This informative guide steers you along 34 of the best cycling routes in New Zealand. Explore spectacular coastal roads, rugged mountain passes and rich dairy country with rides ranging from leisurely one day trips to challenging extended tours.

• 103 days of New Zealand's best riding
• how to pack and transport your bike
• on-the-road maintenance tips and where to find help
• where to stay - from camping to cosy B&Bs
• where to eat - from bakeries to bistros
• what to see and do out of the saddle
• selected mountain bike rides

Lonely Planet's NZ cycling guide is geared to cyclists throughout, so much so that if you had to carry only one guidebook in your panniers, this could be it. There are clear maps for every ride (with the route highlighted in blue). And the rides can easily be pieced together to just about circumnavigate the entire country, north and south islands. So Lonely Planet's guide is useful for those planning mostly paved road tours lasting from a few days to a couple of months.

I agree that New Zealand By Bike is also a must, but if you are going all the way to Kiwi Land (or on any major trip), buying, studying, comparing and cross-referencing two or three guidebooks is the way to go.

As for the Lonely Planet guide, I especially appreciate the authors' list of New Zealand's cycling superlatives, such as Most Challenging Climb, Best Downhill, Best Seacoast Ride, Best Scenery, etc. - and the list of where to ride if you have one week, two weeks, even a month or two. This guide is not an amateurish, small press attempt at being thorough yet concise. It consistently sets a professional, honest, experienced, authoritative and enjoyably wry tone. This book is worth every penny - and every ounce. I predict it'll be the one cycling guide you actually carry along.


Good information, excellent presentation   May 16, 2005
David Obrien (San Diego)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Just finished a 9-day tour of New Zealand's Northland, using the route recommended by this LP guidebook.

Like the rest of the LP series, this book has a wealth of useful information on both the trips and how to prepare for them.

The best part of the book is the information design:

- Narratives are brief, important items are called out or bolded, and sections are kept small, making things easy to find in a hurry. Contrast this with other guidebooks that present you with a wall of text to hunt through for a phone number.

- Maps are very clear, showing the route, landmarks along the way, optional side trips, and nothing else to clutter the view. Cue sheets make it easy to find the next waypoint or climb. Much better than the handdrawn sketches in Bruce Ringer's book.

- The elevation charts, while not as accurate as those in Pedaller's Paradise, seemed good enough to me, and easier to understand at a glance.

The book, though published in 2000, is still reasonably up to date. A few businesses and prices had changed, but nothing drastic.

I bought both this book and Bruce Ringer's New Zealand By Bike, and after reading both cover to cover, I took the LP book by itself and found it indispensible during the trip.


Bicycle At Your Own Risk   February 22, 2004
9 out of 13 found this review helpful

The book is really good and well worth the money.New Zealand is a wonder to cycle thru, like Yosmite Valley on a nation scale. But be fore warned! Amazingly, the New Zealand roads are anti-cycle,and you put yourself there at your own risk. 99% of the roads are single lane on each side, they are very skinny lanes. Designed for small cars. Full sized transport semis use these roads with a clearance of inches on each side of their lane. .The roads twist and wind like mountain roads do. There are very few straight stretches of road as you may see in the US. There are no bike lanes,few passing lanes, and no emergency lanes,you are in the path with traffic. Kiwis know their roads and consistently drive fast, 100-120kmph. The problem you are going to have over and over is cycling thru all this beauty in the same lane as cars and trucks...they barrel around a blind curve at 65mph only to find you in front of their windshield going 15mph and no safety margin for anyone. On my recent trip there, I can't tell you how many times I saw this scenario played out and how many near misses I witnessed. Local drivers, particularly commercial tdrivers have real contempt for cyclists. Get the book and dream, but I think I'd look into renting a convertible and live to cycle another day.


Very good book, better country   July 16, 2001
C. Duque (San Francisco, CA USA)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

My wife and I went to New Zealand on Nov 2000 and used this book along with the regular LP New Zealand book. The description of the rides and maps are very accurate. We had purchased New Zealand by Bike by Bruce Ringer but decided to take this one instead. This one fits our needs better as we take 3 week touring vacations every year and there is just so much you can ride and see in that time. Buy and carry this book with you, it offers all you expect from a LP guide.

Now stop wasting your time reading this and go tour New Zealand.


Riding in Circles   October 15, 2000
29 out of 30 found this review helpful

As a big fan of cycle-touring and Lonely Planet guide books, I was quite excited to find the LP Cycling New Zealand book. I'm leaving on a 2 month cycle-tour throughout New Zealand soon, and figured this book would be all I'd need guidewise. Structured the same as regular LP guides, it gives all the basic info for New Zealand, including cycling specific info wherever it fits. The sections on taking your bike on trains and busses within New Zealand was especially helpful.

The routes however, were a bit disappointing. While each individual route is well laid out, almost none of the routes are connected. If your plan was to cycle the North Island from Auckland down to the Southern tip of the island, it would be impossible to follow the routes highlighted in the book. Also missing is an overview map showing all the routes. On the positive side, each route description is well done, including distance/navigation info, elevation profiles, accomodation, and sightseeing info.

If you are looking to do a series of shorter tours, I would recommend this book. If your goal is an extended tour covering long distances, Bruce Ringer's "New Zealand By Bike" book is a better choice.