Words Dave Beeche
Images Cameron Mackenzie

It’s deep winter: rainy, cold, work is OTT and gravel bike trip dreams are the beacon to keep me moving forward. Thus was born “Door 2 Door” – a 2000+km bikepacking adventure from our home in Auckland to our crib in Arrowtown. We were moving south in a few months anyway and it seemed like a great way to shed the big smoke, see more of our beautiful country, and transition gradually into regional New Zealand.

The brief to myself was to explore as many remote back country gravel roads as possible, avoid main roads at all costs, keep it ‘light and fast’ but not crazy distances, no tents or sleeping bags and a hot shower every night. Throw in a few bucket list routes I had been wanting to ride, like the Molesworth, Bridge to Nowhere and Dansey’s Pass, add dozens of hours poring over online topo maps, and the route was set.

The Preparation:

For me, half the fun of these adventures is in the planning. Having only done a couple of 3 – 4-day gravel adventures in the past, I jumped in boots ‘n all. Researching gear, bags and tyres is great fun – and a temporal black hole. I quickly learned that there is no perfect set up, always some kind of compromise. I had a couple of test rides with the loaded bike, made some tweaks, then I was ready to roll. I managed to convince one mate to join for the first two days, and another couple of clowns to join for most of the South Island. A mix of solo contemplation and some serious banter seemed like the ideal recipe.

A big part of me wanted to ‘wing it’ with accommodation and stop-overs, allowing time for shortening things on wet days, taking a side trip, spotting a nice B&B and rolling in for the night, or letting a lunchtime conversation drag into late afternoon beers. But the downside of this approach was not wanting to spend hours (when tired) looking for somewhere to stay and risking not finding anything at all, especially with how busy everything is these days. I also enjoy the forced challenge of getting out the door no matter the weather and achieving a reasonable distance for the day, which meant I eventually decided to pre-book everything.

I had no idea if I could even ride over 2000km in 14 days, whether I would get smashed by the fickle November weather, or how I would deal with any mechanical issues (not my strength). But, as they say, you never know unless you go!

The Ride:
NORTH

Clipping in on a crisp Saturday morning and rolling through the quiet Auckland streets, I was feeling daunted by the task ahead. I hooked up with Steve after an hour and it was great to have some company to settle day one nerves and get into the rhythm of the trip. We headed down the West Coast, through Tuakau, and within an hour of Auckland CBD we were on quiet gravel roads enjoying the spring sun on our left shoulders, and a gentle tail wind. One of the things I love about gravel riding is how relaxing it is. The non-existent traffic and ability to ride two-up most of the time, means you can natter away, enjoy the scenery, and just contemplate life. For me, it’s a form of meditation that enables me to switch off the brain and allow the tap, tap, tap of the pedal strokes to work like a metronome on the mind. The physical work is taxing, but also energising.

Our first destination was Raglan and, after 150km and a short, wild and windy ferry trip across Raglan Harbour, we rolled into town and established what was to become my daily routine: eat, wash clothes and bike, shower, eat again (with beer), talk s*^&, and sleep. Day two dawned and after an outstanding ride from Raglan around Mt Karioi, I farewelled Steve and headed off on my own.

The route for the next few days followed a mid-west path through Waitomo, Piopio (the Fat Pigeon café has outstanding food, and I stuffed as many glorious bakery items as I could in my jersey), Ohura, Tauramanui, and onto the Bridge to Nowhere. Some days, I didn’t see a car for hours, only wild pigs, deer and lots of goats. Already the senses were getting attuned to outdoor life – often you can smell the pungent muskiness of the wild goats long before you see them. If you want a remote ride down a stunning valley then over an enormous climb, head down Hauturu Road!

You eat a lot when tapping away in the saddle for hours on end, and food planning rapidly became my key focus. Days without a suitable café or shop stop meant taking some lunch from the previous night’s stop-over town. My favourite quickly became bread rolls stuffed full of Fix n Fog Everything Butter and avocado – YUM! I am usually a plant-based eater but, outside the main centres, it is literally impossible to remain dairy-free unless you want to take tons of food with you. New Zealand consumes a lot of dairy products, and I ended up having to go with the flow on this trip.

