Spaceships vs Wendekreisen

Both companies run Auckland and Christchurch and nothing else, so neither can finish a trip in Queenstown. Both include unlimited kilometres, and neither charges for a one-way between its own two depots. Wendekreisen also lists road-user charges, bedding and airport transfers as included, and prices another-city collection or return at a NZ$550 relocation surcharge. Both restrict a short named list of routes, and Ninety Mile Beach and the Skippers road appear on each. The two depots sit on different islands either way — Spaceships states that the Cook Strait vehicle fare is yours to book and pay.

The fleets then share almost nothing. Spaceships runs five compact models, all automatic bar the manual version of the VW Cosmo, four sleeping two and the Cosmo three, with bedding supplied and a gas cooker, pots, plates and two gas canisters on the equipped models. Every model has a fridge, and the Beta 2S, Sigma and Cosmo are listed as green-warrant certified with a fixed toilet; the Cosmo alone adds a diesel heater and, with its pop-top raised, standing room. Wendekreisen publishes all 11 of its categories as certified self-contained, each with a hot shower, a fixed flush toilet and a heater — 2 kW diesel on the Koru models, 1.9 kW LPG on the Budget ones. Its berths run from two to six. Transmission is the catch on that side: the Budget, Koru 2 and Koru 3 categories are manual, and the automatics are the Koru 4 Freedom and the Koru Star range.

For a summer fortnight of short drives and holiday parks, the Spaceships case is the vehicle itself: it parks where a car parks. For a winter or shoulder-season route, the heater and the bathroom are the trip, and that is what Wendekreisen fits to every category. Weigh the evidence on that equipment first. Both companies hold 4.5 on Google across their two depots, from 485 and 507 reviews; Spaceships repeats 4.5 on Trustpilot from 434, while Wendekreisen’s Trustpilot page carries 39 reviews split 56 per cent five-star and 28 per cent one-star. That one-star group is consistent about electrical and heating faults developing days into a hire, and about being walked through a remote diagnosis instead of being given another vehicle. A rating collected at handover cannot see a fault that arrives on day four.