A group of our members have been working hard putting together a Top 2 Bottom Route for New Zealand.
The North Island track consists of 10 sections, broken up around considerations of riding distance and time and includes petrol station options at the beginning and end of each section.
Combine this with our Every Petrol Station in New Zealand and Every DOC campsite in New Zealand GPX downloads.
These tracks have been put together with a view to allowing any rider on any size bike to tour New Zealand and get a taste of the country, if you want some more rugged alternatives check out our North Island and South Island maps.
While New Zealand has an abundance of gravel roads, in some places travelling via State Highway is unavoidable due to local topography, also in the South Island we’ve also allowed a sealed run down the West Coast which has it’s own character, and takes you past the glaciers at Franz Josef and Fox.
The routes for each island are divided into chunks allowing time to stop and take in the countryside and to suit most petrol tank distances. When travelling sealed roads off the main highways average travel speeds are likely to be in the 70km/h range due to our roads many twists and turns and small towns.
North Island
Cape Reinga to Kohukohu Ferry (180 km)
Rawene Ferry to Paparoa (196 km)
Paparoa to Auckland (232 km)
Auckland to Raglan (187 km)
Raglan to Awakino (212 km)
Awakino to National Park (204 km)
National Park to Feilding (234 km)
Feilding to Castlepoint (306 km)
Castlepoint to Wellington (249 km)
South Island
Picton to Hanmer Springs (269 km)
Hanmer Springs to Arthur’s Pass (357 km)
Arthur’s Pass to Haast (377 km)
Haast to Queenstown (397 km)
Queenstown to Bluff (320 km)
Lots of people are downloading it, 8 so far this month alone.
I was wondering how the South Island section is going?
I tried to send a message but don’t know whether its gone or not.
Not at all is the answer but there may be some progress soon.
I said that I would like to add loops around some of the more likely stopping points on the T2B route for those with a little more time to explore. Here’s a little example. Sandhills Road is a mostly gravel road, which as you can see runs in some long straight sections between Awanui and Ahipara. Normally that would not be especially enticing but the road follows the contour of the duns, there is very little vertical flattening of the grade. The result is a full scale motorcycle roller coaster which is a lot of fun to ride and has some nice views east and west.
In Ahipara there is a very good motor camp, if you are camping. It has some seriously impressive facilities and lots of space for tents. Ahipara is also very proud of its local chippie, right at the beginning of the main street.
So if you find yourself in Kaitaia with an hour or so to spare, duck out to Sandhills Road and get some shark and tatties from Ahipara. A nice way to end the day.
Happy Riding
With huge thanks to @ENDURO0627 of KLR Ramblers we now have a South Island track loaded.
Hi all,
I am just back from a 3 week NZ trip (https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1X0xPOy12n8JxF6pSzJFe0JrLPmg9lVXn&ll=-41.977284387426565%2C172.81573836794405&z=7) and have some suggestions voor the T2B South track:
Tracks that can be easily added to the trip are:
– Taylor Pass (at Blenheim)
– Lake Brunner loop
And I if return loops are allowed, the following were the best:
– Mount Cheeseman Ski Area (lots of ski access roads are closed, but this one is open until the last km)
– Skipper Canyon
(I was unlucky Molesworth was closed due to the danger of fires)
Great route!
Hi Emile and thank you very much for this. Great to have feedback from people out there riding. Hope you enjoyed your trip to NZ.
If you have more details of those loops we would love to see them
I had a great trip! 6800 km in three weeks and met also a lot of nice motorcyclist during the way. I am creating a video of the 850 clips I have from my GoPro right now and I was planning on posting a separate topic om my trip, including the video, photo’s and the routes themselves, but this will take some time (I hope three weeks).
What info are you looking for for the additional loops. There are already separate topics on all loops, except the Lake Brunner loop. I drove the Lake Brunner loop by accident, because I wanted to skip the coastal part from Arthur Pass to Reefton, but drove the wrong way 😉
Its just a parallel road (see https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1X0xPOy12n8JxF6pSzJFe0JrLPmg9lVXn&ll=-41.977284387426565%2C172.81573836794405&z=7) from the Arthurs Pass -> West coast. I would mark them as beginner track. The gravel track is curvy at the lake and more straight (high speed) at the end. The tarmac connection road back to the SF73 is also very worthwhile riding!
I can provide a Not sure what routing software you are using (I use http://www.myrouteapp.com), but I wanted to attach the GPX for the Lake Brunner loop but the site does not allow me to. Let me know if I can help with something else..
Hi Emile
Glad you had a great trip, check out this page for what we’d need for Lake Brunner and anything else you might have to share: https://www.adventureridingnz.co.nz/gps-tracks-rides/how-to-share-your-gps-tracks/
Hi Emile,
What a fantastic adventure ! Hope to do something similar one day soon …
Looking forward to the videos and more photos in due course.
Ride safe,
Matt
Hi Matt,
I have just posted the video in another thread: https://www.adventureridingnz.co.nz/forums/topic/three-week-motorcycle-trip-through-new-zealand/
E.
Just a reminder that the whole north to south route is now available for down load. If you get a chance or opportunity please ride bits of it when you can and post photos and any side loop suggestions.
Cheers