Auckland to Queenstown via Abel Tasman and the West Coast - maui

Ten nights and 1,546 kilometres from Auckland to Queenstown in a campervan, with the first day spent in Auckland before the driving starts.

Rotorua comes first in the geothermal belt, where the ground steams in public parks and the smell of sulphur is permanent, then Taupo on its caldera lake, left by an eruption some eighteen hundred years ago, and Wellington at the foot of the island.

The Cook Strait ferry crosses to Picton, then Nelson, and Abel Tasman National Park, where granite headlands and golden beaches are walked or kayaked in sections with water taxis filling the gaps. Punakaiki follows on the West Coast, where the Pancake Rocks are limestone weathered into stacked plates with blowholes beneath them, then Franz Josef and its glacier, and the Haast Pass inland to Wanaka before Queenstown.

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. Eleven days for 1,546 kilometres and two islands is a steady pace rather than a slow one, with the South Island half carrying the longer legs. The Cook Strait ferry takes campervans and needs booking well ahead. Abel Tasman water taxis and the glacier trips both want booking, and the West Coast weather decides the second half of the trip. This is a one-way hire the length of the country, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. Abel Tasman is the stop worth two nights if the dates can take it.