Travelling from location to location was a breeze with ease, thanks to the rental car and yours truly as the best driver. Having never rented a car, I was greener than the grass on the other side. Not wanting some weaksauce Yaris or Mazda 2, it was tough looking for a nice car without breaking the bank. After hours of research and price comparisons, I was led to Apex Car Rentals and my choice of the Ford Focus. Though, I still paid a pretty penny without the early bird pricing.

Despite the delay in our flight, I was still keen as a bean to be zipping around the New Zealand roads in the hot hatch. By the time we reached the Airpark, it was quite late and I was (admittedly) feeling not as super. Stepping inside the office, I was given my paperwork and... Toy..ota key fob?? After many double takes, the fact that we had been upgraded a couple classes kicked in. We were going to be cruising around in a Toyota RAV4 G-X-L (no basic bitch miles for this boiiii). Having said that, I wasn't entirely on-board with this upgrade. I mean I really wanted to be hooning driving safely and appropriately in the Focus. However, I did appreciate the Toyota RAV4 GXL's AWD, smart entry, spaciousness, sport mode and overall ruggedness when taken off-road. Not so appreciated... the thirstiness. Thirstier than the comments on an insta model picture, this thing ate through petrol like a hungry hungry hippo on 'roids - especially on sport mode. For the few seconds I was utilising it, I clearly saw the fuel gauge diminishing (like my bank account). With that said, I wouldn't have to worry about its thirstiness if petrol wasn't so damn expensive. Starting with a minimum of NZ$2.24/L and going as high as NZ$2.37/L for regular 91, you can see why I am unenthused about the mileage. My only other gripe is that the infotainment system was garbage. Options to mess around with were limiting and I wasn't able to enjoy all of my USB plugged music. Constantly on 1112 songs, I was never able to get the full six thousand+. Even after adding/removing tracks, it was still stuck with the same counter. Bollocks.

SIMs... Of course there are providers there, but they're all bullshit. With sham offerings from Vodafone and Spark, you can get "big" data "lover" packs containing 4GBs of data and costly calls & texts for ~NZ$40. Get. Lost. Even 2degrees (the carrier I went with) was guilty of this but at least they offered something more substantial. 10GB data and "unlimited" calls & texts for NZ$49 or NZ$50 for 15GB of straight data. And what's with Telstra charging AU$10 a day for 200 measly megabytes of data. Megabytes. Who in their right mind would ever think that's a good idea.

Other aids in my journey included: the Dept. of Conservation NZ, great for everything and anything nature; the MetService for all weather needs (though BOM is still top dog); AA Traveller for traffic and road reports, among many other things; and my GPS unit for keeping me on the roads.

One last thing. I am glad New Zealand's driving laws are the same as Australia's and that I don't have to go through the headache of driving on the wrong side of the road.

Having travelled enough off the beaten track, let's return to the main story.