Tour Aotearoa route map and photo checkpoints

You enter by registering with MAProgress, the tracking service, and you need a satellite tracker to do it: a SPOT, an inReach, or a phone running MAProgress's satellite-enabled app. You also make a NZ$100 donation to a registered charity of your choice, and the organizer asks you to offset the emissions of your trip to the start and home from the finish through Ekos. Beyond that you pay your own way for food, beds and transport. The FAQ caps starts at 100 riders a day, which is about what the Far North can cope with.

The rules say to ride under your own steam, follow the whole course and carry your own gear. No support vehicles may meet you, though the odd visit from friends or family is fine. In every 24 hours from 9 am, stop for at least one block of six hours. You can't finish in under 10 days. There's no trophy at the end, but a café at Stirling Point and Tuatara Backpackers in Invercargill sell a $10 "Made it" medal.

The 2027 start times are set by the tide. High tide makes Ninety Mile Beach unrideable, and the organizer advises being on the sand three hours before low tide, which gives you about seven hours of firm going. Low tide is at 12:29 pm on 17 February and 1:41 pm on 18 February. In those hours you can reach camping at The Bluff (42.7 km), Hukatere Lodge (72 km), Ngapae Holiday Park (89.5 km) or Ahipara (103 km).

The organizer lists five boat trips. The Hokianga ferry to Rawene takes 10 minutes and $2 in cash. The Kaipara Harbour charter from Pouto Point takes 2 to 3 hours and has to be booked with Kaipara Cruises, and the Whanganui jet boat, about $90 for an hour, needs booking too. The Cook Strait ferry costs $70 to 90 and takes 4 hours with boarding, plus $15 for a bike on the Interislander or $10 on Bluebridge. The fifth, Queenstown to Walter Peak on Lake Wakatipu, about $100, is on the Queenstown option. Book beds and boats no more than three days ahead, so a storm or a broken bike doesn't wreck the plan.

Cape Reinga is more than 100 km north of Kaitaia, the nearest town. InterCity's buses from Auckland to Kaitaia no longer have room for bikes, so the organizer points riders to the Tuatahi Airport Shuttle. You can also fly to Kerikeri and ride three days to the start, on a route a 2026 rider sent in: 50 km to Kahoe Farms Hostel, 97 km to Houhora Heads and 75 km to Tapotupotu Bay. Air New Zealand doesn't charge for a bike.

Bluff is 30 km by road from Invercargill. Invercargill Airport sells bike boxes for $25 (phone ahead), or you can post your bike bag to Poste Restante at the Invercargill Post Office, which holds it as long as you need for about $20.

February in the Far North is warm: Kaitaia averages 24.5°C by day and 15.6°C at night. Hokitika, on the West Coast, gets 191.7 mm of rain in February and 213.4 mm in March. At the finish, Invercargill averages 18.7°C by day and 9.4°C at night in February, and cooler in March. Streams and fords rise fast after heavy rain. Never cross one where you can't see the bottom and a safe way out, and keep the bike downstream of you.

You must be able to fix a puncture, a broken chain and a bent wheel. Carry a spare derailleur hanger, brake pads, tubes and cleat screws. A helmet is the law in New Zealand. Keep a personal locator beacon or your satellite tracker on your body rather than the bike, so it stays with you if you part ways in a crash.