Riding solo for a few days opened up a world of new conversations, and random strangers were always asking what I was doing and where I was going. Some good banter with two wonderful ladies smoking ciggies outside a café ended up with them splitting their sides laughing at how far I was planning to ride. I discovered a Mexican food caravan in the tiny ‘boarded up’ town of Ohura, when eight bike packers in the middle of an 800k event pulled up and we shared some great stories. It’s always the people that make the most memorable moments on an adventure.

The much-anticipated Bridge to Nowhere ride 100% delivered on the hype. While the ride itself is mostly singletrack, cross-country bliss, it’s the incredible pioneering history of the area that really appealed to me. Post WW1, the returning servicemen were basically given some land in the Mangapurua and Kaiwhakauka valleys, which are super remote, and told to ‘fill ya boots’. They had to clear the land of thick bush, build a home, start farming, grow some food and hopefully not starve or freeze in the process. When you see how they lived – and suffered – it puts the ‘hardships’ of these wee bikepacking adventures into context. I was lucky to get a good weather window to ride the trail; this is not a trip I would want to tackle on a gravel bike in the wet. An exhilarating jet boat ride down the Whanganui River to Pipiriki capped off a great day.

The lower North Island delivered some outstanding gravel riding and scenery. It was a succession of days with fast and dry roads, with the weather continuing to hold until the final day into Wellington. The Station Hotel in Hunterville was a great stop- over – beautifully refurbished, good food and a great host. On departure morning, however, I found my bike locked in the shed and ended up wandering around the hotel at 5am whisper- shouting “Bryan? Wake up – my bike is locked up!”. Unable to rouse Bryan (the publican) wherever he was sleeping, a sturdy pull on the shed door freed my trusty steed – minimal damage to the lock I promise. After realising my bike shorts were on inside out, the somewhat inauspicious start to the day was put behind me and I enjoyed yet another stunning sunrise on another quiet gravel road.

Later that day, I was nattering to a European bikepacker outside the supermarket in Pahiatua, about tyre width. I had umm’d and ahh’d about 42mm vs 45mm widths and here he was on his steel 1990’s frame with 30mm tyres having a great old ride – good lesson there. Next minute, an older gentleman pulls up on his 1980 V-shaped frame MTB. After wanting to know why I needed so many gears, what all the bags were for, and why my bike was so shiny, he proceeded to tell me that he was 85 years old, rode 10 miles into town and back every day, and that all his mates were dead because they stopped moving. Never a truer word spoken.

A typically wet and windy day riding into Wellington finished off the North Island, the last highlight being a fantastic ride over the Remutaka Cycle Trail. The bike was dropped off to iRide in Wellington for a pit stop and service, and a rest day was well due.

Reflecting on the first part of the trip, I realised a lot of life is about expectation management. The days I’d expected to be hard, were often not so bad. The easy ones on paper often had a sting in the tail somewhere – a head wind, some gravel that was heavy going, or I was just feeling tired. I quickly learned to not set any expectations about the day ahead and just roll with the punches.

SOUTH

Willy and Youngy joined for the South Island chapter of Door 2 Door. I had really enjoyed the solo stint, but it was time for some banter. After a Cook Strait ferry crossing that ran to time (wow!) and a warm-up ride from Picton to Blenheim, via the Port Underwood Road, we were ready to tackle the Queen Stage of the trip. Two hundred kilometres unsupported through the Molesworth Station.

Wrapped up in our winter gear for the three degree pre-dawn start, the day slowly yawned and stretched to reveal stunning vineyards littering the countryside through the Awatere Valley. As we gradually climbed, the landscape changed – first to lush farmland and, ultimately, to the classic South Island high country tussock. Worries about finding chunky unrideable gravel faded as we wound our way through the dramatic landscape on a fast, hard packed surface.

