The NZ training portion for the Tour Aotearoa is essentially finished, my favorite phase, tapering begins.
Tracey and I arrived in New Zealand January 9th to integrate some hill training. We have no hills near Sarasota Florida, the biggest climb being the Ringling Bridge, about a five percent grade over a few hundred feet, lol. After I ride 50 miles in Sarasota area I have no more than 300 feet in elevation gain.
New Zealand Training!
The overall New Zealand specific training covered 600 miles, 34,000 feet in elevation gain and traversed through many types of terrain including gravel, sand, dirt, sealed road and cycleways. We ventured through cities, small towns, farmland, forests and remote uninhabited areas.
I think we saw more sheep and cattle than people. A close second were the dogs herding these animals.
A few pics and bit of specifics on the training…
After a tough 35 hours of plane rides for the bike, through five airports, we assembled it and headed to Cape Reinga. The first test, can I make the trek down 90 mile beach, a beautiful mostly uninhabited stretch of coast? I figured if I could not do this, I might as well not even attempt the overall 1,800 mile ride.
The first day even included a few hills for fun before getting to the beach…my first serious hills. Wow what a difference from Florida!
The route also said to follow the path along the stream. Well, there was no path that I could find, so I rode down the middle of the stream…managing to stay mostly dry.
After riding through these streams and by massive dunes, I rode about half the distance on the beach.
It was hard packed at low tide. Forty-two miles and 1,276 feet in climbs. This was a confidence builder.
Now time for some serious testing with some significant climbs…
I took off from Ahipara at the end of 90 mile beach and rode to the Rawene Ferry. This included some good climbs and a lot of gravel. The climb and gravel combo make for a challenging ride as one would expect! Thirty-nine miles and 3,750 feet in elevation gain!
Opononi was a great beach town to stop at for the evening and will be a comfortable stop during the ride. We enjoyed some fish and chips and cold brews.
We met a couple of Aussies in Opononi doing a cycling tour of New Zealand…on a Harley Fat Boy…now that’s the way to do it. Maybe next time!
The next day was another hill tester to the Waipou Forest.
The forest also allegedly has the largest Kauri tree in the country! Only 21 miles here but 2,181 feet in elevation gain!
Time to let the body and specifically the quads rest for a couple days as we headed to North Auckland for a night before journeying south.
The Tour Aotearoa route does include some flat routes, yeah! The ride from Miranda Springs (hot springs…plenty of these across NZ!) is along an old railway route. This was an enjoyable flat ride on a mostly gravel path, 54 miles and only 450 feet elevation gain!
After lunch at the Convenient Cow Cafe and a bit more riding, we ended up in Te Aroha for the evening. 
This was a neat little town that was popular in the 1800 and 1900s because of its hot springs and baths. One thing every New Zealand town has, even the small ones, is an Indian restaurant or two. We check out one here that was excellent!
We did explore some parts of New Zealand that we did not see during our four month stay two years ago. We toured Hobbiton in Matamata, the incredible site for much of the filming of the “Lord of the Rings”.
I am not the biggest Lord of the Rings fan, but what a cool, magical spot. Definitely worth a visit!
The training continued with a hilly gravelly ride from Taumarunui to Whakahoro. The route had more gravel and hills!
Perfect for training, 28 more miles and 2,400 feet in climb through beautiful remote areas.
The relatively larger town of Whanganui was our next stop on the North island tour and training. Whanganui seems like a pretty neat town on the Whanganui River. This river is the longest navigable waterway in New Zealand on the North Island’s West coast. It runs from Mount Tongariro to the Tasman Sea.
The evening was rainy as we explored the quiet town, not really boding well for the next day’s ride.
The bike ride out of Whanganui to Hunterville had an interesting start. After riding through a tunnel, an elevator is used to climb to the top of a hill overlooking the river and the city.
A nice view of the city here despite a cloudy start!
The elevator is operated manually by an elevator attendant and costs $2 NZ. The overall ride to Hunterville was 38 miles with 2,200 feet in elevation…and the first significant rain of the training!
We hang out and dry out in Palmerston North for a couple days. It is a decent sized town with a few good restaurants and pubs.
I did get in one mostly flat ride which includes some nice river trails. The town has done well in developing parks and paths along the Manawatū river. We had a decent hotel here with a gym so we took advantage of it.
The next ride from Eketahuna to Martinborough via Masterton covered 57 miles with about 2,000 feet in climb. The area is wine country and it was hard to resist stopping for a few tastings…but I made it! I met Tracey at the halfway point for lunch before riding the rest of the afternoon.
The final ride before a 5 day rest in Wellington was along a river into Lower Hutt, just outside of Wellington.
