JUCY Cruize girls take on the Eglinton Challenge

The Eglinton Challenge is a two person team challenge covering 65km of amazing scenery!  This year JUCY Cruize Milford Sound girls Alex and Charlotte decided to take on the challenge.

Alex rocked up at 4.30 to start the race (dressed in JUCY gear of course) and she was ready to ride!  With loads of beeps from JUCY Campas and customers from our cruise she rode 32km to Te Anau Downs and arrived there with a smile on her face knowing she had completed her half.  The girls did a quick change over and now it was all up to Charlotte who was there eagerly awaiting her arrival.  She took her tag from Alex and off she went to start her half of the race.  ”What an amazing ride, there was a smile permanently on my face as I looked at the amazing scenery around me”, said Charotte.  She finished her 30km ride to the cheers of onlookers and music at the finish line, and of course  Alex who was there waiting with open arms so the celebrations could begin.  What a ride!

Congratulations girls and we look forward to you doing it again next year!

Love
Lucy xx

Watch out USA. JUCY’s coming ready or not!

I hope you’re ready USA because JUCY is getting ready to add some colour to your highways with our  green & purple wheels.  And we’re pretty excited! 

As of the 1^st of March 2012 JUCY will officially be open in the United States of America expanding the already extensive rental network and giving customers the option to hire with us in the States as well as New Zealand and Australia. 

The vehicle itself – the JUCY Champ has all the modern features of a small RV including a fridge, gas cooker, sink, DVD player, has two comfortable double beds to sleep up to 4 people and it’s minivan base makes it super easy to drive and zippy!  

JUCY will have branches in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco giving customers the option to collect and return vehicles from any of these locations depending on what suits their travel plans. 

“We are really excited about giving our customers the opportunity to see America with JUCY.  We have always wanted to see JUCY on the roads in US and feel the time is right to make that dream become a reality.  People love and recognise our brand in Australasia and now will have the chance to travel with us in the US”, says Tim Alpe – JUCY’s CEO.

America is such a huge country with massive wide open spaces and interstates that go for miles.  Some of us dream of travelling to America and doing the big American Roadtrip like you see on the movies .  Now JUCY’s giving you that chance to do it in style!

You can find more information on the JUCY Champ here or visit our JUCY USA website.

Love
Lucy xx

P.S  Oh, I nearly forgot.  Check out the JUCY Champ Birth Certificate - just so you know its all official!

Coco our Social Cabana: More tales of her adventures

Robin has just come back from taking Coco on her third adventure.  He has been all over with Coco and Lucy and has many tales to tell.  Enjoy reading all about it below and you can check out more pictures from his trip here.  If you want the opportunity to take her on an adventure for free (we like to call it a date) check out www.jucy4free.co.nz 

Love, Lucy xx

Being a French that always dreamt about going to New Zealand, I can say that those last 5 months made me actualize that dream. But even if I arrived mid-August and had the chance to travel a bit I had not been able yet to see the true New Zealand the one that I have been really dreaming of.

So when I heard about Jucy4free I jumped on what seemed to be for me the perfect occasion to get off the beaten track.

I took Coco on Wednesday morning the 18th and headed first to Hamilton for a quick stop and see a bit how the city is. There was a bit of time to take a few photos and then I was back on the road. I arrived a bit later near Matamata and its main attraction; Hobbiton. We were only five on the tour to visit the shooting places of «The Shire » and we felt lucky because it was like having a private tour as sometimes more than one hundred people are doing the visit at the same time. Unfortunately I can’t show you the photos of the set for reasons of copyright, I even had to sign a paper claiming that I could not share the photos on Facebook or Twitter… The guide told us that they could not put a bench on the set for people to rest because again of that affair of copyright. Well at least it did not ruin my day and I really enjoyed my visit.

Late in the afternoon I was back on the road this time heading to Tauranga with nearly one hour of driving.  I stopped for the night at Mount Maunganui, delaying the climbing until the next morning.

And at 9:00AM sharp I was on the small track leading to the « summit » which is at 232m. 20 minutes to get to the top and an amazing view on the city but also in the distance of what I think was the Rena.

A long road awaited me to the East Cape so I left Tauranga soon after and took Coco among all the orchards of the Kiwifruit capital of the world.  My final destination for the day was Gisborne but I decided to take what is considered as one of the most beautiful roads of New Zealand, from Opotiki to the East Cape.

20km away from the lighthouse that marks the easternmost point of New Zealand the bituminized road disappeared to let place to an old-fashioned gravel road lifting dust and rocks up to finally get Coco almost entirely covered with this mixture. And along the way were cows and horses freely wandering and crossing the road gave me the feeling to be in a remake of a Spaghetti western. When I arrived at the end of the road I still had to walk to the top of the hill where the lighthouse was.  The wind was blowing so hard there that Lucy nearly flew away… The landscape was amazing and even if it’s a long way to arrive there I really recommend to everyone to go there.

