Touring New Zealand's North Island by Campervan
The section of SH1 known as The Desert Road was a surprise, coming from the lush heavily-populated coast into a dry, high and empty desert, the
Rangipo Desert. The summit here is at 1074 meters, the
highest point on the country's State Highway network. A vast area is set aside as a military practice zone, and we saw some
tanks heading cross-country. Unfortunately the
clouds were too low to permit the great views of volcanic peaks Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu that we had read about.
