New Zealand Tour

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
mullinsm
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Joined: 9 Sep 2011, 2:00pm

New Zealand Tour

Post by mullinsm »

As the nights draw in I'm finding that I'm pining for long days on the bike and don't think I can wait 'till next spring and summer in France to experience the satisfaction of a long tour, so I'm looking at the "swallow option" of flying south.

Singapore airlines will take me from Heathrow to Christchurch for about £1,1000 at the end of January, so I'm thinking of 15 days (probably 10 or 11 cycling when you take off the travelling and jet-lag) around South Island. Does anybody have any suggestions for a route of around 800 miles? I'll be on a road bike so need to avoid gravel roads and tracks. I don't mind a few hills, but would prefer a few days on the flat to get my legs in first and I'm looking to camp wherever possible to keep the cost down and the freedom up.

Anybody with any ideas, suggestions or experience of a similar trip. ?
rualexander
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by rualexander »

800 miles will pretty much take you around the South Island. If you are avoiding gravel roads and tracks, that just leaves you with the main road in most parts of the island, which is generally ok and will take you through some great scenery, but can be relatively busy at weekends and in holiday season (january).
If you're covering 80 miles a day, you won't get a few days on the flat to start, you might get one day on the Canterbury Plains.
Best bet is Christchurxh-Tekapo-Omarama-Oamaru-Dunedin-Alexandra-Queenstown-Wanaka-Makarora-Haast-Franz Josef-Greymouth-Arthur's Pass-Springfield-Christchurch.
If you have more time then from Greymouth-Westport-St Arnaud-Nelson-Picton-Blenheim-Kaikoura-Chrischurch.
simonhill
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by simonhill »

If you can leave it till Feb, then the roads will be quieter, the campgrounds and other accommodation wont be booked out and will be cheaper. Google the school holidays for exact dates. Weather still good.
iviehoff
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by iviehoff »

mullinsm wrote:I'll be on a road bike so need to avoid gravel roads and tracks.

You are missing many of the best bits then.

You don't really get all around the S island in 800 miles. It's 530 miles from Blenheim to Invercargill, straight down the east coast. Ruairidh has described a tour which omits the north, the far south, and also the poplar detour to Milford Sound, and through such omissions may well come in at 800 miles. But it isn't difficult to take a bus if you need to make up some ground. I took transport on 3 occasions during my own 3 week tour of the S Island, just to cover some less interesting long bits.

I don't know how fit you are, but you may find 80 miles a day in NZ hard work, at least if you do it every day. I remember doing some 80 mile days on tarmac, and they were not what I'd want to do every day, and I was young and fit in those days. In particular, it is often very windy in NZ; in the mountains and on the west coast it's often very wet too; and in the deep interior and the NE, where they make all that wine, it's often very hot (the interior of Otago, around Cromwell, is the hottest region of NZ in the summer, they grow stone fruit there too). You will find, though, that for all those big mountains it is not actually very hilly cycling - the roads tend to go gradually up big hills, but not so often steeply up and down lots of little hills, as in the north island, which is actually harder cycling, though there are some local exceptions.
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matt2matt2002
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by matt2matt2002 »

mullinsm wrote:As the nights draw in I'm finding that I'm pining for long days on the bike and don't think I can wait 'till next spring and summer in France to experience the satisfaction of a long tour, so I'm looking at the "swallow option" of flying south.

Singapore airlines will take me from Heathrow to Christchurch for about £1,1000 at the end of January, so I'm thinking of 15 days (probably 10 or 11 cycling when you take off the travelling and jet-lag) around South Island. Does anybody have any suggestions for a route of around 800 miles? I'll be on a road bike so need to avoid gravel roads and tracks. I don't mind a few hills, but would prefer a few days on the flat to get my legs in first and I'm looking to camp wherever possible to keep the cost down and the freedom up.

Anybody with any ideas, suggestions or experience of a similar trip. ?


Is that a price for a return ticket?
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greyingbeard
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by greyingbeard »

much of new zealand has untarmacked roads. Id strongly advise a sturdy tourer or even mtb with chunky road tyres
mullinsm
Posts: 114
Joined: 9 Sep 2011, 2:00pm

Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by mullinsm »

Thanks for all the replies so far. I googled the holidays and the schools go back the first week of Feb, which is when I'll be starting so all good there. Yes, a return flight is currently £1089, but I may have to pay an excess baggage charge on top as it's a 30kg allowance. I'll let you know assuming Singapore airlines ever answer my email to them on the subject....

When touring I like to aim for a minimum of 100k a day and set a target about that distance away and then just see how it goes. Sometimes 65 miles is plenty and sometimes I'm having so much fun I just carry on to 80, 100, 120 depending on the terrain and weather and availability of camping. I have to confess it's all about the cycling for me, with the location just being a bonus. I'm mad I know but there a sense of achievement and thrill I get from powering an 80lb bicycle for 200k that no view or historic landmark can ever top.

I've seen that there are a lot of dedicated cycle trails on South Island which from the pictures appear to be gravel tracks. Although it's a road bike I'm riding, it's got Deore hubs, A719 rims and 35mm Marathon Supreme tyres. It can comfortably cope with canal towpaths and the like so does anyone have an informed opinion as to whether it'll be up to these New Zealand tracks and the gravel roads out there?

Also, I can see from Google that the main roads connecting the towns seem to be good single carriageways with a strip of tarmac to cycle on beyond the white lines in many places. Are there any roads with cycling restrictions and if so, will I be able to find alternative, parallel roads that I can ride on?