After three hours driving I finally arrived in Gisborne and visited the place and the beach where the Captain Cook saw three of his crew members nearly being kidnapped by a Maōri tribe. He named the place « Cape Kidnappers ». I did not stay long in Gisborne and decided to leave in the morning for the Hawke’s Bay and its main city : Napier, the world capital of Art Déco. The city that was totally rebuilt after an earthquake in 1931 really gives you the feeling to be back in the 1920’s.

In the morning I was once again back on the road and heading to the Tongariro National Park, more precisely to Waiouru and the National Army Museum which with its collection of tanks parked right outside is truly a great museum. The road to get there is called Desert Road and I really loved it, even more than the one between Opotiki and the East Cape, if I had to do a comparison once more, I would say that it looks a bit like the Argentinian Pampa where I also had the chance to travel.

The same day I decided that it was time to get back to Auckland.  As the road was pretty long to get back home I took several breaks along the way, one being at a hidden scenic lookout  where the landscape was mixed with falls, cliffs and primitive forest. I also decided to stop at Huka Falls just outside Taupo where Coco already had been and where I was definitely impressed.

All the way back to Auckland was a real piece of cake as Coco is really easy to drive.

Thanks again to JUCY for this amazing trip and as Molly who took Coco before me said: I hope that the photos make justice.

Cheers!
Robin

Find of the trip: The hidden scenic lookout I’ve been speaking of.  Surely one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen.
Favourite spot: East Cape, the wind and the beauty of the place made it look great.
Lowlight: The attempts to clean Coco after the gravel road : not really successful (sorry again to the cleaning crew, Coco is a dirty, dirty car).
Coco’s best attribute: I have to say everything too. I was surprised by how powerful Coco was, especially in the mountain slopes which I had no difficulty to climb.

JUCY Hotel guests head off to Big Day Out

Today is the day of the last Big Day Out which will be held in Auckland and the JUCY Hotel is full of fans.  This morning loads of guests headed off to enjoy the day and on the way out they scored themselves some free cans of V, thanks to our mates at V Energy and some funky JUCY Sunnies!  I’m sure they will all have a fantastic day.

Here is a sneak peak at a few of the snaps taken, or check them out in detail on our JUCY Facebook Page.

Happy Friday everyone.

Love
Lucy xx

JUCY Rentals Auckland City gets a makeover

Over the last week our JUCY Rentals Auckland City branch received a makeover and is now looking all new and fancy!

JUCY Lovers collecting wheels from our Auckland City location will get the chance to check it out before heading off on their adventures.  The crew started working in the new branch yesterday and to date people are lovin’ it!

Love
Lucy xx

Coco’s on the move again

Robin arrived at the JUCY Rentals branch in Auckland City this morning to take Coco on her next free adventure!  Below, he talks about where he is headed…

Hope you and Coco have fun Robin - we look forward to seeing all the photos and reading about it when you get back!

Love
Lucy xx

Coco our Social Cabana: Tales from her second adventure – “The homegrown Roady”

Coco, our Social Cabana has now come back from her second adventure.   Meet Rach & Reid (pictured left) who took her on an amazing adventure all they way to the tippy-top of the North Island.  Enjoy reading all about it below and you can check out more pictures from their trip here.  If you want the opportunity to take her on an adventure for free (we like to call it a date) check out www.jucy4free.co.nz 

Love Lucy xx

We have always been told not to leave home without seeing your own country, so we thought this was a good excuse to tick some locations on the map… for a couple of small town Central Otago kids we had a lot of the North Island to catch up on. Our one plan for the trip was to have no plans… so we hit the road to see where it went.

The atrocious weather pointed us in the Northern direction and we left a miserable Auckland behind us. First stop in Coco (our trusty Jucy camper) was Mangawhai Heads, where we took in the sights and played in the surf. We deciding it was far too good to leave this place so soon so we indulged in few refreshments and parked up for the night. The next morning brought a stunning sunsrise and a bright blue sky which inspired a run around the bay and a dip in the sea, then it was back in ‘Coco’ for a smooth run up the coast.

We stumbled upon some amazing little places along the way which enticed heaps of photos and a couple of stops to soak up the rays and read a few lazy pages of the book by the stunning surrounding coast. With Lange’s beach & Whananaki being the pick of the crop.

We cruised up to the Bay of Islands to Pihia a personal favourite spot of Reido’s. (He always claimed it was because of the history but I’ve since realised it’s the blonde German backpackers…) While there we visited Waitangi and a couple of local bars. Thanks to the fantastic staff at Fullers Greatsights we managed to wrangle a venture out to the “Hole in the Rock” aboard on of their Dolphin Encounter boats. Along the way we saw where Captain Cook first landed, loads of Dolphins, and we Island hopped our way to Cape Brett lighthouse. With so much more to see and do (and the weather sweetening) we continued up north to the tip of our fine country, Cape Reinga.

