Tourists too scared to take to the wheel, or simply wanting a more relaxing holiday, are paying to be chauffeur-driven around the country.

Police warn that thousands of extra travellers will be on the roads in the coming days as Waitangi weekend coincides with the start of the Chinese New Year holiday period – also known as Golden Week.

While more tourists are turning to self-drive holidays, a few are using the growing number of companies offering chauffeur services.

KIRK HARGREAVES/FAIRFAX NZ Christchurch-based chauffeur Robin Adams acts as both taxi driver and guide for overseas visitors. "I mother them all the way around."

Some customers are older, well-heeled professionals who want to enjoy the view without being herded onto group bus tours. Chauffeurs are also picking up business from tourists too frightened to continue driving after close calls. Others need transport after having their rental vehicle contracts cancelled for dangerous driving.

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Former high country musterer Robin Adams, 77, ran motels before setting up Chauffeur New Zealand 12 years ago, and regularly takes visitors on week-long tours.

KIRK HARGREAVES/FAIRFAX NZ Tourists usually hire chauffeur Robin Adams for a week at a time and he takes them to places they would never normally get to see.

His $700 a day fee covers his accommodation, but charges of $1000-plus per day are not uncommon in the industry, with clients paying for their own accommodation on top.

Adams has driven everyone from a Bollywood director to a Singaporean heart surgeon, but six weeks ago received an S.O.S from a Rotorua motel owner on behalf of a visiting Indian family.

"He said 'they're an accident waiting to happen. They've had two chose shaves today, and the whole family will be wiped out if they don't get a driver'."

SUPPLIED American tourists Kathy Lerner, left, and Janice Ruggier, with driver and guide Alex Cameron beside Lake Wakatipu.

The family paid for return flights to Queenstown so Adams could fit them in between other bookings. He reluctantly agreed to assess the father's driving ability with a trip around the block. "He thought he could drive an automatic car like a manual and he was using the brake as a clutch."

Faith Pandian, of Christchurch Touring Company, specialises in chauffeured day tours. She helped out a family who had their rental car confiscated after the husband was caught doing 145kmh near Queenstown.

Co-owner of Queenstown-based Southern Limousines, Jeremy Crichton, is building a new depot at Frankton for his fleet of 16 luxury tour vehicles.

He gets two or three multi-day bookings a year from people who start out driving a rental vehicle – often a campervan – and give up because it's too hard.

"They sit overseas, see Australia and little old New Zealand on a map and under estimate completely the time and distance.The most common question I get is 'Where are all your freeways?'"

The Rental Vehicle Association estimates 80 per cent of the 120,000 rental vehicle hires this month will be to overseas vistors.

Association chief executive Barry Kidd said one or two rental contracts a week were cancelled over the summer season as a result of drivers causing crashes, or being caught driving dangerously.

They had to pay the "salvage" costs of getting rental vehicles back to designated drop off points, which could prove expensive if rental companies fly staff to remote locations to collect confiscated vehicles.

A visitor who recently had his licence cancelled for speeding on the West Coast was billed $700 to get the car returned to Christchurch.

The bulk of long distance chauffeur work is for clients like Kathy Lerner and Janice Ruggieri, an American couple in their sixties who did a 15-day tour with The Road Trip company just over a year ago.

The experienced travelers rated it as one of their top five holidays and they enjoyed having chauffeur Alex Cameron as their personal guide, Lerner said.

"He knew the perfect places to eat based on what we liked. During the trip we had flexibility to make changes. We never felt rushed while taking photographs and hiking."

The Road Trip owner Chris Cameron said business had increased 260 per cent within three years. "Last December was the busiest month and we had a record 26 departures. In the next two weeks we have 10 tours leaving."

Laura Hooykaas, of NZ Chauffeur Ltd in Auckland, had 20 contracted drivers and said her customers were prepared to pay $1000 a day for a "bespoke" tour in a luxury SUV.

"It allows them to relax and enjoy the scenery and the time with family. They don't need to worry about driving from place to place, how to get there, the roads, where the petrol stations are. Everything is taken care of."

Meanwhile, Canterbury road policing manager Inspector Ash Tabb said there would be more patrols on South Island roads this weekend to monitor risky driving, including those speeding, crossing the centre line, not wearing seat belts, using cellphones or drunk-driving.

Police said the majority of drivers caught straddling the centre line were New Zealanders. However, on Friday Yi Zhu, 45, a visitor from Shanghai, was ordered to pay $7000 for causing a head-on crash near Glenorchy on Tuesday after the court heard he had been "instinctively" on the wrong side of the road.

Zhu had pleaded guilty to two charges of careless driving causing injury.

Motorists could report unsafe driving by calling *555.