Southern Scenic Route - Britz

Nine nights and 1,755 kilometres round the lower South Island in a campervan, published as Queenstown to Dunedin but driven here as a loop from Christchurch.

Timaru and Dunedin come first down the coast, with the Moeraki Boulders on the beach between them and a little blue penguin colony at Oamaru, then the Catlins, where Nugget Point has a lighthouse on a headland with rock stacks below it and fur seals hauled out on them.

Invercargill follows at the southern end of the island, with Stirling Point at Bluff, where the signpost gives the distance to the South Pole, then Te Anau and Milford Sound, reached through the Homer Tunnel, where cliffs rise more than a kilometre out of the water. Queenstown, Wanaka and Lake Tekapo close the loop through Central Otago and the Mackenzie.

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. Ten days for 1,755 kilometres is a fair pace, and the Catlins are the part most itineraries leave out and the part worth the extra day. Milford is a four-hour drive each way from Te Anau and the cruises need booking. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee. Driving it as a circuit from Christchurch also avoids the Queenstown pickup, which is the most expensive and most heavily booked depot in the country, particularly over the summer months.