Auckland to Christchurch via Both Islands - Apollo

Sixteen nights and 2,220 kilometres from Auckland to Christchurch in a campervan, both islands with six stay days built in.

Auckland takes the first of them, then Rotorua with another, in the geothermal belt where the ground steams in public parks, and Napier, rebuilt in art deco after the 1931 earthquake flattened it, with the Hawke’s Bay vineyards inland.

Wellington follows with a stay day, then the Cook Strait ferry to Picton, and Hokitika on the West Coast, the centre of the pounamu trade. Franz Josef comes next with another, where a glacier runs down through rainforest almost to sea level, then Wanaka over the Haast Pass, Queenstown with a fifth, and Lake Tekapo with the last, milky turquoise under one of the largest dark sky reserves in the world, before Christchurch.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Apollo, 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 with six stay days is a proper holiday rather than a drive, and the stay days are placed where the weather matters: the glacier trips, the Queenstown activities and the Tekapo night sky all need a second chance. The Cook Strait ferry takes campervans and needs booking well ahead. This is a one-way hire the length of the country, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. Autumn gives the best colour through Central Otago, and a trip of this length is also long enough to absorb a wet few days on the West Coast without losing the shape of it.