Cycling around Motueka: Cycling through Moutere vineyards

February 2012
[by Ian Miller]

For a picturesque ride in the country, this route is one that offers a variety of alternative roads and destinations. What really is on offer here is several trips that can be mixed and matched. I have taken mercy on you and left out one particularly hard side trip that extends this easy ride into a tough one. For now you can relax.

This easy ride will take you around some very pretty country side in a circuit but, unless you are keen like me, you will need to take your bikes by car to the start. I have ridden from Motueka via various devious routes to the Moutere but at this stage of your cycling career a bike rack for the family car is a great investment.

Bike racks enable you to roam far and wide and pick out the very best cycling our country side has to offer. You can motor almost anywhere, spend an enjoyable few hours cycling and then head back home for a hot soak.

While I could easily guide you on a very scenic ride from Motueka to the start of this trip, I think I'll let you get another ride or two under your belt before we venture into my favourite, albeit slightly rougher territories. Some of my rides end up over 50 kilometers long so we'll save them for later. I have also left out some other side trip options to minimise main road riding, although some is necessary if you make one suggested side trip.

The Best Little Ride

What I call the 'base ride' for this area is a very easy 16km and to my mind one of the best little trips around. The start and finish is the car park at the Upper Moutere cemetery on Gardener Valley Road because the cemetery alone is worth a visit as it is very well maintained and attractively planted out. Have a wander round and you'll discover that cemeteries are interesting places with some headstones that reveal a lot about life many yesterdays ago.

From the cemetery car park, ride east along Gardiner Valley Road for a few kilometers until you get to Old Coach Road on your right. Turn into it and make your way well along the ridge until you get somewhere near the turn off into Carlyon Road on your right.

As you progress along Old Coach Road you could easily be tempted to call in at Woollaston Estate for a glass of wine or, if your willpower is sterner than mine, just cycle past and enjoy a leisurely ride and be content to feast your eyes on the views.

The reason I have brought you along here is simply to enjoy the scenery which consists of extensive views over to the mountains on one side, vineyards along the way, a panorama across the estuary to Nelson and views out across Tasman Bay to D'Urville Island with the Croisilles Harbour entrance in the hazy distance.

When I last rode along the ridge it was warm and cloudy. The distant hills were completely hidden in mist but the estuary was just visible and looked mysteriously murky.

Opposite Carlyon Road there are big views across the estuary and over a scorched earth-looking hillside, fortunately the aftermath of logging not war. The views are best here but little cameos do pop into view between trees from time to time as you ride along the ridge.

By now you will probably be thinking of a way back to the car and food. Luckily this is the turning point of this ride and to return to the car I suggest you double back to George Harvey Road rather than ride along Carlyon Road as it is gravel and corrugated which might put some of you off.

I enjoyed riding along here as it is mostly downhill and there was a mob of admiring cattle that crowded to the fence to watch me cycle by. The small corrugations in the road didn't bother me; but then my wife tells me that I'm not normal. So back to George Harvey and the sealed road it is.

Just follow your nose along George Harvey Road until it changes name to Best Road and keep going straight ahead until you get to Gardiner Valley Road again, turn left and it is not far back to the car. That completes a picturesque enjoyable easy peasy 16km or so.

A Side Trip To the Tavern

The Moutere Tavern is a pleasant place to visit for lunch so you might like to include it in your grand tour. On the way back from admiring the view opposite Carlyon Road, irrespective of whether or not you choose to ride back on Carlyon Road itself or backtrack to the sealed George Harvey Road, you will eventually come to the intersection that is vital to this plan.

At the spot where George Harvey Road changes name and becomes Best Road you will find yourself at a T-intersection. Here George Harvey Road actually turns 90º to the left. Instead of going straight ahead into Best Road and back to Gardener Valley Road, turn and follow George Harvey Road. It is gravel for a way along here but the sharp little descent to the Moutere valley is sealed making it easy and safe to ride down.

You will join the Moutere Highway just along from the Moutere recreation complex so turn left and head towards the tavern which is not that far away. Turn left again, this time into the tavern's driveway at the bottom of the hill before you get to the village of Sarau. You might struggle briefly up the steepish rough drive as you approach the tavern's welcoming deck and umbrellas but it is worth the effort.

After lunch ride back along the Moutere Highway to the start of Gardener Valley Road and power up the short steep little hill to the Upper Moutere Cemetery which is right at the top of the rise. Load your bikes up, collapse into a comfortable car seat and take your weary body home.

The map of the route includes the side trip to the tavern. I have not marked the route back along the Moutere Highway from the tavern to the Upper Moutere Cemetery - I think you'll be able to figure that out for yourself.

Girls climbing on a shipwreck on Old Coach Road. I don't think they actually tipped it over.	Old Coach Road: even the weeds are beautiful
A pretty vineyard on Old Coach Road	My fan club followed me along the fence line

MORE CYCLING TRIPS: This is the sixth 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 »