Our 6 week New Zealand Cycling Route – Initial Plan

It’s happening… We are finally doing it. Our flight out to Auckland from Toronto is tomorrow and we couldn’t be more excited. It has been a bucket list item for a few years now and we are finally checking it off our list.

What am I talking about? Six weeks of cycling and exploring the North and South island of New Zealand, land of kiwi birds, the All Blacks, meat pies, and sheep.

Our Six Week New Zeland Route Plan

We have laid out a rough route plan, which will hopefully keep us on track to not miss our flight, but this is all subject to change, as plans always do when you start chatting with locals and learn what are the things worth doing and seeing.

Obviously, we must hit up the international tourist traps, visit the Shire, go bungee jumping, etc. But we also plan on doing a lot of camping and seeing smaller towns and less beaten trails along the way.

Date	From	To	km
Day 1	Fly into Auckland	To our hosts’ home in Auckland	31
Day 2	Rest – Explore Auckland
Day 3	Aukland	Papakura	42
Day 4	Papakura	Hamilton	112
Day 5	Hamilton	Hobbiton Movie Set	48
Day 6	Hobbiton Movie Set	Waiotapu	99
Day 7	Waiotapu	Taupo	54
Day 8	Rest in Taupo
Day 9	Taupo	Mt Ngauruhoe	89
Day 10	Hike Mt Doom
Day 11	Mt Ngauruhoe	Kakatahi	98
Day 12	Kakatahi	Santoft	100
Day 13	Santoft	Himakangi beach	50
Day 14	Himakangi beach	Wellington	130
Day 15	Rest in Wellington
Day 16	Wellington Ferry to Picton (3 hours)	Onahau Lookout	33
Day 17	Onahau Lookout	Nelson	90
Day 18	Nelson	St. Arnaud	80
Day 19	St Arnaud	Inangahua	109
Day 20	Inangahua	Punakaiki	90
Day 21	Punakaiki	Moana	82
Day 22	Moana	Arthurs Pass [book homestay]	64
Day 23	Arthur’s Pass	Rest/Hike? Maybe?
Day 24	Arthur’s Pass	Hokitka	90
Day 25	Hokitka	Whataroa	101
Day 26	Whataroa	Franz Joseph Glacier	36
Day 27	Franz Joseph	Bruce Bay	79
Day 28	Bruce Bay	Haast	71
Day 29	Haast	Makarora	79
Day 30	Makarora	Wanaka	67.4
Day 31	Wanaka	Hike to Roy’s Peak
Day 32	Wanaka	Queenstown	71
Day 33	Queenstown	Bungee? Vinyard?
Day 34	Queenstown	Skipper’s Canyon?
Day 35	Queenstown	Acton	106
Day 36	Acton	Te Anau	69
Day 37	Te Anau	Halfway Camp towards Milford Sound	60
Day 38	Halfway Camp Spot	Milford Sound	58
Day 39	Milford Sound
Day 40	Milford Sound	Christchurch	BUS? – EXPORE
Day 41	Christchurch	Aukland	FLIGHT
Day 42	Fly out of Aukland

So even though this looks pretty set in stone, it is absolutely not. We have to set out from Christchurch back to Auckland to catch our flight home. So we will probably need a bit more buffer time at the end, but c’est la vie. We will figure it out, as do we always.

After we return from our trip – we will see how this plan changed, if we kept to it, if it completely didn’t, and if we missed our flight home.

Wish us luck. Any tips or must sees while we are in New Zealand? There’s no way anyone can do everything, but we’d love to know if there are any absolute must dos that we are missing!