New Zealand Tip to Toe: 21-Day Campervan Journey from Auckland to Christchurch - Britz

Twenty nights and 2,350 kilometres from Auckland to Christchurch in a campervan, the length of both islands at a pace that allows for stopping.

The Coromandel comes first, with Hot Water Beach, where a hot spring rises under the sand for two hours either side of low tide, then Rotorua in the geothermal belt, where the ground steams in public parks and the smell of sulphur is permanent. Taupo and Tongariro National Park follow, the latter under three volcanoes standing together.

Wellington comes next at the foot of the North Island, then the Cook Strait ferry to Picton, a three-hour crossing that threads the Marlborough Sounds at the southern end. Kaikoura follows, where sperm whales feed within a few kilometres of shore over a deep submarine canyon, then the West Coast glaciers, Wanaka and Queenstown, and Milford Sound through the Homer Tunnel. Lake Tekapo and the Mackenzie Basin close the route 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. Twenty-one days is the first schedule in the range long enough to drive the whole country without the trip becoming a drive, with two-night stops possible nearly everywhere. The Cook Strait ferry takes campervans and needs booking well ahead. Glacier walks, Milford cruises and the Alpine Crossing are all weather dependent and all want booking. This is a one-way hire of some length, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking against the cost of flying back north. Three weeks is also enough to lose a few days to West Coast rain without losing the shape of the trip.