CYCLE TOURING IN NEW ZEALAND – 7 MISTAKES I MADE

If you’re planning on cycle touring in New Zealand, you won’t want to make some of these mistakes I did.

They aren’t the worst mistakes in the world, with my 6-day tour from Rotorua to the Kapiti Coast still a success.

But I could have done with knowing the following before I started.

p.s. I was (still am?) a total beginner at cycle touring in New Zealand so here’s what I wish I knew before I started.

If you’d like to see my rides on Strava you can see them here:

• Day 1 (Rotorua to Taupo via the Te Ara Ahi)
• Day 2 (Taupo to Turangi)
• Day 3 (Turangi to Taihape)
• Day 4 (Rest day in Taihape)
• Day 5 (Taihape to Palmerston North)
• Day 6a and Day 6b (Palmerston North to Waikanae)

And now for what I wish I knew before…

7 MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN YOU’RE CYCLE TOURING IN NEW ZEALAND

1. THE NORTH ISLAND STILL HAS HILLS!

One of the main differences between the two islands in New Zealand is:

• South Island = Mountains
• North Island = Flat

And that’s reasonably true. But I hate to say it, but I fell into the trap thinking this difference between the islands is black and white.

It’s true, the South Island is full of mountains relative to the North. But that doesn’t mean the North Island is totally flat. Across the six days, I cycled over 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) of elevation. That’s definitely more than I was expecting.

When you’re driving around the North Island, it certainly feels flat most of the time.

When you’re driving between Rotorua and Taupo this certainly feels pretty flat looking with only Rainbow Mountain and Mount Tauhara sticking out.

But the gentle undulations add up when you have to exert physical energy to get up them through the day. Your car might increase its revs slightly, but wow, when you’re on your 5th 100 metre high hill of the day, your muscles do begin to beg for mercy.

So don’t expect a totally smooth journey with no elevation when cycle touring the North Island. If I’d read a guide about bikepacking for beginners, I would have considered my route a lot more in advance.

2. TRUCKS AREN’T AS PREVALENT ON THE WEEKEND

I was super nervous about crossing the Desert Road by bike. The Desert Road is the stretch of highway along the eastern side of Tongariro National Park between Turangi and Waiouru.

The road is narrow in spots, with some hairpin turns for good measure. Along with highly variable conditions, it’s not a stretch of road people love driving (though the views go towards making up for it).

Anyhow, that’s all to say it’s one of the most dangerous sections to ride along for cyclists. And that gets even worse when you’re sharing the road with trucks.

I was a little nervous that’s when I’d get hit by a truckie, at no fault of the drivers.

But, I rode the Desert Road on a Saturday and experienced very few trucks on the road. Yay!

If there’s a stretch you’re nervous about, ride them on a weekend (weather dependent).

3. HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE WEATHER

I made the big mistake to start the trip of looking at the ‘precipitation’ measure on the forecast.

In the screenshot above, I was looking at the precip number in the top right. I thought that meant it was 79% likely to be raining at that time. That’s incorrect.

You can learn the proper definition here.

I delayed the start of my trip for a couple of days as the precipitation numbers were predicted to be high all day. But they were both nice days! I was a little annoyed once I realised the error I’d made (it’s not often I look at a weather forecast).

So, learn how to read the weather forecast properly. And if you’re unsure, ask the locals as they’ll often have a good grip on what they forecast really means for their area.

I did this before crossing the Desert Road and felt much more comfortable when they said it’d be a nice day (it was).

4. MAINSTREAM MEDIA GIVES CARS A BAD REPUTATION

My rules were simple for this trip ¹.

1. Don’t get hit by a truck (or cars)
2. Don’t get eaten by farm dogs

I’ll focus on the first one here. In general, it’s thought that cyclists and drivers don’t get along. And while that may be true, I found that both cars and trucks gave me heaps of room where they could.

They’d often veer onto the other side of the road, being super cautious. And when crossing narrow bridges everyone was patient and didn’t try to squeeze past me.

So while there’s a stereotype of drivers not liking cyclists on the road, it’s only a tiny minority who would put cyclists at risk willingly. As long as you, the cyclist, keeps left you shouldn’t have any problems.

5. MAPS.ME ISN’T GREAT FOR CYCLE ROUTES

If you’ve read any of the hiking posts on Chur New Zealand, you’ll know I LOVE using Maps.me.

So I naturally assumed I’d be using the app when cycle touring New Zealand.

But it’s a pain to use for cyclists. In the screenshot above you see the maps.me and Google Maps side by side for the recommended route from Taupo to Turangi.

They are so different! This happened throughout the trip and if I followed the Maps.me directions I’d have been on a wild goose chase and added hundreds of kilometres to the trip.

Google does mention “Use caution – cycling directions may not always reflect real-world conditions” for the cycle directions and the elevation profile numbers can be a bit random but it’s easy to account for.

Keep Maps.me on your phone just in case, but it’s not the best for getting directing when cycling in New Zealand.

6. THE GREAT RIDES AREN’T THE MOST EFFICIENT FOR OF BIKE TRAVEL

I was stoked that I’d get to cover the Te Ara Ahi Trail departing Rotorua. It makes its way south towards Taupo.

I knew it’d require one detour adding 13km to the trip, but I didn’t expect the trails to add so much more time to the trip.

If you’re short on time and considering taking on one of the Great Rides along the way. Look into what the difference in distance is between following the trail and roads. And then look at the grade of the trail.

If it’s at easy/easiest grade, you won’t lose too much time. But as soon as the grade reaches intermediate, I found the timesuck a little annoying. It made for a loooong day to Taupo.

7. LEARN HOW TO REPAIR PUNCTURES BEFORE YOU BEGIN

I purchased a puncture repair kit before I started the trip but figured I could apply the just in time learning technique to fixing a puncture.

If I got one. Which I did.

After watching a couple of YouTube videos, I still wasn’t 100% confident and watch a couple more videos to get a better understanding. This was time-consuming. Then decided I should have taken a small piece of sandpaper with me to prep the puncture location.

It all took a lot more time getting back up and running than I’d planned.

In short, understand the steps behind fixing a puncture in advance.

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I’m sure more mistakes will come to mind as I reflect back on my experience of cycling touring in NZ.

But I do hope that this gives you a little bit of a heads up about what you can potentially expect when you’re planning to cycle around New Zealand.

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