Explore: Hurunui Heartland Cycle Ride

While many RV travellers love to explore New Zealand by road, there’s a steady growth around saddling up and taking advantage of the growing array of beautifully maintained cycle trails threading their way through Aotearoa. Eleanor Hughes shares her adventures of the Hurunui Heartland Cycle Ride, a stunning route that meanders through mountain ranges, tussock, farmland, and vineyards.

The 260km Hurunui Trail heads inland (southwards) from Kaikōura to Christchurch. Classed as a Heartland Ride, it can be ridden in either direction and is rated Intermediate (level 3).
Kaikōura’s Alpine Pacific Motels & Holiday Park proved a perfect spot from which to start. Panniers loaded with breakfasts, lunches, and adequate clothing for five days, we set off along flat, straight roads through rural landscapes, with the Seaward Kaikōura Range looming ahead.

Cycling past Kaikōura Farm Park where accommodation options include a house truck and railway carriage, we soak in the sights of rusty roofed sheds standing in overgrown paddocks, while gardens bloom around farmhouses. A sign points to the Kaikōura Trail, a 42km loop track graded 2/3, along Kaikōura Plains’ fringe with Pacific Ocean glimpses.

Crossing Kowhai River brings me to a sudden halt, my feet plunge into ankle-deep water. At a yellow sign ‘Arboretum – A botanical garden devoted to trees’, the owner walks us around his lifestyle block. It’ll be stunning once the native trees, planted to attract birdlife, are mature.

We pass Muzzle Downs, where woolly sheep graze in flat paddocks and ranges rise beyond. Secluded behind mature trees, Lynton Downs’ late 1800s white, wooden, two-storey homestead offers farm stay accommodation.

Grateful for Mother Nature’s offerings, we feast on sweet, yellow, roadside plums and fill two small bags for later.

Then come the hills. Although the first leg of our trip required mainly quiet backcountry road cycling, it’s fair to say that the first day’s 61km from sea level to Mount Lyford is challenging. Bees buzz, cicadas chirp, and birds twit as I ride teeth gritted, sweat trickling, up never-ending, winding ascents overlooking green hills and distant ranges. Bridges cross dry riverbeds, creeks, and streams.

‘Welcome to The Hurunui’ announces a sign where a gentle, straight stretch dips and rises multiple times, a respite from ascents made tougher by a late afternoon headwind, some of which necessitates hopping off and pushing our bikes up.

Following a rocky, winding river for about one kilometre finally leads us to Mt Lyford Lodge, 10 hours after setting out. The manager kindly cooked us meals in the closed restaurant despite there being a communal kitchen, for which we were eternally grateful, as we just weren’t up to it ourselves.

Day two: MT Lyford to Culverden – 42km

In the drizzle, we descend the next morning, soon passing Terako Downs. Skis crisscross its gate leading to an empty paddock – a campervan site. Then hairpin bends twist down – green and brown paddocks stretch for miles hemmed by low hills beyond. Buildings here are rare, so the L-shaped, dark-brown Highfield Woolshed stands out. Built in 1877, it’s one of the South Island’s oldest and largest woolsheds still being used.

Ninety minutes and 22km on, we reach quaint, wooden cottages lining the road into Waiau, one of North Canterbury’s oldest townships. The town’s Village Green is home to the 1866 Waiau Lock Up (jail), an 1888 Presbyterian Church, and an 1860s Cob Cottage where a family of 13 once lived, but is now a museum. The tavern displays information and images of the 2016 7.8 magnitude Waiau Earthquake, which destroyed many homes and roads. There’s also a river walkway, a memorial walkway for views, and a historic trail.

Riding across the 560-metre Waiau Bridge crossing Waiau River, we note that its waters claimed many lives before the first bridge was built in 1883. It takes only 45 minutes to ride a flat nine-kilometre to Rotherham through a dry, rural landscape with wonky, rusting, corrugated iron sheds and sheep.

I cycle past a cute, white, wooden church and the small, wooden Rotherham Store established in 1878, the South Island’s oldest, continually operating store. Rotherham Hotel, where rooms are decorated with period furniture, seems to be the hub of the quiet community here, with vegetables for sale out front, and antiques at the rear in what were once stables. Cabins, powered sites, and a camping area are next door.

Sun spotlights hills, while dark ominous clouds covers others on the 11km to Culverden. At the junction with SH7, a red post marks a survey reference point where Culverden was to be located. Raincoats back on, we ride the highway, my bike wobbling as trucks hurtle past. The temperature plummeted to 13°C by the time we reached Culverden Hotel, our accommodation on the main road.

Adding up road sign distances, we work out that we’d only ridden 42km. The trail guide stated 53km. I discovered we should’ve ridden rural Iverachs Road from Waiau to Culverden avoiding SH70 and 7.

The large, early 1900s Amuri Mounted Rifles’ Drill Hall is now occupied by Three Bored Housewives Crafts, which we perused before warming hot chocolates in Red Post Café, an old cottage. Rutherford Reserve has storyboards on Culverden’s beginnings sharing details and dates.

