Often we are asked about the fuel consumption of many of our relocation cars and campervans listed on Transfercar.

So I did a little bit of research and put together a quick guide on the average fuel use of commonly listed vehicles. This is not exact data but is an estimate only and will vary depending on the make and model of the vehicle and how you drive it (I’ll write about this soon!).

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I just received a question regarding parking overnight on the side of the road in a campervan. I did my research and have found the answers I was looking for:

• Locals don’t like people camping on the streets in their towns (And you really don’t want to be making trouble with the locals!).
• Many towns have local by laws prohibiting overnight camping, and you’ll be woken at 4-5am and told to move on.
• If there are no signs indicating you are allowed to park on the side of the road, you should not assume that it is acceptable to stop and park.
• Most towns have motor parks, and camping grounds where you can park, and there are many opportunities for “Freedom Camping” outside of towns and built up areas.
• Alongside rivers and lakes (except within a town boundary) or in designated camping areas within National Parks, you are welcome to camp to your heart’s content.

Just please make sure you have toilet facilities (no dumping in the bushes if you can help it) with you and also take all your rubbish when you leave!!

If you want to find out more, click here…

Getting from A to B can be a bit tricky if you don’t have your own means of transport. This goes for all travellers without weels, whether they’re locals, international or national visitors. After all, if you don’t own or have access to a car or bike, how are you going to get from let’s say Wellington to Auckland? Or even more challenging, Katikati to Lumsden, Great Barrier Island to Napier?

Just stay put where you are? Or go walking? Or put your thumb up and go hitch-hiking?

A website dedicated to hitch-hiking culture, digihitch.com, says the “simple, unplanned and spontaneous act of sharing transport” has been around as long as there has been transportation. But hitch-hiking in its purest sense – thumbing rides from passing motorists – followed the invention of the car in the late 19th century. It became common in the war years, when soldiers hitched rides, and entered the realms of popular culture with Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road in 1957.

Literature, films and music have often played on the fears surrounding hitch-hiking. Tales of lost hitch-hikers and hitch-hiker murders possess a power like no others.

New Zealand is still wondering what happened to Mona Blades, the 18-year-old who disappeared without a trace when hitching on the Napier-Taupo road in 1975.

And what about the unfortunate German backpacker Birgit Brauer? Her trip, and with that her dream, ended tragically in October 2005 when she was found under the towering redwoods in Lucy’s Gully, near New Plymouth. She loved New Zealanders’ down-to-earth attitude and believed she was safe hitch-hiking.

Times have sure changed and with this in the back of your mind, why take the risk of hitch-hiking? Surely a lack of transportation can be solved otherwise?Well, dear backpackers, students and all other travellers, there is an alternative to consider.Listen.

Lots of savvy backpackers have over the years already called or surfed the sites of rental car companies in pursuit of ‘one-way’ deals. But arranging this takes time, not to mention effort and can be very frustrating as you often miss the boat with rental company’s ‘one -way’ deals.

The idea of relocating cars is really quite simple and not new or innovative. There already exist websites in other countries (USA, Norway and Denmark) that specialise in relocating rental (or private) cars. However, up to recently such service didn’t exist in New Zealand.

Now, rentals, whether these are motor homes, bikes or cars, tend to accumulate there where a branch doesn’t need them to be. The car fleet moves in one direction according to the flow of tourist and companies spend a lot of money transporting unallocated cars between branches.

And this is where you as a traveller without wheels come in the picture. Why not pick up a car at point A, drive it to point B and voila: you are where you want or need to be, and the car is where the rental company needs it to be.

So, a simple concept with the added plus of a win-win situation for you and the rental companies.

New to New Zealand is http://www.transfercar.co.nz/; an online relocating service that offers free use of rental cars to travellers. And that’s you, right?

Check it out, organise a ride and have a safe journey from your A to B.