Lake Tekapo Race Motorhome Loop: 14 Days of Trails, Peaks and Fiords from Christchurch - Britz

Thirteen nights and 1,850 kilometres in a loop from Christchurch in a campervan, built around the Merrell Race Tekapo and taking in most of the southern South Island afterwards.

Lake Tekapo comes first across the Canterbury plains, milky turquoise from the rock flour its glaciers grind, with the Church of the Good Shepherd on the shore and a dark sky reserve overhead that is among the largest in the world. The race is run on the tracks above the lake, which is about as good a setting as trail running gets.

Aoraki Mount Cook follows, where the Hooker Valley track crosses three swing bridges to a glacial lake below the highest mountain in the country, then Wanaka and Queenstown through Central Otago. Te Anau and Milford Sound come next, reached through the Homer Tunnel, where the cliffs rise more than a kilometre straight out of the water. The route then runs back up the east coast to Akaroa on Banks Peninsula, a village in a drowned volcanic crater with a French settlement history, 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. Fourteen days allows for the race and a fortnight of holiday around it, which is the sensible way to build a trip round an event. Campsites at Tekapo fill on race weekend, which is where a camper earns its keep. Milford is a four-hour drive each way from Te Anau and the cruises need booking. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee, and putting the race at the start means the rest of the trip is the reward rather than the taper.