Day 3: Culverden to Waikari and a side trip – 56km

Clad in thermals and raincoats, we set out at 10am riding south on sealed back roads, vehicles few and far between.

We ride straight roads lined with pine hedges, pass Balmoral Homestead, and join SH7 to ride over the one-lane bridge crossing Waitohi River. Around the bend, the two-storeyed, limestone-brick Hurunui Hotel was sadly closed. Operating for 150 years, historical photos line its walls, and we eat lunch in its camping area.

Around three kilometres on, we turn up Medbury Road and stop at Hurunui Racecourse. First raced on in 1874, a race and gala day are held every two years.

We continue onwards and at a T-intersection, a sign ‘Flaxmere Garden 3km’ prompts a right instead of a left turn. It was more like five kilometres. Stags with antlers just beginning to grow stare as we cycle by.

Sheep graze dead daffodils along Flaxmere’s driveway. The garden, developed over 50 years, is a Garden of International Significance, with a six-star rating from the New Zealand Garden Trust. The 1890s homestead looks out to hills over lush, expansive lawn, and enormous mature trees with vibrant white and red hydrangea growing below. It’s an extreme contrast to the dry landscape we’ve just ridden.

The naturalistic garden was my favourite, with wildflowers growing randomly and huge red rosehips the size of crab apples. Narrow paths twist around lily-filled ponds, over bridges, and between manicured shrubs and we could have whiled away the day here. However, an hour later we ride fast to Hawarden to beat the 4 Square’s 5:30pm closing. We should have pedalled faster as we arrived 10 minutes too late and already Hawarden appears asleep.

Lining one side of Hawarden Waikari Road oak trees and memorial plaques remember local WWI soldiers. We reach the Waikari Star and Garter Hotel, which is closed on Monday and Tuesday (the day we arrived). Fortunately, Vicky the owner is on hand with keys to our accommodation. Cafes opposite were also shut but luckily the petrol station, with a small grocery selection, had not yet closed at 6:30pm, and we treat ourselves to packet macaroni for dinner.

Day 4: Waikari to Amberley – 48km

Overlooking the hotel, Waikari Historical Railway Station holds plenty of railway memorabilia. Vintage steam and diesel-electric locomotives run between here and Waipara on Weka Pass Railway’s 12km track through limestone formations on the first and third Sunday of each month.

We leave town at about 10:45am, backtracking three kilometres to return to the Hurunui Trail down rural Pyramid Valley Road enjoying 10km of undulating tarseal. Sheep cram yards; patches of vibrant green grass lie between brown-hued hills; ranges crest and fall; limestone boulders make strange formations. Then comes 19.5km of gravel.

A farmer stops as we push bikes up yet another ascent.

“There’s only 2 more hills on gravel, one on tarseal,” he says.

He lied.

Salty sweat trickles down my face. I start on my third bottle of water. We eat lunch roadside before ascending another hill.

I whizz down Ram Paddock Road, flying over a bridge and nearly reaching the crest of an ascent that seemed almost 90° skywards. I push the bike (and my legs) the last little stretch.

Far below, Waipara River lay at the base of the narrow Waipara Gorge, a deep cut between brown hills. The road followed the river for around one kilometre before descending into Waipara Valley, where regimented green vines contrast with tawny land. Battling a headwind on the last 10km, and with the final kilometre alongside traffic on SH7, we arrive at Delhaven Motel in Amberley at 6pm, handily located opposite Countdown for dinner supplies.

Day 5: Amberley to Christchurch then backtracking to Belfast – 70km

The section of road Delhaven Motel lies on has information panels on the surrounding area and Amberley’s history. Established in 1864 when a pastoral run was subdivided, the history of the town is reflected in a Cob Cottage complete with period furnishings and two historic, wooden, steepled churches, all of which we view before departing on our bikes around 10:30am.

Lovely sealed and gravel flat, rural roads, traverse the countryside here. Not far after the isolation of Balcairn Cemetery, luscious ripe red plums entice us, before we go on to cross dry riverbeds and railway lines and cycle past a field where pastel, rusting silos stand together for an eye-catching landscape.

Rangiora requires a negotiation of roundabouts before the Passchendaele Memorial Path (running parallel to SH71) to Kaiapoi, where we lunch on its pretty riverside. Riding suburban streets, we join the path alongside SH74 for Christchurch CBD, passing over the pale blue Waimakariri River and battling a headwind. St Alban’s suburban roads bring us to Colombo Street… and there was Christchurch Cathedral. Done!

I celebrate in New Regent Street at Rollickin Gelato with a well-earned salted caramel ice cream and wish I was riding on to Dunedin, Invercargill… to anywhere! But for now, we head back to the Belfast POP where our campervan awaits.

A number of Park Over Properties and freedom camping sites are dotted along the Hurunui Trail: in Mt Lyford, Culverden, Rotherham, Hawarden, and Amberley. Flaxmere Garden, 128 Westernras Road, Hawarden, has a cottage available for stays.  Visit flaxmeregarden.co.nz to request a garden tour or book accommodation.