Queenstown to Christchurch via Milford Sound and Greymouth - maui

Twelve nights and 1,416 kilometres from Queenstown to Christchurch in a campervan, with two nights at most of the stops and only six of them in all.

Milford Sound comes first through the Homer Tunnel, a single-bore tunnel cut through the Darran Mountains that drops steeply into the Cleddau valley, with cliffs rising more than a kilometre out of the water at the sound itself, then Te Anau on the lake.

Wanaka follows over the Crown Range, then Franz Josef by way of the Haast Pass, where a glacier comes down through rainforest almost to sea level, which happens in very few places on earth. Greymouth comes next on the West Coast, with Punakaiki south of it, where the Pancake Rocks are limestone weathered into stacked plates with blowholes beneath them, then Arthur’s Pass over the alps and 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. Thirteen days across six stops is the most relaxed schedule in the range for this crossing, and the two-night pattern is what makes it: the walks, the cruises and the glacier trips all become possible rather than theoretical. Milford cruises and glacier helicopter landings both need booking and are weather dependent. The West Coast takes several metres of rain a year, which a two-night stop absorbs and a one-night stop does not. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking.