The Tour Aotearoa is a 3000km bike packing journey from Cape Reinga to Bluff. It uses cycle trails, tracks and back country roads to make its way down the length of New Zealand. You can ride the route any time of the year, but every two years since 2016, the Tour Aotearoa has also been run as a brevet. The event is organised by the legendary Kennett brothers who have ridden, mapped out and refined the entire course over a number of years. The route follows as many NZ cycle trails and rural backroads as possible, only using highways where absolutely necessary.
A brevet is an organised cycling event where riders are entirely self sufficient, must follow the specific route, carry a GPS tracker, have to finish in a certain time. For Tour Aotearoa, finish time needs to be between 10 and 30 days, and participants are only permitted to ride a certain number of hours per day (I think it’s 16, or maybe it’s 18… to be honest, that’s one rule we’re not really in danger of breaking so we probably don’t need to figure out which it is).
In 2020, there will be over 1000 riders who will start daily in groups of 100 or so from the Cape Reinga lighthouse.
We’re starting on 17 Feb, which is Day 1 of the event. You can follow our progress on here and Instagram. Woo!
