Apollo vs Maui

Apollo and Maui are both thl brands, and they work out of the same three branches: Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown, with same-day airport transfers and 08:00–16:30 opening seven days except Christmas Day. The contracts match on almost everything that shapes a route. Both keep the vehicle on sealed roads, both allow the same exception for a well-maintained access road under 12 kilometres to a recognised campground or major attraction, and both name Crown Range Road, Skippers Road and Ninety Mile Beach as prohibited whatever the surface. Ski-field access is barred from 1 June to 31 October on either. Both take a NZ$250 deposit, both need a driver of at least 21, and both charge a NZ$270 Queenstown location fee, which Maui raises to NZ$280 from 1 April 2027. Both hand over bedding, a gas hob, a microwave, a fridge-freezer and a full kitchen kit, and both run a 12-volt house battery with a solar panel and a 240-volt hookup. Both sell you a category rather than a guaranteed make, model, year or layout.

The fleets separate at the bottom, not the top. Maui publishes five automatic diesel categories and lists a shower, toilet, hot water and diesel living-area heating on every one, so overnight warmth does not depend on finding a powered site, although Maui still advises a 14 to 16 hour mains connection about every second night to fill the house battery. Apollo publishes seven, and only the five Euro models match that description. Apollo lists driver’s-cab heat alone on the Hitop and Endeavour, with no shower and no hot water, while thl’s booking system still marks both certified self-contained, with a 12-litre hideaway toilet Apollo calls built-in and fixed. That is not a quality gap, it is a difference in what the cheapest booking on each site actually contains. Liability follows the same line: Apollo’s Low Road option is NZ$5,000 per claim on those two vans and NZ$7,500 on its five bathroom models, whereas Maui’s Low Road is NZ$7,500 per claim on every category. Under the thl terms the two share, neither debits a deposit in New Zealand; each records a card authority for the liability at collection, although both brands’ liability pages show debit wording in a panel priced in Australian dollars. Maui also says its standard motorhomes stay on fleet for under two and a half years, and its paid Elite option under one; Apollo makes no published age claim. Cascade, Maui’s shorter four-berth, leaves the fleet from 1 April 2027.

Book like for like and the gap narrows sharply. An Apollo Euro model and a Maui category are the same sort of vehicle from the same counter: automatic, diesel-heated, bathroom-equipped and marked self-contained in thl’s booking system. Under the rule in force since 7 June 2026, the green warrant on the vehicle handed to you settles that, not the model page. What is left is the depot record, and it is not close. Apollo’s weighted Google score is 3.7 from 1,359 reviews, its Auckland and Christchurch listings both at 3.6 and the only two below 4.0 in this market, against Maui at 4.5 from 3,571 with its three branches between 4.4 and 4.6. Both read 4.1 on Trustpilot, on combined Australia and New Zealand pages that are not New Zealand scores. Reviewers name individual branch staff approvingly at both. What recurs against Apollo is escalation beyond the branch and a shared Christchurch check-in counter that slows collection; what recurs against Maui is water entering around window seals and roof fittings in heavy rain. Ignore the Apollo listing that ranks first in a Trustpilot search: it rates 1.7 and belongs to the United States business.