With Coco pumping out many good tunes & some sweet AC, we cruised up the coast through magical doubtless bay and made it to the Cape. Everything seemed to be working in our favour; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky as we strolled down to the northern point of NZ. The famous lighthouse stood there in all its glory and invoked a great sense of pride as we watched the Pacific and Tasman Oceans crash into each other. After a thousand photos and a lay down on the grass we both felt as if we had accomplished something special.

Pretty stoked with our efforts we chased the sunshine all the way to the start of Ninety Mile Beach and had swim as the sun set. After a hot drink conjured up in Lucy’s Kitchen we made our way back to the Bay of Islands where we bunked down in Kerikeri for the night.

After a stroll through the busy town of Kerikeri and a quick caffeine fix for Rach, the next morning brought delightful french toast cooked in the carpark before we set off to see the iconic Tane Mahuta. We traversed over to the West Coast and drove through the forests to find this monstrous Kauri. The shear size of this 2000 year old tree was amazing (Yes people do get excited by this tree) it completely dwarfed us in the photos, we did a few candid shots for the tourists and jumped back on the road. Next stop was Kai Iwi Lakes to explore the white sand dunes, but instead we found Auckland campers driving their Audi’s & jetski’s, an Aucklander backing a trailer is still a well worth sight to see!

After we conquered majority of Northland we decided to call it a day and head home. We set out to explore our own backyard, which we did and had so much fun along the way. Thanks to Jucy for hooking us up and coco for coming along for the ride.

Find of the trip: Mangonui fish and chips – best in the Southern Hemisphere
Favourite spot: Cape Reinga – Have to see it to believe it.
Lowlight: Parking ticket in Pihia – Going for a 4 hour Bay of Island cruise whilst parked in a 60 min park, we had it coming….
Coco’s best attribute: Everything – She was a dream to drive and caters for your every need! The friendly staff at Jucy are pretty cool too.

Boxing Day Madness at JUCY Christchurch

Boxing Day is one of the busiest days of the year for our branches as loads of people arrive to collect wheels and head off on their summer holiday adventures. 
Our crew in Christchurch put together this awesome video clip which captures the craziness that went on at JUCY Christchurch on Boxing Day 2011. Enjoy!

Thanks to everyone in our Christchurch branch who made this video possible and the JUCY Customers who collected wheels that day.

Love
Lucy xx

Coco our Social Cabana: Tales from her first adventure

Yesterday Coco, our Social Cabana came back from her first date that Daniel and Molly took her on.  And by the sounds of it they had an amazing time and took her to some great places.  Here is their story about their time with Coco.  You can check out more pictures from their trip here.  Enjoy, and if you want the opportunity to take her on an adventure for free (we like to call it a date) check out www.jucy4free.co.nz  

Love Lucy xx

We landed in Auckland from Sydney on Boxing Day to collect our Jucy “The Social Cabana” for its maiden voyage across the land of the long white cloud.  Met up with the fantastic staff at Jucy HQ  (great service thanks girls – we love Ash & Zoe-where were you HannaH & Amelia?) whereby we completed a short interview for JUCY TV, got familiar with the free iPad & Camera & utilities and then before we knew it we were off and away on our “no real plans” exploration of the North Island.

We did a short tour of Auckland to grab lunch by the harbour of some very seriously large local Oysters & grab some supplies to fill our van (chilly bin loaded & temperature control set).  We dropped by George FM to grab some photo’s but unfortunately the office was closed, all good – happy snaps done!

We had no itinerary as such other than to be at the LaDeDa Festival for NYE 2012 which was down the bottom the North Island. With Dan as Captain and Molly as Co-Pilot, we looked at the map and punched places into the GPS and this is what happened… …  Note : THE GPS WAS ONE OF THE BEST PIECES OF TECHNOLOGY WE HAD. LOVED IT!
 
Noting that there were so many other Jucy Vans on the road we made it our priority to wave & beep at any Jucy we crossed – and there were many!

We firstly headed west to the Coromandel Coast destination: Hahei.  We made up base camp and made day trips from there – The Jucy vehicle itself proved to be extremely comfortable with us not needing or wanting anything else, all was within.

Cathedral Cove, Sting Ray Bay, we went from Cooks Beach to Whitianga by ferry (very cute) cruised around Whitianga, lunch & a couple of beverages. Tandem bicycles with a canopy were available but after some discussion as to who would bear most of the pedal power this option was not taken. We jumped back on the Ferry up to Hahei to have dinner and mix it up with the very friendly locals.

