The wonders of New Zealand seen from the unique vantage point of the bicycle. The trip starts in Auckland. The trip covers 1200 miles, averaging 58 per riding day. New Zealand offers challenging riding with little flat ground but our timetable has been adjusted to make the trip manageable for all regular cyclists.
Arrive Auckland, You will be met at the airport and transferred to your motel.
Our first 15 miles are spent getting out of the city, utilising quiet(er) back roads wherever possible.
We now head inland, crossing the base of the Coromandel peninsula using quiet country roads, briefly joining Highway 26 south before returning to the back roads.
A shorter day to allow time to see something of volcanic Rotorua with it's hot springs and geysers.
Today we take a somewhat indirect route between the great lakes of Rotorua and Taupo, reducing highway riding to just 4 or 5 miles in the middle of the day.
For the first half of the day we skirt Lake Taupo.
By now we are in the heart of North Island and today is a long ride to reach an overnight stop.
A beautiful day in the hills.
An easy, relatively flat day as we reach the west coast of North Island.
Our last full day on North Island, spent reaching Wellington, the country's capital.
The ferry to South Island does not leave until 2:30 so there is time to explore Wellington's compact and vibrant centre.
We start our day with a good climb along Queen Charlotte Drive, with views out over Shakespeare Bay and Cook Strait.
Nelson is a surprisingly large city and we work our way out of town using back roads before rejoining Highway 6 as it threads it's way southwest between the mountains past the Kahurangi National Park.
From Murchison we follow Highway 6 and the Buller River west to its mouth at Westport and the Tasman Sea.
From Westport we now follow the west coast for 4 days, praying that this notoriously wet part of the country is not true to type.
A much flatter day with just a few modest hills in the afternoon.
Glacier country. An easy day's ride with few hills in the morning but some good climbs through Franz Joseph and into Fox.
A rest day. Fox is a tourist town with all amenities and excursions of every type.
Our last day on the west coast and a long one, but very manageable with great scenery and the occasional glimpse of the Southern Alps to the left.
A wonderful day's cycling.
A very short day with some stunning riding past lakes Wanaka and Hawea.
Our first of two visits to Queenstown takes us up and over the Crown Range on the highest paved road in New Zealand, a dramatic and sensational road.
From Queenstown we follow the side of Lake Wakatipu (a beautiful road), gradually turning west to follow the Mataura River before cutting between two mountain ranges to the Oreti River and Mossburn.
A short and easy last day of cycling.
A long and busy day but no cycling to be done.
You have most of the day free to explore Queenstown (extreme sports capital of New Zealand and possibly the world) before transferring to the airport for a late afternoon flight back to Auckland.
The hotel offers a shuttle service to the airport for your long flight home.
Hotel