Takapari Road takes you high into the Ruahine Ranges from the Pohangina Valley northeast of Palmerston North. The Ruahine area is DOC land and you will find a gate with DOC signage not far into the ride, leave the gate closed once you have gone through it.
Takapari Road is widely used for tramping access into the Ruahine ranges and the usual end point for a ride is ‘The A frame hut’, a tramping hut on top of the range, the road does continue past the hut but ends a little further on.
Takapari Road is initially well groomed gravel road, devolving to farm track, then bulldozed track. As you get higher there are sections that are steep and very rough with deep chunky gravel and deep ruts which can be very difficult on a larger bike, and even on a 650 single. This is why Takapari Road gets it’s rating below as being for Intermediate riders on bikes up to 650cc and Experienced riders for big bikes. Takapari road is popular with the mountain biking community so at anytime you could find trampers, 4×4’s or mountain bikes heading in either direction on the road.
Takapari Road also reaches alpine altitudes and is often fog bound and windy. This means riders should be prepared for cold, wet and windy weather conditions, even if the weather looks sunny and warm in the valley at the start of the ride.
Contributed by: @stephen-clark
Track type: Gravel Road
Track composition: Bumpy, Loose, Steep
Slippery when wet? Yes
Suitable for bikes <650cc? Intermediate
Suitable for bikes >650cc? Experienced
River crossings? No
This video shows some of the rougher sections of Takapari Road.
4wds appear to have discovered Takapari Road and as usual made a massive mess of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzs8wxTTaus
It might be time to get the road rehabilitated then close to 4x4s over the wetter months like they do with 42nd and Whangamomona for example. These guys are responsible drivers, but to take a quote even directly from this video “Lightest smallest tires in the front… If I dig a rut you two will bottom out on it” is rather telling.