’ll make anything work.

Great little camper for our roadtrip. Extremely comfortable to drive. Surprisingly good fuel economy and handling. All the nesecities included.

Mattress could be better, it was a bit too thin for these two old ladies

The trip was really interesting! The car itself was actually pretty good, although the built-in kitchen on the side wasn’t very practical. We also didn’t love the smell inside, but I guess there’s not much you can do about that haha.

The man who handed over the car to us was super nice and answered all of our questions, which we really appreciated!

One thing that should definitely be improved is the insulation for cold nights. Even with blankets and what felt like 100 layers of clothing, we were freezing!

But you can clearly see that it’s a budget-friendly offer, so you shouldn’t complain too much :) The car got us all around the North Island in two weeks without any problems, so overall it did the job well!

This was our second experience with wicked campers and it seems the quality of product and customer support is drastically worse in the newzealand branch vs our first experience in Australia. We knew from the first experience that the rental was a very basic and “budget” option. Some problems noted with the van included: broken ac, broken radio, cigarettes still in the van ash tray, cracked windshield, dangerously worn tires, and a coolant reservoir with a substantial leak. Though some problems are insignificant other show a glaring disregard for safety of their product. We wasted two full travel days in vehicle repair shops to address issues that should have been addressed before it was given to a paying customer.
The other aspect of our poor experience dealt with the abismal customer service/roadside assistance. Towards the end of our trip the poor tires resulted in a blown out tire. We would have simply put on the spare to make it to a town but the tool to access the spare tire doesn’t reach due to the construction of the bed platform. So we were stranded on the side of the road attempting to contact the “24hour” roadside assistance for 4 hours before we were finally able to get a
Hold of anyone. Thankfully a bystander came by to help us who had proper tools so we could change the tire. Upon finally reaching anyone at the wicked campers we were greeted with very hostile and rude customer service.
It’s really too bad because when we rented in Australia we had a very good experience. It’s a shame that the company doesn’t has that consistency through out all their locations.
With all of that said it might be worth the extra money for a rental service with a better and safer product.

The van drove well, but we were a bit wary about how long it would last without problems. We tried not to use the toilet and sink. Also, both were built in in such a way that they took up a lot of space. I also found the drop-off strange. But if you're on a tight budget and need a self-contained car, you could give it a go.

Basically you get what you pay for.
Pros:
The van drove well and was comfortable driving, apart from a weird shudder when braking.
Bed was more comfortable than I expected although we also purchased a mattress topper to make it softer.
Customer service response was very quick and easy to deal with.
Cons:
The van didn’t have any AC and when we asked about it, the company pointed out that they don’t guarantee AC for vans in NZ. Sucked on the hot days driving down the highway at 100kmh with the windows down. I don’t think I could be blamed for assuming the car would have AC, renters beware, do not assume anything!
There are no mosquito nets on the windows so be prepared to be eaten alive at night unless you buy your own mosquito net.
The esky does not keep anything cold for longer than a day, we had to buy ice pretty much every day.
No real instructions on how to use the sink so we never did use it.
The music system does not have any other input apart from aux cable, so unless you own an iPod or an MP3 player you’ve got to get a radio transmitter and a phone holder because they don’t come with that either.
Things to be aware of:
There are no extras at all, no bedding (which is mentioned in the confirmation email) no sheets, no blanket, no pillows. Only the bare basics of cutlery and crockery.
If you want to be sure the car will have a toilet and be confirmed self contained it’s extra $$.
Honestly I could have dealt with almost everything else except the lack of AC. Thought it was a bit shady that while they don’t guarantee it on the website, they also don’t let you know that there is a high probability that you won’t have it.
We probably would not rent with wicked campers again based on the above information, but if you want the most affordable van rental for your holiday and don’t mind roughing it, this is the company for you!

Van was great for the money. You get what you pay for. Van did have a coolant problem that wasn’t heavily noted at pick up.

Our trip was amazing. The Mistery Machine miss something but in general was good

Never rent from these guys, they are shockingly bad!!!!
We were supposed to pick our camper on the 1st of Jan. On the 31st at 2pm we were called saying the self contained vehicle we had booked and fully paid for had an accident and they couldn't offer anything else other than a 7 seather van (not a campervan just a van) or a full refund. After few hours of us calling every single rental company and of course not being able to find another vehicle due such a short notice and considering is peak season, we insisted in talking to a manager, eventually someone called back and we enquired whether we could pick up another camper at a different location. The option we were given was making our way to Queenstown and swaping to a camper there on the 3rd of jan the earliest (we had to even ask if this was an option, they didn't even offer this in first place!!) As we had no other choice we agreed to take the 7 seater and head to Queenstown for the swap. Also to note, we paid 195 dollars to get the van on a public holiday, which didn't happen and we had to take a small car instead.
When we got to Christchurch on the 1st , the 7 seater we were told we would be getting wasn't available either and the lady over the phone eventually managed to find a Toyota Aqua which we took, she did say we would need to get some money back as we had to take a small car but of course this never happened!
We had to change our travelling plans, and pay for accommodation for the first two nights which costed us 400NZD as everything was already fully booked and we could not camp.
When we got to Queenstown to swap the car for the camper, the vehicle did not have any of the camping equipment it was supposed to, only had the two chairs and a table but none of the cooking equipment. The lady over the phone had us looking through the other vehicles to find the equipment that the van was supposed to be equiped with. We spent over an hour for this to get sorted.

While still at the Wicked campers depot, we met a couple who had just picked their camper and they have had the same issue with them. They were called on the 31st with the same story as they told us so clearly ours wasn't an isolated problem.

We wasted a lot of our holidays with these issues, let alone the stress caused and the additional expenses we had to incur in accommodation. We only got 300 dollars back for the days we did not have the camper but that was not even enough to cover for the accomodation we had to take. I have emailed them since we got back and of course not even acknowledgement. This company needs to be flagged to Consumer Affairs as they are terrible.

My friend and I rented the Aventus Freedom Camper for 3 weeks, travelling on the South Island. Comparing to other prices it was the cheapest we could find as some of the otheres require age 21 and older. It is a simple interior, bed, little cooker, there would be a sink and toilett (we did not use it), we rented a campertable (which already came a bit damaged, still did its job) and two camperseats for outside, would really recommend that to sit outside and enjoy views! It is compared to others again a smaller Camper and easy to drive/ park with - and in my opinion not to small for sleeping, … We had a good experience, though can agree with others there could be more instructions at the beginning, called them twice and they were very helpful, so appreciate that!

Really enjoyed my 14 day trip around the South Island in the Aventus. It came clean, was reliable and the unlimited km's was absolutely fantastic to get around and see the sights without added pressure. There was enough room for two to sleep comfortably, the bed was easy to set up and the portable toilet was handy. Staff was friendly and helpful and the van was a dream a drive. Thank you again and I would recommend this van for couples or singles on a budget looking to see the sights without having to pay a fortune in hotel stays and hired cars.