Back in early September we set our sites on riding a variation of the amazing Kahurangi 500 bikepacking route with a friend to look at possibilities of offering transport packages and support packages for this route, allowing larger groups and individuals the ability to resupply and also swap bikes at specific locations. You can see the details of the Monthy special on offer for this here
Usually the Kahurangi 500 has been loosely defined as a loop around Kahurangi National Park via as many backroads as possible as well as the Old Ghost road and Heaphy tracks. It’s also usually the haunt of those who are ultra fit and complete the loop in roughly 3-5 days.
A lot of people don’t realise this , but the lonely planet named the Kahurangi 500 in their book “The Bikepackers’ Guide to the World” as one of the top bikepacking routes in the world. It’s got some awesome scenery and terrain that deserves a closer and more leisurely look…. so we decided to aim for completing the journey in 10 days to really soak it in. We also opted to modify the route to make it 670 km by starting and ending in Nelson and also adding many more backcountry roads and wilderness single track.
The general plan was to have our mountain bikes and extra supplies on board the Scottish Express Landcruiser so we could swap out our lighter weight gravel bikes on both the Ghost Road and Heaphy tracks, as to be honest… who wants to slog a full suspension bike down a gravel road and who wants to pound their body on a gravel bike on the Ghost road and Heaphy tracks? Also the resupply service allowed us to have less gear on board so we could comfortably tackle some of the extra backcountry roads more easily.
As an aid towards proof of concept, we had a couple of Scottish Express customers join in on the Kahurangi 500, using the bike swap and resupply service
Day One -Nelson to Tadmor/Glenhope dry road -approx 110km
I’d been looking at this route for a long time, and yes, while it would have been easier to take the normal K500 route, we thought it was in the spirit of the Kahurangi 500 to add in a few more roads through the back blocks. We had a guest rider join us for the day from Nelson and we set off at a brisk pace to get to the Wakefield bakery via the great taste trail, from there we gained a Forestry company’s permission to bike through some of the awesome back roads that wind themselves into and through the Spooners range. This was a first for us going through this way, and the roads were very well graded and easy going on the bike.
See the fly over on you tube here
We cruised down to the Kohatu flat rock cafe and were joined by a couple of friends, one of which was hosting us that night in his forest hut on the Glenhope/Tadmor road.
The route through to to Glenhope, we’ve explored quite a lot in the past, there’s a myriad of publicly accessible logging roads that you can use as alternate routes to get to the Tadmor saddle from just west of the town of Tadmor itself, specifically the Sherry river and Mcintyre roads.
Check out the fly over on you tube here.
The weather turned pretty wet in the afternoon as we slipped and slided down the mossy forestry roads and then up and over the Tadmor saddle to a friendly welcome at our lodging for the night.
Day two – Glenhope to Murchison- approx 57km
After a late start and a breakfast feast cooked on the custom made outdoor grill, we headed off well fuelled down the last section of the gravel road before we hit state highway 6, from here we turned off towards Howard to ride to Lake Rotoroa through the old historic goldfields of the Porika track. The Porika track’s climb reward you with crown fern canopy in the forest and the descent has great views over Lake Rotoroa, … of course have to pay for this with your legs, luckily a little bit of training paid off and I managed to muscle the hill with a 30 by 36 tooth setup, albeit with a few breaks and quite a lot of puffing!!
The Lake was ultra full from the days befores deluge. We paused for a a leisurely coffee break here, until the sandflies got the better of us.
Next was up and over the very beautiful Braeburn track and through is swollen fords in the lower valley to wind our way through the back roads to Murchison to cook our host for the night dinner at Off the Beaten trail Murchison
Day Three – Muchison to Lyell Saddle – Approx 38km
Day Three was a pretty cruisy day, we timed this part of the ride to fall on a Sunday so we didn’t have to deal with too much traffic on the main road. Our aim was to meet the Scottish Express Landcruiser at the start of the Old Ghost road in Lyell at 11am. So we enjoyed a leisurely ride with lots of coffee breaks and scenic stops through the misty morning conditions of the upper Buller Gorge
The Scottish Express Landcruiser was met at Lyell campsite and we joined the other Scottish Express customers unloading and swapping gravel bikes to Mountain Bikes for the Ghost road portion of the K500. Here we were joined by another friend and enjoyed the leisurely afternoon ride up to Lyell saddle hut with enough time to enjoy the last of the light settling in the folds of the valleys
Day four- Lyell saddle to Specimen Point- approx 55km
We awoke to increasing winds battering the hut and forest.
We knew that there was some bad weather on the way, so we got up early to push on through the alpine section ahead of the approaching storm.
