Touring - Anyone Toured New Zealand?

OK, time for all those who have toured New Zealand to reminisce. We have 10 days, will be starting in Auckland late November. Probably focus on the North island, but really depends on which way the wind is blowing. Any and all hints and tips welcome... Cheers

I myself am leaving in a day and a half for New Zealand!! It's my first tour... although it'll be mixed with a healthy dose of work picking cherries and kiwifruit and the like in order to fund my journey (read stomach;) ) . Not exactly sure whereabouts I'll end up.

OK, time for all those who have toured New Zealand to reminisce. We have 10 days, will be starting in Auckland late November. Probably focus on the North island, but really depends on which way the wind is blowing. Any and all hints and tips welcome... Cheers

You're in for a treat. 10 days is pretty short but there's plenty of beautiful riding in the North Island.

I'd recommend getting out of Auckland as quickly as possible. My wife and I headed east along the gorgeous coastal road through Maraetai, Clevedon and down to Miranda, where the motorcamp has nice hot pools. From there we headed to Rotorua. Although some of the riding was nice around Okoreire, think Hobbiton, the ride into Rotorua was terrible. Traffic is really bad, the hostels are filled to the brim. I'd recommend avoiding Rotorua altogether.

We didn't cycle up the Coromandel Peninsula because we were told by cyclists that the roads were steep and narrow.

What you should really do is get through to Opotiki on the Bay of Plenty as soon as possible. From Opotiki to Gisborne along the East Cape coastal roads is some of the finest cycling NZ has to offer. The roads are a little rough at times but there's little traffic and kilometer after kilometer of beautiful scenery.

If I just had ten days to cycle on the North Island I'd head for the East Cape.

+1 on the East cape. It is superb.

Bus to rotorua. Do the obligatory tourist thing.
Ride around east cape to napier. About 700km.
Either ride through to taupo 1-2 days or just pedal around the vineyards for a few days chilling out.
Pick up a copy of "pedlers paradise, north island" for distances between towns and gradients.
Have Fun!

Honestly, if you have the choice of which island I don't know why you'd choose the north. Sure, it's great, but the south is really far more spectacular, IMO. But you really cant go wrong anywhere in NZ, long as you arent in aukland. Get ready for a great trip!

+1,000 on East Cape. Try to stay at the Inn at Whangarea (sp?) Bay it's an insanely cool little hostel/b&b.

I biked East Cape, but I also biked from Rotorua south to Wanganui (via Taupo, National Park, and Raitihi). I enjoyed it as much as East Cape. I'd say the landscape is more varied over a shorter distance than East Cape, and I also enjoyed hiking (aka tramping) in Tongariro National Park. However, since it as an inland route, it lacks the coastal seascape. BTW, I biked on the Coromandel Peninsula, as well. I had heard that it can be quite difficult, and I'd have to agree. However, it is a very pretty peninsula and it's quite close to Auckland. If you do end up going to East Cape and you have any interest in architecture, don't miss the superb art deco town of Napier. It has the best concentration of art deco I've seen anywhere, including the better-known Miami Beach.

Thanks everyone for your assistance and the heads up on Coromandel Peninsula.

Hey nice blog on your trip niknak, great read and very useful in clarifying ideas about where to go.

To document this trip, I am going to take a GT-11 gps (because it has removable mem cards and I dont need to do any uploads until I get back home) and use this site http://www.ttsm.com/tripview.php5?t=3422&to=map# . It appears that if you set your digital camera and gps time to coincide with each other, you can upload the gps trak and pics and have the location of where you took the pic placed on the map. Cool huh. I'll let you know the link when done.

A previous trip is documented here http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=QzzM&doc_id=1070&v=9R

Cheers and thanks ...