Christchurch to the West Coast, Kaikoura and Hurunui: 16 day outdoors, food and wine itinerary - Britz

Fifteen nights and 1,520 kilometres in a loop from Christchurch in a campervan, over the alps to the West Coast, north to Golden Bay and back through Marlborough.

Lake Brunner at Moana comes first, the largest lake on the West Coast, then Hokitika, the centre of the pounamu trade, and Punakaiki, where the Pancake Rocks are limestone weathered into stacked plates with blowholes beneath them.

Marahau follows for Abel Tasman, then Collingwood in Golden Bay and Farewell Spit, a thirty-kilometre sand bar curving into the Tasman that is a bird reserve and visitable only on a licensed tour. Nelson, Picton, Spring Creek and Blenheim carry the route back down through the Marlborough vineyards, then Kaikoura for the whales and seals, and Hanmer Springs for the pools before Christchurch.

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. Sixteen days for 1,520 kilometres is a genuinely slow pace, which suits a loop taking in both coasts and the top of the island. Golden Bay is the part most itineraries leave out, and the Takaka Hill into it is a slow climb in a camper. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee. Sixteen nights is also enough to absorb a wet week on the West Coast without losing the trip, which a shorter itinerary cannot do. Farewell Spit and the Pancake Rocks are the two stops worth timing, the first for the tour schedule and the second for a high tide with a swell behind it.