The tiny Waikato village selling New Zealand's cheapest petrol

Tuesday, 27 July 2021

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Waikato village is home to New Zealand’s cheapest petrol.

Fuel prices are at an 18-month high, with motorists in Auckland shelling out as much as $2.43 a litre for regular petrol.

But at the Gull petrol station in Ātiamuri, north of Taupō, the same fuel cost just $2.057 a litre on Tuesday.

Data from price comparison app Gaspy showed the Ātiamuri site claimed the cheapest fuel title by the slimmest of margins, with Mobil’s Washdyke station in South Canterbury selling 91 octane for $2.059 a litre.

Gull Ātiamuri has New Zealand's cheapest petrol.

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The Allied station at Mangaweka in Manawatu-Wanganui, and NPD’s stations on Rangitikei St, Palmerston North, and in Te Rapa, on the outskirts of Hamiltion, rounded out the top five spots to fuel up.

All three offered 91 octane for less than $2.10 a litre.

Gull general manager Dave Bodger said the Ātiamuri site was physically well-positioned to offer low prices.

“There’s a low land cost and it’s close to our Mt Maunganui terminal, but we also find we’re well rewarded by having that price very low.”

However, the main reason the company could sometimes offer fuel at lower prices than its competitors was its “attitude”, Bodger said.

Waiheke Island – home of vineyards, beautiful beaches and New Zealand’s most expensive petrol. (File photo)

“If you try, and I believe we’ve been trying for 23 years, to find opportunities to save money and give the best price to the motorist, you’ll be supported.”

The average price of regular petrol across Gull’s sites was $2.239 on Tuesday, while its most expensive 91 octane was $2.347 a litre in Auckland.

The higher price in the city was partly due to the regional fuel tax of 10 cents per litre plus GST, Bodger said, and was still significantly cheaper than the country’s most expensive petrol, found on Waiheke Island.

According to Gaspy, a litre of 91 octane from Challenge Waiheke was $2.809 on Tuesday.

Other places where filling the tank came at a higher cost included the Colville General Store and Gas Hahei on the Coromandel Peninsula ($2.56 and $2.539 a litre respectively), Gas Middlemarch in Central Otago ($2.669 a litre), and Omori Heights on the western side of Lake Taupo ($2.49 a litre).

While those numbers may cause some to wince, fuel is significantly more affordable in New Zealand than in many other countries.

A recent study from Australian insurance company Budget Direct looked at the cost of petrol and diesel worldwide, indexing it for an up-to-date picture of prices and affordability.

Unsurprisingly, the most affordable fuel was found in high-income, low fuel cost Middle East countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar.

The United States was the fourth most affordable market for petrol, and Australia had the sixth most affordable petrol, while New Zealand came in at 23rd.

According to Budget Direct’s calculations, it cost 4.2 per cent of the average New Zealander’s monthly salary to fill an 80-litre tank with petrol, calculated at an average of US$1.49 (NZ$2.08) a litre.

In Qatar it cost just 0.8 per cent, thanks to a high average income and petrol costing just US$0.41 a litre

At the other end of the spectrum, in the East African country of Burundi, motorists forked out 576 per cent of the average monthly salary to fill an 80-litre tank at just US$1.23 a litre.