Our lunch stop was a DOC campsite, complete with a friendly ranger and clean water source. The station shepherd was shifting 50 teenage bulls, all weighing hundreds of kilograms, and thought it would be a good idea to temporarily park them in the DOC campsite. We quickly took shelter in the ranger’s hut and watched in awe as these massive beasts went head-to-head for an hour of raucous bellows, ground pawing, snorting and, eventually, full-on charging each other. It was a scene from Jurassic Park, and we certainly got an insight into the source of human teenage boy behaviour. As we cruised the final descent into Hanmer, the 10.5-hour day in the saddle proved worth it, having been treated to a real taste of the South Island high country.

The following day – on paper – looked OK and the planned route had us exploring the remote Lees Valley. However, a mapping error on my part meant we hit a ‘private property – no entry’ sign. Rather than give up and face a long tarmac slog on the main road, we ventured 1km up the road looking for a farmhouse where we could beg for access. After trying three different houses – all empty but wide open with half- finished cups of tea outside – we eventually found a phone number for the station owner in a random site office. We called them (they were away) but in true Kiwi fashion, they guided us over the phone into their homestead and told us to use the radio on the kitchen bench to advise ‘the boys’ out working on the station that we were coming through. We were back on and good to go! Don’t you just love that about NZ?

The nerves began about what kind of route we would find through a private farm, and the first 3kms of thick, lumpy, very slow surface caused a vigorous discussion on the wisdom of proceeding. On this surface we could quite easily be facing another eight hours riding on top of the four already done. But we had emergency bivvy bags, enough survival rations, and a PLB, so if we got caught out… how bad could it be?! As it turned out, fortune favours the brave, and the track surface improved; we were treated to more stunning vistas, tranquil valleys, epic climbs and river crossings, in a part of the country few get to venture.

The next two days we continued to hug the eastern side of the Alps, exploring every nook we could find, sampling some great cafés in Stavely and Woodbury en route. We crested Mackenzie Pass and entered the famous Mackenzie Country with its big sky landscapes, eventually rolling into Kurow via the Hakataramea Pass. Kurow is another small town that has reinvented itself and is absolutely thriving from the many great rides now established around NZ – it was jam packed full of Alps to Ocean riders.

The penultimate day of Door 2 Door was perhaps the highlight of the trip. It was a game of two halves. The first half had freezing temperatures, a biting southerly on the nose, hail showers, a monstrous 1000-metre vertical climb, and crater-like corrugated gravel. But the challenge was worth it as Dansey’s Pass is incredible, with its rich textures, winding fast descent and vast emptiness. An hour was spent daydreaming about a feed at the famous Dansey’s Pass Hotel but, finding it closed, I took a deep breath, put a smile on the dial, and pushed on to Naseby. This little town was a highlight with great food, friendly locals and a community truly embracing its gold mining heritage with freshly painted quaint stores. The second half of the day kicked off around 2pm with 80km still to roll and, luckily, I finally found my legs (which had been MIA the last couple of days). The sun came out and I had an absolute ripper around the Otago Rail Trail to finish up for the night in Alexandra. Two firsts topped off a great day: the first magpie strike and the first swallowed bug!

The final day dawned clear again – only one rain day and two days of showers over the entire 14 days – and I headed into one of the more recent Great Rides: the Dunstan Trail. It winds alongside this man- made lake and the engineering features around the bluffs make it a truly unique and achievable ride for most people. Some of the ‘noise’ around eBike riders taking it too fast and causing potential collisions on the narrow sections I didn’t personally observe, and most riders were courteous and well-paced.

The wrap:

As I rolled into Arrowtown, Door2Door came to a close and I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude to live in such a beautiful and safe country. I was physically spent, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually the tank was overflowing. I’d enjoyed great weather, some fantastic solo time, epic laughs and banter with good mates, had no mechanical problems and met some great people along the way. The following morning, I went out to the garage to start the bike clean up and found two flat tyres… the Gravel Gods were certainly shining on this adventure.

Total kilometres 2,104km over 14 ride days
Total climbing 27,515m
Shortest day 68km Longest day 203km
Biggest climbing day 3,404m through Molesworth
Rain days 1 Shower days 2 Dry/sunny days 11
Mechanicals/Punctures 0
Crashes/Spills 0