Christchurch to Milford Sound Loop - maui

Nine nights and 1,680 kilometres in a loop from Christchurch in a campervan, all the way down to Milford Sound and back through the Mackenzie.

The Moeraki Boulders come first down the coast, spherical concretions up to two metres across weathered out of the cliff behind them over millions of years, with Oamaru and its little blue penguin colony just up the road and a Victorian limestone precinct behind the harbour, then Riversdale in the Southland farmland.

Milford Sound follows through the Homer Tunnel, where cliffs rise more than a kilometre out of the water, then Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown. Lake Ohau comes next, a quiet lake in the Mackenzie with a small campsite and almost nothing else, then Mount Cook National Park, where the Hooker Valley track crosses three swing bridges to a glacial lake below the highest mountain in the country, and Geraldine before the run back to Christchurch.

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. Ten days for 1,680 kilometres is a fair pace with two long driving days in it, the run south and the run to Milford being the ones to plan for. Milford is four hours each way from Te Anau and the cruises need booking. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee, which matters on a route this long. Lake Ohau is the stop nobody expects: no shops, no crowd, and the Mackenzie dark skies overhead once the sun has gone.