There are lots of options
If you are travelling for a month renting is the way to go. Buying a car would be a disaster . . . mainly because you have the difficulty of selling again at the other end.
I wouldn't get worried about the age of the car. Most NZ rental companies use Japanese cars which are much more rugged and longe- lasting that British or European cars. I have run 12 year-old Toyota Corollas in my rental car fleet with 450,000km on them . . and they still ran like a Swiss watch. Rental cars here are under rigid quality control from a government agency. They must meet very high safety standards which are checked every six months. Rental companies must be licensed by the government and they lose their licence if they fail to meet reasonable performance standards.
Rather than deal with the big international franchises go for the second tier companies: Ace, Omega, A2B, Apex are some names I would recommend. (And, no, my rental company is not among them. I'm not in your market).
Re Cook Strait: Crossing does cost, but there is the advantage of not having to unload and reload your car . . . just drive on-drive off. If you plan to travel in one direction only, go south to north. Start in Christchurch and drop off in Auckland. You may get a much better deal that way because most people want to travel the other way and rental companies have a problem balancing fleet availability. For more on Cook Strait travel have a look at New-Zealand-Travel-Guide.com. There's a page there that spells out your options.
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