Christchurch Return Roadie - Britz

Five nights and 996 kilometres in a loop from Christchurch in a campervan, down the east coast to the Catlins and back, with bikes carried on a rack.

Rakaia Huts comes first, a fishing settlement at the river mouth south of the city, then Moeraki, where the boulders sit on the beach: spherical concretions up to two metres across, weathered out of the cliff behind them over millions of years.

Curio Bay follows in the Catlins, where a petrified forest lies on the tide line, fossilised stumps and logs from a Jurassic forest exposed at low water, with yellow-eyed penguins coming ashore nearby in the evening. Tautuku Bay and Owaka come next, then Oamaru on the way north, with its Victorian limestone precinct and a little blue penguin colony, and Ashburton before Christchurch.

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. Six days for 996 kilometres is a fair pace and the whole route is sealed. The east coast is the dry side of the island, which makes this a sensible alternative when the West Coast forecast is poor. Penguin viewing at both Curio Bay and Oamaru is managed, timed to dusk, and worth arriving early for. The Catlins are the quietest coast in New Zealand and the stretch most itineraries skip, which is the argument for driving south rather than west.