Cycle touring tips

Here's resources on cycle touring in New Zealand:

State Highway 89 over the Crown range: nice scenery, but not much road space.

Dansey's Pass

Guidebooks

1. Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides, mainly off-road stuff but some back road rides too.

2. Pedallers' Paradise, road touring guide in 5 languages.

3. Lonely Planet's Cycling NZ guide, 2009 edition 

Online

1. New Zealand Cycle Trail A national project to build a network of world class cycle trails. Find out more about our 18 Great Rides, check out the rides that are already open and plan your next great riding adventure.

2. NZ Mountain Bike Web, Touring forum, a wealth of info on NZ touring both on and off road. Use the search button.

3. http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/ has a great set of travel journals. For NZ accounts, see http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/locales/?geoname_id=152&doctype=journal

An excerpt from north of Wellington, Kapiti coast:
"For the first 40km we avoid most of the traffic by taking a series of dreamy seaside backroads. Lots of weekend cyclists ask where we're going. 'As far as our little legs will take us,' is the current answer, which gets some strange looks, usually followed by a smile.

Unfortunately, it's not long before we're forced back on the main highway. It's Good Friday and the Easter exodus is in full swing. For several hours we hear nothing but cars zooming by and smell little other than fumes. One woman leans out of a window to swear at us, even though we are on the generous shoulder and not holding her up at all.

The shoulder is the only thing saving us from total insanity and we're about to panic when it disappears just before a long, narrow bridge but then relief comes in the form of a bicycle path. Thank goodness for that. Later we learn a local cyclist campaigned for the path for years but it was only created after he was struck and killed on the very bridge he'd been telling everyone was so dangerous. The path still floods during a rain and becomes unusable, leaving cyclists to the road."

4. Cycle Touring in New Zealand Tips, from Steve Glasgow.
Sections on NZ roads, and recommendations on routes.
He concludes: "Just try to stay off SH1 as much as possible."

5. Cycle Tour New Zealand, a free guide to cycle touring in NZ.