Tour Aotearoa Official Guide PDF Edition

This page is for the PDF download edition. There is also a paper edition available.

Tour Aotearoa Official Guide gives you the practical information you’ll need as you ride the 3000 kilometre Tour Aotearoa route from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

For those keen to ride the length of New Zealand, this functional guide describes the 3000 kilometre Tour Aotearoa route from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Christened in early 2016, this route follows several Great Rides and Heartland Rides through a variety of inspiring landscapes and welcoming rural towns.

This guide is made to be used on the trails as a complement to GPS navigation. It includes maps and elevation charts throughout the route, detailed cue sheets, contact details for important businesses along the way such as remote accommodation, cafes and supermarkets, transport operators, etc.

The guide is also available as two staple bound booklets; 72 pages for the North Island and 48 pages for the South Island. This format allows you to only carry one light weight guide per Island – no unnecessary weight to carry!

The author, Jonathan Kennett, has been writing New Zealand cycling books for over 25 years and works for the New Zealand Cycle Trail. He rates Tour Aotearoa as “the best ride of my life”.

Sample pages from the PDF edition.

As soon as the Kawerau Gorge Trail opens in mid-2026 the route will switch to use it to get to Queenstown and on to the Around the Mountain Trail. In the meantime you can either ride the new cycle trails to Cromwell and then over the Nevis, or opt to go over the Crown Range (which has a lot more traffic than it used to).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Packed with:

• transport options to Cape Reinga
• cue sheets for every section
• maps throughout the route
• elevation charts
• locations of the 30 photo control points
• contact details for campgrounds, accommodation, cafes, pubs, etc.
• phone numbers for boat operators on the five water sections
• transport options for leaving Bluff.

 

11 & 11A Clevedon to Kaiaua, weekdays and weekends
The Hūnua Traverse route is now open 7 days (until around September 2026) so you can now chose the glorious forest and low traffic alternative anytime you like. See pg 35-37.

Kawerau Gorge Trail

As soon as the Kawerau Gorge Trail (between Cromwell and Queenstown) opens in mid-2026 the route will switch to use it to get to Queenstown. In the meantime you can either ride the new cycle trails to Cromwell and then over the Nevis (missing out Queenstown), or opt to go over the Crown Range (which has a lot more traffic than it used to).

 

 

Note: Highway 6 between Cromwell and Queenstown has very heavy traffic and no road shoulder – don’t be tempted by it!

Updates

The PDF guide is updated as needed. Since 2016 the general Tour Aotearoa route has added new sections and had a few bits removed due to closures. The services information has also changed a lot, especially after Covid. Please don’t use the older versions – they’ll just waste your time.

 

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PDF download process

As soon as your payment goes through you will be sent an email from Kennett Brothers shop@kennett.co.nz which contains a link to download the PDF to your device. Your link is valid for 50 days.

The email will look like this:

 

Make sure you save the PDF to your preferred device – don’t just download it every time you want to look at it. On most phones you can save a PDF by holding your finger on the download link for 2 seconds – then follow the prompts to download/save the file. There is no cellphone signal on most the the first day – so you won’t be able to download it!