South Island Winter Loop - maui

Sixteen nights and 2,638 kilometres in a loop from Queenstown in a campervan, a full lap of the South Island planned for the winter months.

Wanaka, Cromwell and Te Anau come first, then Invercargill at the bottom of the island, and Kaka Point in the Catlins, where the Nugget Point lighthouse stands on a narrow headland above rock stacks with fur seals hauled out on them.

Moeraki follows up the coast, with the boulders on the beach, then Akaroa on Banks Peninsula, a village in a drowned volcanic crater, and Kaikoura, which gets the stay day: sperm whales feed over a submarine canyon within a few kilometres of shore all year. Westport and Karamea come next at the northern end of the West Coast, then Hokitika, and the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, before Lake Hawea and Wanaka close the loop.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from maui, 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. Seventeen days in winter is a different proposition from the same route in summer: the campsites are empty, the glaciers are at their most active and the alpine passes carry snow, so chains and a forecast matter. Several of the high roads close for a day or two at a time after heavy falls, which is the argument for a schedule this long. The Karamea leg is a dead end that most itineraries skip and the quietest road on the coast. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee.