The Ultimate Rugby Fan's Auckland to Palmerston North Road Trip - Britz

Six nights and 1,200 kilometres in a loop from Auckland in a campervan, built for rugby supporters.

Auckland holds the All Blacks Experience and Eden Park, which has hosted more All Black tests than any other ground and where the national side’s home record is the stuff of long arguments. Hamilton and FMG Stadium Waikato follow, then Hobbiton at Matamata for anyone travelling with non-believers.

Tauranga and Taupo come next with the Huka Falls, then Palmerston North, which holds the New Zealand Rugby Museum, the first museum anywhere devoted to the game, with jerseys, caps and material going back to the 1870s. New Plymouth follows, then Te Kuiti, where a bronze of Colin Meads stands in the main street of the district he farmed in, and Waitomo and Otorohanga before Auckland.

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 1,200 kilometres is a fair pace and the whole route is sealed. Fixtures are the thing to plan around rather than the itinerary: a test at Eden Park or a Super Rugby match at Hamilton would reshape the week entirely. The museum at Palmerston North is the reason the route goes that far south, and it is worth the detour. Eden Park also runs stadium tours on non-match days, which fills a morning in Auckland at either end of the trip.