Billed as New Zealand’s 3000km (1864 mile) bikepacking odyssey, it is designed to showcase New Zealand roads, trails and landmarks. While anyone is free to ride the route at any time, each February there is a brevet starting on two consecutive days and limited to 100 riders each day. A brevet is a type of cycling event that is not considered a race, but rather a tour that must be completed within a time limit. For Tour Aotearoa the time limit is 45 days. The route stretches from the northernmost point in New Zealand at Cape Reinga and goes all the way to the southern end of the country at Bluff with varied surfaces and conditions including several ferry crossings.
A grand depart for a self supported bike event is a super fun opportunity to meet other cyclists with the exact same interest. You can compare plans, compare bikes and gear, see who is traveling lean and mean (no tent or sleep system?) or who is heavily laden (huge panniers, a chair?). Those on race pace will quickly disappear in the distance at the start while those riding at party pace move a little slower. We expect that within a few days we will find a few people on our same pace, and we may see them every few days throughout the tour. The first departure day will be out before we arrive, so we will mainly be mingling with day 2 people at the start.
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Getting to the start from Tucson is a bit of a journey including 3 different flights, a couple shuttles, and a short bike ride, so it will be a bit of an adventure in itself.
New Zealand’s summer is December to February and we will be starting on the second day of the Tour brevet on Sunday Feb, 23. Temperatures for summer and autumn range from upper 40’s for lows to mid 70’s for highs with some areas dipping to freezing for lows later in the trip.
For more information there is a website dedicated to the event http://www.touraotearoa.nz/p/home.html and an official tracker https://app.maprogress.com/home/dashboard that operates year round for all riders.
We plan to complete the route in roughly 30 days at an average of about 62 miles per day. To complete the brevet and show that you followed the whole route there are 30 landmarks you are required to photograph such as the northernmost lighthouse, the swinging bridge, and a glacier, but some are less stringent, for instance take a picture of cows.
We will be taking our gravel bikes and camping gear but there will be opportunities for lodging along the way as well. We will make blog entries as internet access allows, but we won’t have connectivity the entire route. We are looking forward to seeing the flora, mountains, coasts and rivers, all so different from where we live. We are also excited to meet the people, both brevet cyclists and locals.
