The Kennett Brothers have a route called the Heart of the Octopus, which is a loop from one side of the island to the other, suggested to be ridden over 4-6 days (~450km, 6,000vm). I used this as my starting point but wanted to develop a series of single-day routes. Having ridden sections, I’m not convinced I’d do this route knowing how good other sections are.

Of the seven routes I rode, I'd avoid very few sections. The route out of Kerikeri is the least interesting and was cut short by weather. These are also the busiest road sections. To some extent, you could mix and match the rest to create larger loops. Be aware that on some of the loops there isn’t somewhere to fill up water bottles without you knocking on someone’s door. Most of the loops can be shortened, that’s up to you to work out.

People love to hear about the best section, which I eschew and generally hate. In this case, two sections are incredible and worth seeing. The first is the 17km gravel road from Opua to Kawakawa (a bypass pass for the train). The second is the Twin Coast Cycle Trail from Utakura to Okaihau. The Twin Coast Cycle Trail grew on me more as I rode most of it, but there are long sections next to a road that suck. Ride the road and only join back up when it’s separated. The Twin Coast Cycle Trail also insists you dismount to get through gated sections, and these can be quite frequent, which is tiresome when you want to ride.

Across the 730km of riding, you’ll be on State Highway 1 for a kilometre or two. The only section I would change is turning left off Apotu Road. I chose to turn right because it’s shorter, but this takes you over a bridge with no shoulder. I would not ride this again.

On more than one occasion, I ended up in a forestry area where they were working. Once we had to pass them loading the trucks, and they were good enough to let us through. On the second occasion, a truck driver suggested I not go in, but then I never rode past where they were logging. He was convinced I couldn’t get through. I did. The names of the roads in Ride with GPS have no bearing on the names of the roads in the forest. I would probably skip the section where we turned off Giles Road if I was doing this again.

2026-08-27 1430hrs After the turn off Horeke Road you’re on the best part of the Twin Coast Cycle Trail. This is about a kilometre past the turn off. Don’t expect too much at Okaihau. I describe this as a town that needs someone to love it. Apparently it’s much better now than it was before the Twin Coast Cycle Trail.

For the first three days, the weather was exceptional: cold mornings, hot afternoons, hardly a breeze. I was riding in a t-shirt. The fourth day was a belting storm that hung around most of the day. I then had a few days off, and when I came back, the weather was more overcast, with periods of rain, then sun, then rain, then sun, then rain. The first four days I rode with someone I met on Facebook (Bill), our distance and average speed were lower than the last three days when I rode alone. was riding a Cannondale Topstone Carbon (2020) with 43/30 and 10/36 on 650b wheels with a Racing Ralph 2.2 in the front and RaceKing 2.0 in the rear. I carried four litres of fluid and drank most of this, most days. Could I ride <insert your bike>? Yes. Do I care? No.

I prefer the forestry roads, as these were much more hardpacked and generally in better condition, but they had short sections that were rough and pot-holed. For reasons I still don’t understand, farm roads in New Zealand have an excessive amount of gravel. I’ve now found this in multiple locations and can only assume someone somewhere is getting a serious kickback to supply gravel that isn't needed. This means the riding is sometimes slow going, and on occasion corners are diabolical. I never thought, wow, I wish I had narrower tyres. Don’t let me stop you riding 40mm tyres and hating life.

We saw a one-legged seagull on two different days, and one of the few unanswered questions I have is whether it is the same bird.

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The loops are simply in the order I rode them, there's no logical order. You could start and finish where suits you. Not that I would change the start/finish location (as I needed to somewhere to park the campervan).

I try to provide some key details (that I think are important) and provide options suggestions to either solve a problem I had, make an improvement, or offer an alternative.