Auckland to Wellington route suggestions?
 

Good day all.

I'll be flying into Auckland this Sunday and the bike will follow Monday. With all the customs and sorting out insurance and rego I hope to be on the road by Tuesday. People have told me that May and June are the last good clear months before winter peaks.

So I'm going down to South Island asap but I would not mind spending 2/3 days doing the scenic route down to Wellington. Which areas/routes would you guys definitely recommend? Once on South Island, I'll have almost a month worth of riding. Hopefully passes will stay clear for another month.

My rough route so far: https://goo.gl/maps/mVCs7UdsTd12

Cheers

I am not Kiwi so my suggestiones might not be the best but I just finished a 10 week run around in New Zealand which I did 12 k kms.

Im afraid the weather can be a bit harsh from now one. I had a bit of bad weather the last week there on the northern island.

Well - from Auckland you could ride down to Rotorua. From Rotorua you can either take R 38 over the moutain range to Wairoa - this route has a fair bit of gravel and is very winding at stretches.
Or you could ride to Opotiki and take R2 over the same mountain range to Gisbourne. This is a nice and winding ride through very nice scenery and on paved road.
From Gisbourne you could take the inland road toad to Wairoa - The Tiniroto rd - a very winding road through remote and beautiful scenery.

Then you could ride down to Napier and take the Napier - Taihape rd - again a very winding road through remote and beautiful areas - paved all the way.

Then Taihape to Taumarunui and Taumarunui is the one start/end of "The Forgotten State Highway" - one of the more famous roads on the north island. Again very winding and through some amazing and wild scenery. Just a very very few kms is gravel.

From Stratford and down to Wellington will be pretty ordinary though.

Hopefully some Kiwis will come up with corrections if I misspelled some names and for improvements of my road suggestions. Just wanted to share some of the roads I did and enjoyed.

Have a great trip!

Go to a bookstore and get the "New Zealand Motorcycle Atlas" It´s a great book/map with all the rides in there... Worth any cent, we did nearly all 100 rides in there...

Publish by Hemma .. they also do an "Australian Motorcycle Atlas" too. Both can be ordered over the internet .. and may be available in some motorcycle shops. Hemma do some good maps, the motorcycle atlas for Australia is good .. but you would want a little more detail in some spots. Hopefully the NZ one has that detail already.

Looks like you've earned your Kiwi rider stripes. It's raining here in Auckland but no surprise. Just waiting for the star of the show to arrive and move down to dryer pastures. I would not mind a nice gravel road. Looking on maps right now to see where your roads are. Sounds like you had a great time out here! Much thanks for the detailed description.

I will look into that today, thanks.

Three main missions today: motorcycle, simcard and Hemma map. I was really pleased with the Australian one; main roads and smaller roads, even some tracks. The occasional distance mistake but nothing serious. Just stuck with me because once they switched the numbers around on the map so there was another 10km of the most brutal rear-swerving soft sand corrugations.

I think the NZ Motorcycle Atlas is now out of print unfortunately - it was a good guide.

Looking at your Route... On your way south a side trip around the Coromandel Peninsula is worthwhile. Then head for Rotorua & east via hwy 30. Then Snakeboy has some great suggestions - either East Cape, the Waioeka Gorge or hwy 38 are all fun routes, cross back west via the Napier-Taihape rd then head for the Forgotten world hwy.

Was it this week or next you are setting out? The weather doesn't look so great this week. Whoever told you May & June are 'good clear months' was stretching a bit I think, the weather can be variable this time of year. Mind you the weather is variable most times of the year in NZ :cool4:

If you want somewhere to stay near Rotorua you are welcome at my place (if I am home, will be away a night or 2 over the next 2 weeks) get in touch.

Cheers
Clint

Alright, managed to put the map together on this shoddy internet. Looks like I'm already abandoning the fast track to South Island plan. No way I'm going to be able to do that distance in three days with all the stopping I'll be doing along the way. But it just looks too good.

https://goo.gl/maps/bwx36DN7P7m

Sounds cool Clint, thanks. Sure will if you're there, we'll sort out the route details then. I'm already here and if I can sort everything out with the motorcycle I'll be leaving today. PM me your number or drop a message here: www.facebook.com/motaeastbound. Sorted out a sim yesterday and got myself a Hemma map book.

As for the weather that person might have been referring to South Island. For now it looks I'll be rainsuiting it up.

Cheers

Here's a few pics of the last few days especially for those who helped me out here. Probaly nothing new for most though.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7342/2...05d8787a_b.jpg

https://c5.staticflickr.com/8/7311/2...3df8d59a_b.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7446/2...75c4e7d5_b.jpg