As excitement grows for international visitors to return to Aotearoa, it could be a struggle to hire a vehicle to tiki tour the country in.
Rental car companies are having problems rebuilding fleets after culling more than half of their cars over two years and with manufacturer supply issues offshore.
The issue could have a negative impact on our hard-to-reach tourist spots.
The cars that are in the country are getting primed and ready for international visitors to trickle back in.
But getting behind the wheel of a rental car may be a challenge.
Tony Mortensen from the Rental Vehicle Association said "the industry was forced to sell down once the borders closed".
He said the industry estimates around 55% to 60% of New Zealand's fleet were sold.
Now they are trying to build back up with fewer than 30,000 vehicles in circulation at the moment, a far cry from two years ago in Queenstown when Covid hit and unused rentals were parked up.
Now companies are trying to push the accelerator on importing new vehicles, but there is a global backlog for new cars which is down to a number of factors.
"The level of stock held in New Zealand at the moment is historically the lowest it's ever been and constraints of Covid, the war in Ukraine, [computer] chip shortages, production disruption means consumers will have to be patient," David Crawford from the Motor Industry Association said.
He says there can be a three to six month wait for some new models.
"Without sufficient rental vehicles, I believe tourism could be severely hampered going forward," Mortensen said.
Including remote tourist-starved towns like Te Anau.
George Garden runs Fiordland Historic Cruises and believes "we will see a very significant impact".
That's because pre-Covid figures show just under half of Te Anau's visitors travelled there in a rented vehicle.
"if we don't have confidence that fleet will turn up then we don't have the confidence to take bookings against that fleet in the future, particularly in the busy periods, including school holidays, the ski season and the summer period," Mortensen said.
Garden is remaining positive.
"We are pretty resilient us lot - always find ways of getting around things."
The advice for visitors is to book early as the industry gears up for overseas travellers, who will hopefully reach their destination.
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