We arrived at Ghost Lake hut just as the storm unleashed, entering the hut we found the other K500 riders waiting for the band of bad weather to pass. We joined them for a chat and an early lunch while the gale force winds and rain battered the hut. An hour late it had past and we wound our way down towards Stern Creek. Unfortunately one of the mountain bikes rear shocks chose to fail, luckily as we were all using Aeroe racks we managed to transfer all the luggage on the other two bikes and limp our way through the boneyard and on to specimen point in damp conditions. The fire was stoked and damp gear hung up to dry for the night.
Day five- Specimen Point to Karamea- approx 74km
We donned our now dry clothing and set off down the Mohikinui Gorge in improving weather to meet the Scottish Express vehicle at the bike swap point.
As we were meeting back again in Karamea , this meant that we could take relatively unencumbered bikes for the trip up and over the Karamea bluff road. This road section is really underrated. It’s a great road through the New Zealand wilderness with very little traffic. We arrived in Karamea early for dinner out an to do some organisation for the next leg through the Heaphy track
Day Six – Karamea to Heaphy hut – approx 33km
The start of the Heaphy from Karamea is a relatively easy 13 km along the last of state highway 67, before you meet the Heaphy track and it’s Nikau studded coast.
As we were one bike down in the group, we opted to take one of the gravel riding rigs through the smoother Heaphy track. The relatively short day got us in early to Heaphy hut so we could enjoy the sun going down over the west coast.
Day Seven- Heaphy Hut to Gouland downs hut- approx 40km
From the Heaphy hut the track follows the path of the Heaphy river among giant Rata forest before crossing the rivers by swing bridges and steadily climbing up to Mackay Downs.From here the track winds gracefully in and out the tussock lands of the downs before descending to Saxon hut. We had planned to stay at Saxon hut, but our legs were still fresh and we decided to push on to the historic Gouland downs hut so that we could explore the amazing canyons and caves close to the hut
Day Eight – Gouland downs hut to Collingwood -approx 55k
From the Gouland downs hut it was a quick ride up to Perry saddle hut, we sheltered here from a band of bad weather pushing through.
We then set off on the downhill and it was about then that I wished I was riding my full suspension bike as we made a fast rocky descent down to brown hut to meet with vehicle. We rode down the Aorere valley with our guest rider, Scottish Express senior, who had arrived with the Express.
With a Gale force tail wind allowing us to set a record time out of the Aorere valley. Our hosts had a hot spa and hot dinner waiting for us which would serve us well on the next leg of our trip.
Day Nine – Collingwood to Grecian stream – approx 60km
We were up early in the morning as we knew some of the day’s terrain would be more technically challenging. Most people finish the K500 my going over the Rameka track, but in our eyes you lost the chance to have one last taste of Kahurangi National park by missing out riding the Old Takaka rd or Barrons flat track that climbs its way up jungle single track to the Flora carpark.
We flew into Takaka stopping briefly for a quick coffee and to resupply food for the last night’s dinner. We then chose to avoid the main highway and take some of the gravel back roads through East Takaka to arrive at the climb up to Barrons flat. We picked up our camping gear which had been cunningly stashed at the track start by the Scottish express driver.
It’s a relatively big haul with camping gear up onto Barrons Flat, but really worth it to be able to spend our last night on the road in the midst of Kahurangi National park with a dinner cooked over an open campfire before we dossed down in the fly camp.
Day 10 – Grecian stream to Nelson- approx 110km
It had rained reasonably heavily overnight which made for slick conditions on the single track of Barron’s flat. With the extra burden of the Heaphy track on my Gravel bike, the light race wheel bearings started to make some horrendous noises, so I decided to walk my bike and save the last spins of the bearing to get me out to Flora saddle where I knew I could get reception. We called upon the Scottish Express driver to meet us with a replacement bike at the bottom of the Graham valley road. We then whipped the chain off the bike to stop it getting tangled because of the deteriorating freewheel and enjoyed a brake burning ride into the lower Graham valley.
As we were on the last day we decided to veer away from a direct route and followed a bike path as far as Mapua before we headed inland over the Moutere hills to descend to the coastal bike path again. As it was a monday night, most pubs were shut so we enjoyed a beer in the last of the evening overlooking Tasman bay and the Kahurangi range from Rocks road
That’s about it on the trip report, we learnt a lot along the way and would possibly modify a few parts of the trip, most of it however was very well paced, allowing easy days in the most spectacular terrain. The Scottish Express hire bikes and bike packing equipment that were used for the trip were thoroughly tried and tested and now have been upgraded to suit the rigours of the Kahurangi 500.
Keep your eyes out for some great ways we’ll offer to to knock of the Kahurangi 500 during the next Heaphy biking season
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