TA 2026 North Island Preparations TA 2026 North Island Day 1-4 youtube ressources The First 5 Days of the Tour Aotearoa: Cape Reinga to Auckland | TA Episode 1 Day 1 on bike of my Tour Aotearoa mountain bike packing ride in New Zealand. Day 3 of my Tour Aotearoa epic 3000 km bikepacking adventure…

To continue my bike packing adventure of the North Island in 2026 i needed to test my equipment again and see if my gear and bike still works. Therefore I did a quick testride from Nelson from where my bike is based at to Marahau and return in 2 days also to test my camping…

Here I did a short trip from Nelson, via Kaiteriteri. There I took a water taxi (Abel Tasman Shuttles) to Totaranui. From there is a road through the Abel Tasman National Park which leads to Takaka, Collingwood and the rest of Golden Bay… AND you can avoid the crazy Takaka Hill!

I did this part in the end of my journey and not in the beginning, since I was returning back to Nelson from Bluff / Invercargill / Queenstown by shuttle and rental car. From Picton to Nelson you have only two bad choices.. either you cycle on the SH6 which is very busy with Log-Trucks…

This was the last leg on my journey from Nelson to Bluff, roughly 1200 Km, therefore I was relatively exhausted but happy to have reached the final Destination, which was Bluff. From there I continued onwards straight to Stewart Island since I didn’t want to stay in Bluff since I couldn’t find a suitable accommodation…

Having a lot of headwind I didn’t go very far on this 2nd to last leg towards Bluff, the ultimate destination of my journey.. Accommodation: Winton Railway Hotel

This was a particular long day since I had to catch the “staff-boat” from RealNZ from Queenstown to Walter Peak early 7 am in the morning. When I arrived on the other side of the lake the nice big café was still closed unfortunately. So I had to cycle 117 km further in a desperate…

On this section I crossed the crown range, which is the highest sealed road in New Zealand with an altitude of 1000m. A impressive ride with beautiful views down to Lake Wakatipu and Queenstown.

This section was along the beautiful shoreline of Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka. Recommendation: Pembroke Pâtisserie | Artisan Bakery, Albert Town | Wanaka