South Island Loop via Milford Sound and Kaikoura - Mighty

Fourteen nights and 3,100 kilometres in a loop from Christchurch in a campervan, a full circuit of the South Island.

Greymouth comes first over Arthur’s Pass, then Franz Josef on the West Coast, where a glacier comes down through rainforest almost to sea level, which happens in very few places on earth.

Wanaka and Queenstown follow over the Haast Pass, then Te Anau and Milford Sound, reached through the Homer Tunnel, where the cliffs rise more than a kilometre out of the water and the waterfalls on the walls run hard after rain. Roxburgh and Twizel carry the route back north, then Mount Cook, where the Hooker Valley track crosses three swing bridges to a glacial lake below the highest peak in the country, and Lake Tekapo, with two nights at Kaikoura at the end for the whales.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Mighty, 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. Fifteen days for 3,100 kilometres is a fair pace for a circuit this size, with the two nights at Kaikoura the only real pause in it. Milford is four hours each way from Te Anau and the cruises need booking, as do the glacier trips, which are weather dependent. The West Coast takes several metres of rain a year. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee, and the schedule covers both coasts, Fiordland and the Mackenzie without doubling back on itself.