Since we use less touristic places for accommodation it means you get more opportunities to meet and mix with the locals in their favourite pub, or ‘watering hole’ where everything or anything can happen!
This tour is designed for all sorts of bike rider from cruisers to adventure bikes. Some days also offer alternative gravel routes for the more experienced back road riders, on suitable bikes.
The tour is a 19 day tour (17 riding days) in mid class quirky/historical accommodation.
Your luggage is transported by your guide in the support vehicle.
Riding days are in general between 200-300 km allowing time for visits photos and discoveries.
There are also 2 double stops/rest days for other activities or extra riding as an option, of course.

The following is a brief outline of the Heritage tour.

Leaving Auckland behind we head for the Coromandel Peninsula with twisty roads and beautiful beaches.
Besides being a bikers’ paradise it still has active goldmines and it was here the largest recorded kauri trees were cut down in late 1800s.
The journey continues south and we cross over to the western side of the North Island to pick up old shipping routes used by steam boats during pioneering times. Naturally, with meandering rivers, the roads along-side them will be the same.

We reach Wanganui, the second biggest Art Deco town in NZ, which was an important port town for the early European settlers. The town centre is a fine example of Art Deco architecture.
From Wanganui, the tour crosses the lower North Island and continues down the east coast on remote back roads to Wellington and then the ferry crossing to the South Island.

Since the South Island had less population, more gold-fields and longer distances to travel by horse drawn coaches, the selection of old hotels and travel resting stations are plentiful. Many, even today, are still in the original style and will add ‘spice’ to your NZ experience!
Once on the South Island, we head toward the north west gold fields and remote west coast. These small villages are isolated even now and remind us of the tough lives people must have lived in the early pioneering and gold digging times.
Continuing south along Westland National Park we spend the night in what would today, be one of NZ most remote settlements.

After the West Coast, historical Haast Pass (first opened in 1965) leads us inland to Central Otago where we spend a few days. The region is steeped in history and as a result, offers many quirky and charming hotels to stay in along with stunning scenery, gold-fields and fruit orchards to see.
From the here, our tour continues to the east coast where much of the wool produced in the South Island was exported from. Port towns like Oamaru and Timaru still show some of the country’s best and well preserved architecture built in late 1800’s, their ‘hay day’.
Lastly the tour will zig-zag across the island again to follow two more historical routes, ‘Arthurs Pass’ and ‘Lewis Pass’ and then on to our final destination, Christchurch.

For more details please see Routemap NZ Heritage Tour.