The West Coast Road Itinerary - Britz

Seven nights and 410 kilometres down the South Island’s West Coast in a campervan, from Westport to Jackson Bay, on a route that covers very little ground per day.

Westport sits at the mouth of the Buller, and Karamea at the northern end of the road is effectively the end of the line: beyond it lies the Heaphy Track and no road at all. Punakaiki follows, where the Pancake Rocks are limestone weathered into stacked plates with blowholes under them.

Greymouth and Hokitika come next, the latter the centre of the New Zealand pounamu trade, where greenstone taken from the rivers is carved and sold. Whataroa follows, with the only white heron breeding colony in the country nearby, then Franz Josef and Fox, two glaciers that come down through rainforest almost to sea level, and Haast, with Jackson Bay at the very end of the road, a fishing settlement of a handful of houses.

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. Eight days for 410 kilometres is the most unhurried itinerary in the range, which suits a coast where the weather decides the programme: the West Coast takes several metres of rain a year and the glaciers are often in cloud. Sandflies are a genuine nuisance and repellent is not optional. The reward is a coastline with almost nothing on it between the towns.