Lower Hutt has a nice downtown area along the shore with some decent restaurants and good views of Wellington across the bay!
The Not So Gentle Annie…
So I was looking for a ride with challenging hills to help with building endurance as well as confidence…confidence in being able to complete the grades and climbs I would face on the Tour Aotearoa. The first half of the 85 mile ride that begins in Taihape to the “Gentle Annie”.
delivered.
I completed the first three of five climbs, traveling 40 miles and gaining 4,472 feet. The climbs ranged from 5 to 8 miles in length with grades as steep as 14 percent. This was plenty enough for me over four hours and forty minutes.
I skipped the steepest climb, the Gentle Annie itself that has an average grade of nearly 11 percent, the highest being 18 percent. There is some terrific downhill as well. These downhills produced quite the workout for my disc brake pads! I will replace this prior to the official ride and carry a spare set.
The route was absolutely beautiful. It winds through remote and very scenic areas, including views of the active Mt. Ruapehu stratovolcano. We passed by high country sheep stations including Erewhon, or “nowhere” spelled backwards. How appropriate for this place, seemingly out in the middle of “nowhere”! (The Erewhon name comes from a 1872 novel by Samuel Butler). In addition to these merino wool farms, we also came across bee hives being moved by helicopters! It was a challenging ride with some steep inclines and descents.
We spent a nice weekend in Napier and the Hawke’s Bay region. Napier has many relatively flat areas, surrounded by some awesome peaks.
It is also home to many vineyards and wineries!
In 1931 a massive earthquake rocked Hawke’s Bay for more than three minutes, killing nearly 260 and destroying the center of Napier. This resulted in Napier becoming one of the “purest” Art Deco cities in the world.
Rebuilding quickly began and buildings reflected the architectural styles of the times such as Spanish Mission and Art Deco. Frank Lloyd Wright influenced the local architecture as well. A New Zealand character was maintained with Maori images and designs.
I was able to get a pleasant Sunday afternoon ride in there area. Thirty-two miles and only 560 feet in elevation gain.
We head north to Gisborne, also on the water and known both for its wineries and surf beaches. This is a beautiful area! We spent one evening there before riding from Gisborne to Matawai. For some reason I was expecting this to be more of a “family ride”.
The ride began with some rolling hills through farmland, both livestock, vegetables and vineyards. The sealed road included some fairly decent climbs.
The ride included a stop at beautiful Rere Falls and Rere Slide. The slide is a 60 meter rock in the river that is frequented by adventurers, sliding down on everything from inner tubes to boogie boards to even cardboard!
The ride turned to gravel and more steep inclines.
There were some great views but unfortunately a couple of large trucks kicking up the dust on the dry gravel. All in all, 50 miles and 5,000 feet of climb over 6 hours!
Perhaps one of the most interesting rides of the North Island training was out of the town of Opotiki.
We spent a couple nights in the town and enjoyed a dinner at the local Irish Pub/Restaurant.
The ride started with ten miles seaside along the “Dunes”.
It then wound its way 26 miles through remote area, nearly all gravel with a couple steep climbs.
The views in this remote area were fantastic. I think I only saw three vehicles over 3 hours.
However, the ride ended with a 12 mile downhill ride on rocky “singletrack”, usually no more than a meter wide. On one side were steep hills and cliffs, on the other side, steep drops to the river. The rating for the trail is a 4/5 for difficulty.
There will be some very forested remote rides such as this on the Tour Aotearoa, but I am told not as “technical”. On this portion of the ride I managed to have four falls, none major and thankfully no serious injuries…just a few bruises.
The “training” phase ended with a couple leisurely rides near Hamilton. Hamilton is the fourth largest city in New Zealand with a good size university and thus is pretty “young”.
The rugby international “7 series”was in town the weekend we visited which made for some fun out on the town since many countries were represented by teams. And they love their rugby here in New Zealand!
We managed a ride in Hamilton on part of the 70 km river trail. Tracey joined on an ebike that performed beautifully on the hills! These bikes are really growing in popularity in New Zealand.
That brings us to Auckland for a couple weeks of tapering, bike tuneup, and enjoying this fine city. We are able to meet some Kiwi’s we met two years ago while trekking and new Kiwi friends we met this past fall in Bolivia.
My co-rider Jen Bury from Boise joins us 2/18 for a week of final prep. Then the big 1,800 mile ride starts 2/26!
Some final tune-ups on the bike and a little more work at the YMCA and we will be ready! Beginning February 26 you can click here to follow our trek across this beautiful country! Just look for our names and a small “dot” moving very slowly across the map! Stay tuned! (There will be many names listed and you can adjust the tracking to just follow me and Jen).
