Cycle the whole of New Zealand

Description of Cycle the whole of New Zealand

Do you hear adventure calling? Then there aren’t many better ways to spend six weeks than cycling the length of a country as beautiful as New Zealand.

This small group cycle tour follows a 2,950km route which uses off road New Zealand cycle trails. It goes all the way from Cape Reinga, at the top of North Island, to Bluff at the bottom of South Island. You’ll use pedal power alone – except for the help of a couple of ferries.

As you’ll imagine, there are a lot of highlights over six weeks. Not much beats the memorable first leg cycling on the sand on ‘90 mile beach’, or whizzing across the suspension bridges of the Timber Trail, or paying a visit to Hobbiton. Once you get to South Island, you can expect famous scenery as you cross the Southern Alps, and enjoy the dramatic views of the West Coast Wilderness Trail.

New Zealand is famous for its wonderful landscape. The sparsely populated countryside, one third of which is protected, has rivers, lakes and mountains, glaciers and rainforests – and 200 species of endemic fern, making its forests exceptionally lush. Make no mistake, though, this is a hilly country, with some challenging terrain for a bike. Dirt and gravel road bike experience is useful.

On your journey, you’ll spend nearly every day in the saddle. You’ll need to be fit to cycle up to 120km a day for 40 days, over hilly, and sometimes rocky terrain, on a mountain bike – bring your own or hire one there. Electric bikes are available for hire on request.

This holiday loosely follows the ‘Tour Aotearoa’, a mountain biking route designed by the Kennett Brothers, two New Zealander mountain bikers, route designers and authors. The route is used for an annual ‘brevet’ (timed cycle) every year but can be ridden at any time.

New Zealand’s cycle trails have breathed new life into its rural areas. Cycle tourism is replacing logging as the major industry in some areas, and the cycle trails provide access for conservation projects and tree planting projects all around the country. Enjoy these routes knowing that they’re doing good, too.
You’ll get your own trip notes and itinerary, so you can ride at your own pace, but there is help at hand.

This trip is fully supported, which means that a vehicle – the trusty ‘sag wagon’ – will follow you wherever possible so you can ride in the back with your bike if you need a break. The support team will set up a ‘floating’ picnic lunch for you, so you can fuel up on the route, and provide mechanical support – so you can focus on the journey. All accommodation, whether it’s in motels and hotels, lodges – even holiday park cabins – is sorted for you before you go.

You could also choose to cycle down North Island (1,590 km), or just South Island (1,410km) instead – both fully contained, impressive adventures in themselves.

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