South Island via Aoraki/Mount Cook and the Catlins - Mighty

Ten nights and 2,700 kilometres in a loop from Queenstown in a campervan, round the southern South Island with two nights at Mount Cook.

Aoraki Mount Cook comes first and takes those two nights, where the Hooker Valley track crosses three swing bridges to a glacial lake below the highest mountain in the country and the Tasman Glacier viewpoint looks over the longest glacier in New Zealand.

Moke Lake and Glenorchy follow back at Queenstown, the second forty-five kilometres up Lake Wakatipu on a road that runs along the water the whole way. Fox Glacier comes next over the Haast Pass, then Wanaka, and Nugget Point and the Catlins on the southern coast, where a lighthouse stands on a narrow headland above rock stacks and a petrified forest lies on the tide line at Curio Bay. Moeraki and Tekapo close the loop.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Mighty, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Eleven days for 2,700 kilometres is a fair pace, and the Catlins leg is the part most itineraries leave out and the part worth the driving, though some of the side roads there are unsealed. The glacier trips need booking and are weather dependent. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee, and the schedule includes a second night at Mount Cook, which is where the walking and the night sky both need the extra evening.