Tasman View Road - A great cycle trip but not for the faint hearted
April 2012
[by Ian Miller]
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Tasman View Road's rough gravel surface, but watch out for some clay mud in places.
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Tasman View Road is a cycle ride that presents a mix of wonderful views and rough riding.
The road is rough gravel but quite manageable for those cyclists who ride a mountain bike. It is also quite feasible to do the ride on a comfort bike as long as you are prepared to tolerate constant bumps but the real problem comes after rain when clay sections of road will turn to thick yellow mud.
The puddles can be deep and the mud a complete barrier now that someone has had a digger up there to "improve" some sections of the road. As the Tasman District Council not longer maintains this road it will likely stay a mess in places until it is eventually developed as part of the Taste Tasman Cycle Trail.
Tasman View Road ride requires some effort as it does involve a short steep hill at the start, and as you can end up some distance from Motueka; a round trip incorporating it can be around 45 kilometers long. Depending on which of the many alternatives one decides to take it could be either longer or shorter, and of course it is easy to take bikes by vehicle to some closer starting point and just do part of this trip.
I'll suggest a route here that has no regard to the total distance and leave it to you to decide exactly where you might go.
Starting in Motueka by riding around the estuary, make your way to Lower Moutere and up School Road to Tasman View Road that runs south along the top of the ridge. Turn right towards Tasman where the first turn off, Community Road, is just a short distance along on the west side of the road. Past that you'll see a couple of new houses obviously built to enjoy the expansive view to the west and south.
The road has a relatively easy gravel surface at this point but is not maintained. As there is not a lot of traffic, it is mostly in reasonable order except near a stand of pines further along where the road is clay and deeply pot holed. Water lies here after rain so you may have to carefully negotiate your way around the edges of the muddy puddles.
There follows a stretch of rougher road but it is easy enough going, just constantly bumpy on its coarse gravel surface. However be prepared to encounter a rough stretch that has recently be dug over with a digger and the surface left as uneven and rutted yellow clay. It is fine but rough in dry weather but after rain it will be a muddy nightmare and best avoided.
There are a couple of steep little hills after that but most of you should make it up them without walking, although you might get a little pink in the face. The views out to sea and to the west are wonderful and away in the distance to the south you will see Mt Owen among the distant ranges. From here on the road is fine, just surfaced with coarse gravel but not that unpleasant to ride on.
After a few all-gravel kilometers you will come out past some more rural subdivisions onto Harley Road and there is good coffee at the Tasman Store if you turn towards the sea, or you might ride over to Kina for lunch on the beach.
If you cross over Harley Road and carry on eventually you get to a distinctive downhill and there at the bottom of the hill is an un-named turn off to the west that will take you out along the attractive Flaxmore Road onto the Moutere Highway.
If you go ahead and up the gentle rise just carry on. Eventually you will ride along the edge of a pine forest with trees between you and new Coastal Highway. After a while you come to a well-used forest road heading in that direction and if you ride along it you will come out on the new road.
Ride south along the Coastal Highway on the sealed verge until you arrive at the intersection, on the east side, that links with Seaton Valley Road and Old Coach Road where some decisions have to made.
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Looking west from Tasman View Road, the picturesque rural Moutere scenes expand outwards for miles.
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Choices One and Two: It's down hill to Mapua along Seaton Valley or you can turn back towards Motueka and follow Old Coach Road - its gravel of course - and ride along the ridge above the east side of the Coastal Highway back towards Tasman.
It's fun to ride along there and eventually you will go through a sheep pen on a farm and come out at Dicker Road behind the Tasman School. It is an easy ride back to Motueka by following the route of the original main road around the estuary shore loop roads, although some main road riding is unavoidable.
Choice Three: If you chose to go to the west at the start of Seaton Valley Road, there is a pedestrian tunnel under the Coastal Highway that will take you out onto either Gardener Valley Road or Old Coach Road.
From there the choices are several. If you go along Old Coach Road you can go right to the end, but I'd suggest turning into either of Nuttall Road, George Harvey Road, or School Road and heading back to Motueka via Gardener Valley Road.
Better still, carry on along Old Coach Road for a glass of wine at Woolaston Estate. You might also decide to end up at the Moutere Tavern or the township of Sarau (Upper Moutere) or just head back to Motueka.
If you are after a really big ride, on the way home turn west into Old House Road that runs off the Moutere Highway a few kilometers along the way. It's up a steep little hill and onto Central Road and head home that way. The road is all sealed and there is one big "undulation", but apart from that is a straightforward but enjoyable stretch of countryside to ride through.
Make Plan or Don't Make A Plan:
To make a trip out into this area you don't need too much of a plan, just the intention of going as far as you are comfortable with. Make it a day out pretending you are cycling among the rolling hills and vineyards of Europe. Many organized cycle tours will take you around 70 to 80 kilometres daily, or even more on some days, so I think you can manage 45 to 50 or so kilometers around the local area as long as you are not in a rush.
This is a good ride for its own sake or as a practice run for a cycle tour. If you are training for the Rainbow Rage you couldn't do better than race back and forth along Tasman View Road.
The hills behind Nelson and Richmond form a backdrop for new lifestyle block
subdivisions along Tasman View Road
MORE CYCLING TRIPS: This is the ninth 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 »