Spent a day driving through Te Aroha, down to Matamata (hobbit land) and down to the much talked about Rotorua. With notes at the ready of the “funky egg smell” we explored the natural geo-thermal mud pools, natural springs and indulged in some of the local fare. Exchanging cash proved very easy and were loving the Wifi options that each city seemed to offer. We also found that each major town had an information centre which was always staffed with friendly people who always went above and beyond any of our requests. A big thank you to them, stop in there as much as you can! Note there “singing toilets” also proved quite a novelty.
 
Around Rotorua other than the stinky mud we also got around to prawn fishing, made bubbles on Lake Taupo then scooted across the mainland and down to the west coast to a place called Waitarere Beach. Sunsets on the west coast was a must for us East Coast Aussies. Beautiful. Making use of the photo props provided proved much entertainment, Lucy was included in most photo’s – she’s a great girl, doesn’t talk much but great fun.

We then crossed the mountains and through the Tararua Forest Park and through many long & windy beautifully scenic roads to our destination of Martinborough for The LaDeDa festival.

After sourcing some Gum Boots & Wet Weather gear we were totally equipped for the mud fest that was to be this years New Years Eve. Martinborough was BEAUTIFUL. Unbelievably great food, great wine & great people. A perfect NZ Recipe.  We would have liked to have toured around the wineries on bikes as suggested by so many of our Kiwi friends but due to the “weather” situation we opted for local pubs and restaurants which still new how to put on a great night.

NYE now down and said – Lucy loved Katchafire and Fat Freddy’s Drop, Kora & Six60 – being an avid fan of George FM we knew she would have a great time.

Off again on New Years Day down to Wellington for a brief look then back up the west coast to Palmerston North where we spent the night and hooked up with some friends to enjoy the local area.

With some activities ticked we then tucked back into the GPS and map and decided to take the Cabana to Raglan – a much talked about surf spot that everyone had recommended.  Up through Wanganui, through Taihape, Ohakune, round the must see and most beautiful Mt Ruapeau still managing to hold snow on it’s very peak , past the Waitomo Caves through the Pirongia Forest and epic Bridal Veil Falls into Raglan.

After some serious Jucy driving we were able to make it by 8pm whereby we parked up on the peninsula of Raglan overlooking the Tasman Sea and watched the sunset – on the West!!! LOVE

After a night hanging at the local drinking hole we were up, had some breakfast and made our way to the “Hot Water Springs Fun Park” at Waingaro – The Big Splash.  A couple of nearly big spills out the side and we were back in the van and made our way over to a farm whereby we enjoyed our last night in the very still & quiet countryside with only the cows & sheep to keep us company.

A quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and juice out the back of the camper to head towards Hamilton before our flight out.  Headed straight to Hood St which is known for it’s café and bohemian arts area to grab a coffee and a look around. Wish we could spend more time but had to bust a move.

Now for the finale – how could we wrap this great adventure off? We had it.  Off to the Auckland fish markets to grab some fresh crayfish and home smoked fish, into the campervan and down to the harbour to enjoy our last meal in the van! Perfect.

All in all it will be one of our most memorable trips. No plans – the freedom of camping – a beautiful country filled with wonderful people and Coco The Socal Cobana – A perfect recipe filled with all of the right ingredients. Thanks Jucy!

Lots of Love
Molly & Dan
Your Maiden Voyage pilot & Co-Pilot

P.S  Here are our HIGHLIGHTS from our trip

The country side – Green, lush, mountainous, lots of forestry, dairy & surprisingly not that many sheep. wild flowers everywhere, ferns, rainforest, steep hills, valleys and windy roads

The people – So friendly, always up for a chat, extremely helpful, welcoming, nothing ever a worry, relaxed.

The Van – Totally decked out – drove beautifully, petrol didn’t seem a problem very efficient and all extras seemed to fit the bill.

Introducing Coco, our Social Cabana. She is FREE!

Coco is our social cabana.  Unlike the rest of her family Coco is a bit different – she is purble with green trim and has loads of fun extras like free WiFi, a camera and an iPad to use, a GPS and even a props box to make your photos fun.  And she is completely FREE!

Because we were all still in the Christmas spirit and feeling all warm and fuzzy we selected a customer at random who was trying to book some JUCY Wheels over New Year’s but due to availability was having no luck.  And we surprised him with the gift of Coco, a completely free campa for his New Zealand holiday – all he had to do was promise to have fun, take photos and tell us all about his trip at the end!

Daniel collected his free wheels on Monday and took her off for her first adventure, promising to show her a good time!  Daniel said, “I’m ready to take this bad girl out for her first trip on the road – we’re very excited to be here and cannot believe we have been selected for her first trip”.

We will promise to show you snaps from Coco’s first trip.  If you’re keen to take Coco on a date as well and show her a good time you can check out more details at www.jucy4free.co.nz

She will be going all around New Zealand for free and we will be documenting her journey and all the fun you have with her along the way!

Love
Lucy xx