Wendekreisen vs Campervan Village

Both companies list every model as self-contained and both rent from Auckland and Christchurch, so the booking opens the same way. Past the first screen they diverge. Campervan Village adds Queenstown as a third depot — one of only four operators in this market to cover all three airport gateways — while Wendekreisen holds two and charges a NZ$550 relocation surcharge for any other city, subject to availability. The fleet shapes sit as far apart as the depot counts. Campervan Village runs three models on the same Toyota Voxy platform, all automatic, all seating and sleeping two, with no published spec difference except that the Aventus Plus carries a compressor fridge where the other two carry a 20-litre esky. Wendekreisen lists eleven categories spanning manual Budget vans on older LDV V80 bases to automatic Koru Star motorhomes for up to six people. One-way hire between Wendekreisen's two depots is included; Campervan Village quotes its one-way fee on request. Sunday separates them as well: Wendekreisen opens 08:30 to 13:00, while every Campervan Village depot is closed — the only operator in this market with no Sunday service at all.

What the two companies put inside their certified vans is the widest equipment gap in this market. Wendekreisen fits a shower, flush toilet, hot water, bedding and a heater to every one of its eleven categories — LPG on the Budget tier, diesel on the Koru and Koru Star — so the bathroom and the heating are not what divides its range. Campervan Village fits none of those to any model. No van carries a heater of any kind: not diesel, not gas, not electric. No van has a 240-volt hookup, so a powered campsite cannot run a plug-in heater even if you carried one. Bedding is not included; the FAQ tells travellers to bring sleeping bags, pillows and towels or to purchase them from a store. Only the Aventus Plus has a fridge; the other two cool with a 20-litre esky that needs ice bought along the way. The listings themselves rest on different evidence: Wendekreisen's spec pages show cassette toilets in a bathroom and cite the current self-containment regulations, while Campervan Village's pages cite only NZA 5465, the number of the old blue-warrant standard, and do not say what kind of toilet its vans carry. Certification belongs to the individual vehicle rather than the booking page, and the green warrant requires a permanently fixed toilet — inspect the card at handover with either company.

The review records sit as far apart as the equipment. Wendekreisen averages 4.5 from 507 Google reviews across its two depots and 4.1 from 39 on a New Zealand-only Trustpilot profile. Campervan Village averages 1.7 from 19 across three depots — no depot independently reaches 2.0 — and 2.9 from 135 on a combined Australian and New Zealand Trustpilot listing where no New Zealand-specific score exists. That is the widest Google gap between any two operators in this market, though the samples are asymmetric: 507 reviews settle a score where 19 cannot. Ownership tracks the same line — Wendekreisen is a family-owned company founded in Auckland in 1990 that holds New Zealand Made accreditation for its camper joinery, while Campervan Village is a subsidiary of Wicked Campers, the Australian operator. What closes the gap on the booking screen is cost, because the daily rate that separates these two excludes items Wendekreisen bundles. Bedding, unlimited kilometres, road-user charges, airport transfers, additional drivers and a one-way between Auckland and Christchurch are all part of Wendekreisen's published inclusion list. Campervan Village charges unlimited kilometres as a per-day add-on and does not supply bedding at any price from the company. Compare on the cost of the whole trip rather than the number on the search result.