Apollo vs Campervan Village

Both rent from Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown and from nowhere else, and both are among only four operators in this market with all three airport gateways. Both are Australian-connected: Apollo merged into thl in 2022 and processes through shared thl depots, while Campervan Village is a subsidiary of Wicked Campers. Both list every model as certified self-contained — thl's booking system marks all seven Apollo categories, including the two compact vans with built-in hideaway toilets, and Campervan Village lists all three as 'Certified self contained to NZA 5465', the number of the old blue-warrant standard, without saying what kind of toilet they carry. Since 7 June 2026 only a green warrant counts legally in New Zealand, and certification belongs to the vehicle rather than to the model page, so on either fleet you are checking the card at handover. The depot overlap and the shared certification claim make them look interchangeable on a booking screen. They are not.

The equipment gap is the widest between any two operators in this market. Apollo includes bedding, a fridge or fridge-freezer, a microwave, a gas stove, a 240-volt mains hookup and a solar panel on every model. Its five Euro motorhomes add a shower, hot water and diesel living-area heating that runs without plugging in; the Hitop and Endeavour omit those three but still carry everything else. Campervan Village includes none of them on any model. No van has a heater of any kind. No van has a 240-volt hookup, so a powered campsite adds nothing that the van cannot already do on its own 12-volt system. No van includes bedding — the company FAQ tells travellers to bring sleeping bags, pillows, sheets and towels, or to buy budget ones from a store. Only one of the three models, the Aventus Plus, has a fridge; the other two cool with a 20-litre esky that needs ice bought along the way. That is a genuine saving for a traveller who already owns camping gear and a hidden cost for one who does not, and it is the thing that makes a daily-rate comparison between these two misleading.

The review records then land in the same half of the table without landing in the same place. Apollo's weighted Google average across its three depots is 3.7 from 1,359 reviews — the second-lowest operator in this market. Campervan Village's is 1.7 from 19, the lowest by more than a full star, with no depot independently reaching 2.0. Apollo's sample is more than seventy times larger, so its 3.7 sits on stable ground where Campervan Village's 1.7 could move materially with a handful of entries. Both carry shared Australian and New Zealand Trustpilot listings: Apollo at 4.1 from 252, with the company claiming the page and actively inviting reviews since September 2025, and Campervan Village at 2.9 from 135 across eleven Australian depots and three New Zealand ones. Neither Trustpilot score is New Zealand-specific. One further structural difference: Apollo's depots open seven days, while Campervan Village is closed every Sunday — the only operator in this market with no Sunday service at all.