Wellington to Christchurch Itinerary - Britz

Five nights from Wellington to Christchurch in a campervan, across Cook Strait and down the east coast of the South Island.

The ferry crossing is the first leg and the best of it, three hours from Wellington to Picton that spend the last of them threading the Marlborough Sounds, a drowned river system of forested ridges and narrow inlets, with the Queen Charlotte Sound the last of them.

Blenheim follows in Marlborough, the largest wine region in the country, where most of New Zealand’s sauvignon blanc is grown and the cellar doors sit close enough together to be cycled between. Kaikoura comes next, where the Seaward Kaikoura range drops almost straight into a deep submarine canyon, which brings sperm whales, dusky dolphins and fur seals within a few kilometres of the shore all year. Hanmer Springs turns the route inland for its thermal pools, then the Waipara vineyards 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 a route this short leaves time at every stop, which is the point of it. The Cook Strait ferry takes campervans and needs booking well ahead, particularly over summer. Whale watching goes out by boat, plane or helicopter and all three are weather dependent, with no sighting promised. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. For anyone repositioning between Wellington and Christchurch it beats the internal flight, since nothing on the route is a detour.