Comment: Some handy hints for travelling and camping in New Zealand

You could also ask your travel agent to see if you can get a "drive back" where the van needs to be driven back to Auckland say from Christchurch or Queenstown.

We did it once and they paid for our fuel and ferry crossing but that was years ago..worth looking at tho...its just that you can't go tiki touring all over the place and expected to get there within a reasonable amount of time

Regards
Graeme