Auckland to Queenstown road trip - Britz

Six nights and 1,638 kilometres from Auckland to Queenstown in a campervan, covering both islands in a week.

Rotorua comes first, with Hell’s Gate, a geothermal reserve of mud pools and sulphur springs where the ground is visibly active, then Taupo and the Huka Falls, which push the Waikato through a narrow channel at several hundred thousand litres a second.

Wellington follows, then the Cook Strait ferry to Picton, a three-hour crossing that threads the Marlborough Sounds at the southern end and is among the more scenic ferry routes anywhere. Christchurch comes next, then Lake Tekapo in the Mackenzie Basin, milky turquoise and inside a dark sky reserve, before Queenstown.

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 1,638 kilometres and two islands means long driving days and short stops, so this is a transit rather than a tour. The Cook Strait ferry takes campervans and needs booking well ahead, particularly over summer. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking, and anyone with more time should slow the South Island half down considerably. What it does deliver is the geothermal belt, a Cook Strait crossing and the Mackenzie lakes inside a single week, which no other itinerary in the range manages. Anyone with ten days rather than seven would do far better to fly between the islands and spend the saved time in the south.