The route: Auckland Airport – Puhinui – Te Huia Train – Huntly – Hamilton – Cambridge – Matamata – Te Aroha – Paeroa – Kaiaua – Clevedon – Beachlands – Pine Harbour – Sealink Ferry – Auckland City – Auckland Airport
The genesis of this ride was research into something else: the Old Ghost Road (which I hope to ride soon!). In this way I found the “Great Rides of New Zealand” (if only Australia could be so inspiring for cycling tourism). One thing led to another and when a sale airfare to Auckland came along I decided to check out some of these trails. Blessed with decent weather, Te Awa River Ride and Hauraki Rail Trail combined to make an epic long weekend of cycling….
Day 1: Airport – Cambridge
Rather than cycling all day, I chose the option of catching the train south to start cycling along the Waikato River. This proved to be an excellent choice: to start with there is a marked cycling route from the airport to Puhinui station. Here you can catch an Auckland Transport train to the city, or in my case the Te Huia service south.
Highlights
The Te Huia train is a convenient and inexpensive way of travelling south to the Waikato, and it was great to see that there were bike spaces (including straps to hold bike in place) available. The staff were helpful (both in the station and on train). Don’t hesitate to use this great service if the schedule works for you.
After watching scenery from the train (which does spend some time passing some less than beautiful parts of outer Auckland), the Waikato River is stunning, so to be able to cycle alongside and over is just tremendous. The Te Awa River Ride is well maintained, and generally smooth as you pass suburbs, farms and eventually make your way through Hamilton.
Inside Hamilton there are lots of parks that offer different places to stop and sit back and take in the scenery. Where you do head away from a dedicated river-side path, the route is well sign-posted and easy to follow.
My favourite part was the route between Hamilton and Cambridge. More challenging (with steep up and town parts), it has well maintained wooden pathways across gullies and alongside the river where concrete would be challenging. It also passes through and alongside some beautiful farms. Epic.
Lowlights
The main lowlight was Airport Road outside Hamilton: taken to visit Hopnotic Brews (see below). This wasn’t a great road for cycling, including a no-verge bridge. But this was entirely self-inflicted – it is not necessary to take this route unless you want to visit the brewery.
The other on-road cycling, however, was fine. Having chosen to get off the train before Hamilton (at Huntly), it is necessary to travel on road alongside the river (using Riverview and Hakarimata Roads) to the start of the path – a total of 15km to Ngaruawahia. Good scenery and limited traffic.
The only other lowlight was a confusing temporary detour from the path near downtown Hamilton (at Little London Park) due to gardening work. I figured it out, but it was a little annoying. You’ll see it in the komoot route and hopefully you can just take the path.
Tips and recommendations
I took the opportunity to visit two breweries on this ride – both required a detour from the river trail. Brewaucracy is in the middle of Hamilton and isn’t too far out of the way. Offering excellent warehouse vibes, I enjoyed the stop here.
Requiring more of a detour, Hopnotic offers a much more scenic location although it does require cycling on the very busy Airport Road to get to the woolshed bar. If this onroad cycling is a deterrent to you I would understand.
Day 2: Cambridge – Paeroa
After a fantastic previous day on the Te Awa River Trail, Day 2 started with some further parts of the trail. From here, however, to connect to the Hauraki Rail Trail it is necessary to head on-road – initially via Maungatautari Road.
Highlights
Maungatautari Road makes for great cycling. I had wondered whether the route would be busy, but it absolutely was not. Further, the scenery is stunning – hills, farmland and lakes. It is the type of on-road cycling you’d like to bottle and take home. Regrettably at the end of the road a short horrible SH1 connection is necessary to get to Matamata – a stark contrast (see below).
At Matamata the Hauraki Rail Trail starts, and it commences with the only sealed section of the trail. This is lovely, and thankfully the gravel that follows all the way through to Paeroa is high quality and fun to ride. The quality of the work that has gone into this trail is on show – the excellent bridges, the cattle grates, and the toilet / break facilities. Top class. Oh, and the views are also very nice.
Lowlights
After crossing the Waikato River on the SH1 (which is currently horrible due to road works – the saving grace is the low speed limits and promise of good verge and intersection cycling paths at the turn into SH29). Once on the SH29 things are better – decent verge, but still frequent traffic. It is not terrible, but it is a relief to get to Puketutu Road and rural cycling again after the entrance to Hobbiton (and the end of the milk trucks and tourist buses!).
Tips and recommendations
If you are in Cambridge on a Saturday morning the Farmers Markets are a must do.
In Matamata I really enjoyed my stop at the Coffee Gallery. In particular the Tradie Buttie (bacon & egg roll) hit the spot, and you should definitely have it with their in-house relish. Delicious.
I can also recommend Villa Nine for a coffee and snack in Te Aroha. I have no idea, however, what is going on with the L&P bottle in Paeroa….
