Queenstown to the West Coast, Kaikōura and Hurunui: 21 Day South Island New Zealand Campervan Itinerary - Britz

Twenty nights and 2,100 kilometres from Queenstown to Christchurch in a campervan, the long way round by both coasts, which makes it the fullest South Island itinerary Britz publish.

Wanaka and Lake Tekapo come first, then the Rakaia Gorge, where the river runs grey-blue between cliffs an hour from Christchurch, and Arthur’s Pass over the Southern Alps.

Hokitika follows on the West Coast, the centre of the pounamu trade, then Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks, and Marahau for Abel Tasman. Collingwood comes next at the top of the island, the jumping-off point for Farewell Spit, a thirty-kilometre sand bar curving out into the Tasman that is a bird reserve. Nelson and Picton follow, then Kaikoura and Hanmer Springs on the way down to 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. Twenty-one days is what the South Island needs if nothing is to be rushed, and this route reaches the far north of the island, which the shorter loops miss entirely. Farewell Spit itself can only be visited on a licensed tour. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. Three weeks also means the weather stops mattering: a wet week on the West Coast can be absorbed rather than written off, which on a shorter trip it cannot. Collingwood and Farewell Spit are the parts of this route that justify the extra week.