Auckland to New Plymouth - Britz

Six nights and 543 kilometres from Auckland to New Plymouth in a campervan, by way of the Forgotten World Highway.

Raglan comes first on the west coast, where Manu Bay has one of the longest left-hand point breaks in the world, with Bridal Veil Falls inland dropping fifty-five metres off a basalt lip. Kawhia and the Marokopa Falls follow on a stretch of coast with very little on it, then the Waitomo caves and their glow worms.

Taumarunui is the start of the Forgotten World Highway, 150 kilometres of back country road through bush, river valleys and a saddle, with an unsealed section and a one-lane tunnel along it. Whangamomona is the midpoint, a village that declared itself a republic in 1989 after a boundary change it disliked and still elects a president, with the hotel as the centre of the affair.

Mount Taranaki stands at the end of the route, a near-perfect volcanic cone that gets compared to Fuji, with Surf Highway 45 running round its base through Oakura and Opunake. Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, 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. Seven days for 543 kilometres is unhurried, which the Forgotten World Highway requires: it has no fuel along it and takes a good four hours. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. The highway’s tunnel is single lane and unlit, and the unsealed section is narrow, so it rewards an unhurried pace in a long vehicle.