New Zealand Highlights Itinerary: North to South in 14 Days - Britz

Thirteen nights and 2,800 kilometres from Auckland to Christchurch in a campervan, the length of the country in a fortnight.

Waitomo comes first, where the glow worms on the roof of the main grotto read as a night sky, then Rotorua in the geothermal belt and Taupo on its caldera lake, left by an eruption some eighteen hundred years ago that was among the largest anywhere in the last few thousand.

Wellington follows, then the Cook Strait ferry to Picton and the run through to Nelson. Greymouth and Fox Glacier come next down the West Coast, where the rainforest takes several metres of rain a year and the glacier runs almost to sea level, then the Haast Pass turns the route inland for Wanaka and Queenstown. Milford Sound sits at the end of a four-hour road each way from Te Anau, with cliffs rising more than a kilometre out of the water, and the Mackenzie Basin carries the route back to 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. Fourteen days for 2,800 kilometres is the most driving of any itinerary in the range, and it is a highlights run rather than a tour: the stops are short and the legs are long. The Cook Strait ferry takes campervans and needs booking well ahead. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. Anyone with three weeks rather than two should give the South Island the extra days rather than adding destinations, since the north is the half this schedule handles best.