Twin Coast Discovery - Britz

Nine nights and 910 kilometres in a loop from Auckland in a campervan, round Northland on the signposted Twin Coast Discovery route.

Whangarei and the Tutukaka coast come first, with Whananaki and its long footbridge, then Russell, the first permanent European settlement in the country and once known as the hellhole of the Pacific for the whalers who used it, and Kerikeri, where the Stone Store from 1836 is the oldest stone building in New Zealand.

The Karikari Peninsula follows, with white sand beaches on both sides of it, then Cape Reinga at the northern tip, where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific visibly collide in a line of broken water and which is a place of great significance in Maori belief as the departure point of spirits. The route then comes down the quieter west coast through Rawene on the Hokianga harbour and the Waipoua Forest, which holds Tane Mahuta, a kauri estimated at well over a thousand years old, to Dargaville.

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. Ten days for 910 kilometres is comfortable, and the contrast between the two coasts is the whole structure of the route: the east is developed and sheltered, the west empty and wild. Kauri dieback means boot cleaning stations at the forest entrances and some tracks closed. Northland is the warmest part of the country and works year round.