Finally, can anyone give me an idea what the mobile internet is like on the island as I usually navigate by Google maps and Garmin? Should I be buying a road atlas?

Thanks in advance!
rualexander
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by rualexander »

Generally you should be able to ride most gravel roads (except perhaps after they've been graded) with that set up but Marathon Supreme sidewalls can be a bit fragile so maybe think about a tougher tyre.
Yes most NZ main roads have a good shoulder that you can ride on but it often means that traffic won't move over at all to pass you, so keep well to the left if its busy, also the shoulders disappear at bridges.
Only restricted roads are the motorways, of which there are only two or three short ones in the whole country close to the main cities, and there are plenty alternatives.
I can't comment on mobile internet as its seven years since I was last in NZ, but why not get Viewranger or something on your phone, they have the whole of the South Island at 1:50,000 topographical mapping for £15, or whole of NZ for £22 https://shop.viewranger.com/products.php?category_id=33
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

I did the West Coast Wilderness Trail (one of the more gravelly routes) on my little Bike Friday folder, so I can't imagine you'd have too many issues with 35mm Marathons.

Not all the roads have shoulders - and on some of those that do they're too narrow to be much use. That said, I don't think I encountered too many roads on the South Island where I'd be uncomfortable on the bike, but there were certainly some on the North Island.

Worth checking too that whatever you're using for navigation shows the difference between surfaced and unsurfaced roads - we got caught out once when we encountered a sudden change to gravel in the hire car after 20 miles of tarmac... turns out the otherwise exemplary MapOut for iPhone doesn't mark unpaved roads differently!
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mullinsm
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Joined: 9 Sep 2011, 2:00pm

Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by mullinsm »

rualexander wrote:Generally you should be able to ride most gravel roads (except perhaps after they've been graded) with that set up but Marathon Supreme sidewalls can be a bit fragile so maybe think about a tougher tyre.
Yes most NZ main roads have a good shoulder that you can ride on but it often means that traffic won't move over at all to pass you, so keep well to the left if its busy, also the shoulders disappear at bridges.
Only restricted roads are the motorways, of which there are only two or three short ones in the whole country close to the main cities, and there are plenty alternatives.
I can't comment on mobile internet as its seven years since I was last in NZ, but why not get Viewranger or something on your phone, they have the whole of the South Island at 1:50,000 topographical mapping for £15, or whole of NZ for £22 https://shop.viewranger.com/products.php?category_id=33


Thanks for this. Any recommendations for a tougher tyre that will still roll nicely?
mullinsm
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Joined: 9 Sep 2011, 2:00pm

Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by mullinsm »

Well, I'm off from Heathrow a week on Saturday for a 28 hour flight there and 32 back. Booked with Quantas (although the first two legs are with Emirates) for £1056 return. Two weeks away will give me 11 days cycling and I've been advised by a native Kiwi to take an anti-clockwise direction from Christchurch to the west coast via Arthur's pass, then down past the glaciers and inland to Queenstown before returning to Christchurch, taking in Mt Cooke on the way. Apparently the wind direction is more likely to be with me that way. I hope so, because the first day's climbing looks like a killer!

I've a couple of unanswered questions which someone may be able to help me with:

I know that most towns will have a dairy where you can get food, but what's the availability of fast food, restaurants and cafe's like in the smaller towns and settlements?

I'll be taking a battery pack to recharge my phone, but will be relying on mains power at least every few days to recharge this. Do most campsites have sockets in the shower blocks like in Europe or should I get a solar charger?

Finally, I've got an atlas that lists all of the DOC campsites, but it seems to suggest that most don't have showers. Is this right and if so, how easy is it to find commercial sites that cater for the more fastidious amongst us?

Any answers from people who have been there and done it would be much appreciated.
hamster
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by hamster »

Most commercial NZ campsites have a kitchen / dining room which should allow you to charge your phone. Generally if it's a touristy area then you will find a private campsite in addition to DoC ones. Cafe availability is comparable to Northern Scotland.
rualexander
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by rualexander »

In small town NZ, the dairy (small grocery shop) will usually sell hot pies, and often 'hot chips' as they call them over there. Cafes not so common except in tourist towns.
Charging phones in 'motor camps' (kiwi for campsite) should be no problem. Most towns will have a 'motor camp' or one nearby, although their numbers are dwindling out of the tourist areas.
DOC campgrounds are more basic and will not normally have power, and usually no showers, often just long drop toilets and a tap for water.
mullinsm
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by mullinsm »

rualexander wrote:In small town NZ, the dairy (small grocery shop) will usually sell hot pies, and often 'hot chips' as they call them over there. Cafes not so common except in tourist towns.
Charging phones in 'motor camps' (kiwi for campsite) should be no problem. Most towns will have a 'motor camp' or one nearby, although their numbers are dwindling out of the tourist areas.
DOC campgrounds are more basic and will not normally have power, and usually no showers, often just long drop toilets and a tap for water.


Thanks for that.
mullinsm
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Re: New Zealand Tour

Post by mullinsm »

Well, I finished the tour last Friday and having flown back over the weekend am just getting over the jet lag. 11 days cycling took my 720 miles anti-clockwise around South Island from Christchurch via Arthurs pass to the west coast then down to Haast and inland to Lake Wanaker before heading back to Christchurch via the inland scenic highway.

There were plenty of challenging climbs, but the stunning scenery more than repaid the effort and to have two weeks cycle camping in lovely summer weather in February was a real treat. I'd highly recommend a trip there to anyone who isn't of a nervous disposition because the standard of driving there is pretty abysmal. You REALLY need to keep your wits about you. Apart from that it's cycling heaven!
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