New Zealand North Island Circuit Itinerary: 10 Days in a Campervan from Auckland and Back - Britz

Nine nights and 1,890 kilometres in a loop from Auckland in a campervan, a full circuit of the North Island with no leg longer than an afternoon.

Whitianga comes first on the Coromandel, with Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach nearby, then Tauranga and Mount Maunganui, a volcanic cone at the end of a sandspit with surf beach on one side and harbour on the other, where the climb to the summit takes about forty minutes and is the thing most people do before breakfast.

Rotorua follows in the geothermal belt, where the ground steams in public parks, then Napier, rebuilt in art deco after the 1931 earthquake flattened it, with the Hawke’s Bay vineyards inland. Wellington comes next at the foot of the island, then Masterton in the Wairarapa and Whanganui on the river, and New Plymouth under Mount Taranaki, a near-perfect cone with Surf Highway 45 running round its base. Waitomo, Hamilton and Hobbiton close the loop.

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 1,890 kilometres means the driving days are real but none of them is punishing, and the whole route is sealed. Hobbiton and the Waitomo caves both run guided tours that sell out in summer. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee. What the circuit does well is show how different the North Island is from itself: a surf coast, a geothermal field, an art deco town, a capital city and a volcano, none of them more than an afternoon apart.