MotuekaOnline logo

Cycling around Motueka: Local scenes you can cycle to

February 2012
[by Ian Miller]

The best scenery around Motueka is an easy ride away. Cycle just a short distance out of town and enjoy expansive coastal scenes, bush clad mountainsides, a river that surges from a hole in a hill and a broad view over a busy landscape.

This is a cycle trip of three halves because this ride has multiple destinations. Any one of them can be a trip in its own right or you can combine them into one longer ride - a longer ride but not a difficult ride. I suggest you ask a friend along with you because there is scenery and views to be shared while you open the flask and pour a coffee.

Once again this ride starts in Motueka and again I suggest an easy warm up by heading north via the track behind the golf course. It seems I can never get enough of sea views but you might not be so seriously afflicted.

Head north along the cycle track and across our equivalent of the Nippon Clip-On over the Motueka River to Lodder Lane and the first stop at the end of Green Tree Road. I've brought you here to admire the estuary view which is one of those incredibly picturesque, always changing seascapes that I enjoy.

There's no time for coffee here as we're on a mission so jump on the saddle again and pedal along School Road and get onto the main road north. There is not far to go on the main road as you will take the first turn left after the small bridge and go into Factory Road, turning right when you get to Swamp Road. Don't we have such terribly prosaic street names in rural New Zealand? I wonder how many Swamp and Factory Roads there are.

Keep going north and take care riding out into the intersection onto Main Road Riwaka. Another mundane road name! Turn right into the logically named Riwaka-Kaiteriteri Road and ride east along it until just before the corner goes around the cutting to the left.

Turn into the small reserve here, cycle across it and over the footbridge. Watch out for the sharp edge of the bridge's timber deck - the edge of the plank is above the track level and if you hit that at speed you will probably puncture your front tyre with what is known as a "snake bite puncture". This occurs when tyre and tube are flattened and squashed suddenly against both edges of the wheel rim by a sudden impact. If you're lucky this will result in two small side by side holes in the tube. Like a snake bite! Fun to fix.

The First Half

The old road to Kaiteriteri once went up and around here so ride up the sharp little rise until you get to the monument at the top of the hill. This is great place to sit for coffee as the view that sweeps out around over the sand flats, the bay with its distant hills, Port Riwaka and the Tapu Bay headland is just plain beautiful.


The peleton stops for a break at the monument

If you still have a little go left in you I suggest you ride downhill north along the old road, taking care not to hit the chain across it about 100 metres downhill from the monument. A friend of mine managed to hit the chain riding up the hill and went straight over her handle bars. Apart from being embarrassed for not having seen the chain she got away without serious damage to her bike or herself.

The tourist traffic along the road to Kaiteriteri can be daunting at the peak summer holiday time so turn back when you get to the road and ride back to the main road and head towards Takaka.

It is not a problem cycling here so carry on up the very gentle beginnings of Takaka Hill, past the old hotel on your right and turn left into the road to the "Source of the Riwaka" - Riwaka Valley Road.

The Second Half

This is a pretty road and the emergence of the Riwaka River from its cave is worth the short walk to see. The picnic table here in the reserve may not be useable because an opportunist swallow built her nest right above under the small roof over it. Her enthusiasm for housekeeping has resulted in the table getting smattering of bird poo and other nest detritus scattered over it. Better I guess to sit on the grass unless the Council have cleaned the table as I think the bird will have raised her brood and departed by now.

If you head back home now by way of Swamp Road and Factory Road you will have done just over 40km. If the coffee you had in the flask was the real stuff and the caffeine has kicked in nicely then carry on straight along Swamp Road to Anderson Road and along to and into Old Mill Road on the right.

From there it's straight ahead into the Brooklyn Valley Road a short way. On your right you will soon come to the foothill that bulges out across the edge of the plains and just around the first curve in the road is a Reserve.

The Third Half

Park you bike here and walk up the track to the hill-top lookout for a grand view out over the fertile crowded alluvial plain patch-worked with the fruits of our local horticulturists labour.


View from the Brooklyn Valley lookout

I look out from here impressed with productivity of it all and wonder why rumour has it that it is almost impossible to make decent profits from horticulture when the climate and soils are so productive - the produce is so good people should be clamouring to buy it.

After you've had your fill of the view it's an easy dawdle back along Umukuri Road to the cycle track home and the real world. Your mini cycling holiday is over for now.

MORE CYCLING TRIPS:  This is the fifth of a series of articles written by Ian Miller about various suggested cycle routes in and around Motueka for recreational cyclists. Read his other articles here »