New Zealand's North Island: Auckland to Wellington - Britz

Seven nights and 1,452 kilometres from Auckland to Wellington in a campervan, down the east side of the North Island.

Thames, Coromandel Town and Fletcher Bay come first, the last at the very tip of the peninsula down a narrow unsealed road, then Hahei and Cathedral Cove, and Matamata for Hobbiton.

Rotorua follows in the geothermal belt, then Taupo, and Napier, rebuilt in art deco after the 1931 earthquake flattened it, with the Marine Parade seafront and the vineyards inland. Masterton comes next in the Wairarapa, then Castlepoint, where a lighthouse stands on a reef above a lagoon with a rock rising a hundred and sixty metres behind it, and Cape Palliser, the southernmost point of the North Island, with a seal colony and a lighthouse reached up two hundred and fifty steps, before Wellington.

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. Eight days for 1,452 kilometres is a reasonable pace. The Fletcher Bay road and parts of the Wairarapa coast are unsealed, which is worth checking against the hire terms. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking, and the Wairarapa leg is the part of this route that almost no visitor drives: two lighthouses, a seal colony and a coastline with nothing built on it, an hour and a half from the capital.