Day 3: Paeroa – Beachlands
This day was without doubt the most challenging, partly because of inherent characteristics of the route, in other parts because of a strong northerly wind along the Firth of Thames. Notwithstanding the challenges, some parts were highlights of the entire trip.
Highlights
From Paeroa to the outskirts of Thames at Kopu the Rail Trail continues to be a great ride. It is just an epic trail, with great things to see along the way. Check out those bridges – if only similar thinking and investment went into the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail.
The other glorious part of the trip is the East Coast Road. With colours reminding me of tropical seas, this quiet stretch of road north of Kaiaua had me spending an unhealthy amount of time looking at the sea rather than the road. Beautiful.
After running along the coast, the route heads inland on the Orere-Matingarahi Road. This also is a great ride, and one on which I passed a number of other bikepacking cyclists. Yes, there is some climbing but totally worth it.
Lowlights
Having had a fantastic experience on the Hauraki Rail Trail between Matamata and the outskirts of Thames at Kopu, it was a little disappointing to experience some of the rest of the trail. If you are on a bike with 2 inch or wider tyres, don’t stress – the route is just fine and won’t be a problem unless there has been significant recent rain. For others, the route does require some caution. The least enjoyable part at present is between Pipiroa and Waitakaruru where the trail has loose laid gravel – the source of two pinch-flat tyres for me.
While nowhere near the quality of the trail between Paeroa and Kopu, once you leave Waitakaruru the trail is a combination of roadside semi-sealed path and gravel track. This was fine, but with the head wind I did also spend some time on the road – also because I was over flats and didn’t want to risk another on some of the looser gravel sections!
Tips and recommendations
One of the major redeeming features of the less fun parts of the Rail Trail was the coffee at Bugger Cafe, following by outstanding value-for-money fish and chips in Kaiaua. The $12 fish, chips and drink deal certainly hit the spot after some tough cycling.
Also highly recommended is Hallertau Brewery. When I asked a staff member whether they would mind if I brought my bike inside to put it in the garden area, they not only said yes but basically insisted that I did. I really enjoyed the pizza and tasting paddle as well as the general atmosphere here.
Day 4: Beachlands – Airport
The start of this day was a ferry ride. CyclingGravel is a massive fan of public transport that works for bikes, and ferries rarely disappoint. Finding myself amongst cyclist and scooter commuters, this Sealink service was a pleasure to use. And I can recommend the coffee at the Pine Harbour ferry terminal for a morning kick start! From there, it was time to cycle from downtown Auckland to the airport.
Highlights
Auckland city clearly understands the value of quality separated cycling infrastructure. Whilst I had to plan where I was going, there were heaps of commuters using these cycleways. Great stuff. I deliberately chose my route to the airport to then use off-road cycling infrastructure south, much of it running parallel to a number of motorways: first the SH16 Auckland – Kumeu, then the SH20 Southwestern motorway. Both were excellent and unlike some cycleways alongside freeways there was great noise abatement. The only improvement really would be less traffic light crossings. But really it is great.
Lowlights
None really. If I had to be picky some of the route getting close to the airport is on road with verge filled with roadside detritus, and the aforementioned traffic light crossings at major intersections slow you down. But I was really impressed by how easy it was to cycle right to the airport. Something that is similarly possible in Sydney, but at many other airports is not easy to do.
Tips and recommendations
Massive kudos to Auckland Transport for now having payment card tap on/off options – meaning tourists can take advantage of normal commuter fares. If you are in more of a rush than I, you can also take the train back to Puhinui station (near the airport) from the Britomart station near the ferry terminal.
I can also recommend a stop-off in Mangere Bridge just after crossing the eponymous conveyance across the Mangere Inlet: there are coffee shops and a bakery for you to pick from.
Making it all work
I’ve previously extolled the virtues of checking out Airbnb for accommodation when bicycle touring – you can often find some great options. I stayed in Airbnbs in Cambridge and Paeroa and they are both worth checking out – the Paeroa stay even included a small ‘bike locker’ in the garden!
I also did this trip on my folding bike, obviating the need to deal with boxes and significant assembly / disassembly of my bike. If you want to know more about this type of cycling, I’ve put a page together: Folding Bikepacking. It has some limitations, but the opportunity to be cycling out of the airport 15 minutes after getting through customs makes this a great way to travel. The other limitation was flats – I had three on the gravel sections of the Rail Trail. Definitely a domain for gravel-specific tyres and tubeless!
Finally, at the start of the trip I did arrive in Auckland after midnight (i.e. the night before Day 1 of the trip). I stayed at the totally fine but expensive for what you get Ibis Airport Hotel. The major benefit of this location is that there is a Woolworths supermarket right next door for both breakfast and food stock-ups before cycling or (if it is your kind of thing) a McDonalds just down the hill.
CyclingGravel 