Road Biking in NZ
 

Has anyone ever done a biking trip in NZ, whether as independent or with a bike-tour company ?
If so, pls kindly share your experience here, like: how are the roads there, what to expect,etc?

I couldn't find any info on this in this forum...

Many thanks in advance!

Hi, we are also planning a bike trip to NZ next March/April (most settled weather and beautiful colours), to the south island. We have done quite a bit of driving round previously (though in a car) and have found the roads to be excellent.Out of the cities there is hardly any traffic. NZ is biker aware as many people start their driving on a bike till they can afford to pay cash for a car.If you love beautiful scenery you will be in heaven and if you are like me will be wanting to pull over all the time to take photos or just drink it all in.Are you going to the north or south or planning both and how long for?

Hi sistertaranaki:
Yes, we plan on going to the South Island.
Ideally, we'd like to go in Feb.
Most people recommend Jan/Feb when the weather is nice. Some say March/April can be very windy, is it not true?

It'd be our 1st trip to NZ.
We'd like to bring our road bikes (from the US) & also rent a car there.
The plan is to bike about 30-50 mi/day, in a pleasure time.

Not sure how big is the island...?
Can we do it in about 5-7 days?

Are the road mostly flat or hilly there?

I'm gathering as much info as I could, so any tips/suggestions/hands-on experience would be helpful & greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Hi again
Feb would also be a great time to travel also during the peak tourist time though. If you only have about a week and want to travel short distances you would be far better off selecting either the top or bottom half or even a corner of the island to see this time. It depends what you want to see. North east quadrant has lots of wineries, whale watching/seals/dolphins, Christchurch, Hanmer hot springs, Kiakora coastline where the mountains come right down to the sea, Blenheim in the Marlborough wine district,Picton and the Queen Charlotte Sounds.North West has the beautiful Tasman bay, Nelson,Abel Tasman national park (coastal), west coat towns and rugged coastline open to the Tasman sea, lots of rivers and rock formations, pebbly beaches and Franz joseph and Fox glaciers.You can walk right up to and on these or take a heliflight and land on them. South West corner has beautiful lakes and the alps,Queenstown and Wanaka being the major towns , both gorgeous and on lake edges, Milford sound and Doubtful sound, you can take a cruise on either of these. Lots of mountains and winding roads, Queenstown has enough to do to fill in weeks if you are the adventurous type.South east corner has he beautiful and remote Catlins coast leading north up to the Canterbury plains area, more wineries around Cromwell, sheep grazing country ,more lakes around Twizel, Mt Cook and Tekapo.Then back up to Christchurch and its surrounding plains (heavily cultivated.) There is just sooooo much to see in one relatively small package. The distance from Nelson(top end)to Invercargill (bottom end) is approx 1000 kilometers and is approx 240 to 280 wide.The south west corner is the most sparsely populated. West of the alps is wetter and is a fairly narrow coastal strip, whereas the east is more mediterranean type and mainly rolling plains.I read a very good travel journal yesterday on this site, written by a lady (mel8).try and find it and read it and look at her photos. At the end of the day you need to decide if its the journey or the destination you are most concerned with,unless this is a scouting trip for areas that you may want to return to. I would suggest that you don't try to do it all in such a short time. You wouldn't do justice to the country or yourselves. There are some very good websites. I will look some of them up and get back to you. cheers for now

Back again! That trip report is called "Three weeks in Paradise. NZ trip report and I think it is number 11 at the moment, the lady is Melnq8.Some website just to get you started and salivating are
purenz.com
nz.com
lonelyplanet.com/destinations/australasia/new_zealand
virtualaustralia.com/newzealand/photos
queenstown-nz.co.nz
lakewanaka.co.nz
tourism.net.nz (check out all the areas listed in red at the bottom of the page on this site)

Good luck

Sis :
WOW! Thank u for the detailed reply.
I will check out the sites.
Ideally, if time/work is permitting we'd like to spend 7-10 days in NZ.

Glad to know that you share the same interest as ours (planning a bike trip), and you seem to have deep knowledge a/ NZ already...Can I ask you again IF I have questions in the future ? :-)

Hi p3t0t
My pleasure to help. I don't live in NZ (but wish I did) but I will endeavour to answer any queries I can.
How did you go with those websites? I would be keen to know what your eventual itinery is. I will check this site every week (or so). Good luck and happy planning!
:)