Tour Aotearoa is one of the world’s great bike-packing trips: stretching 3,000 km from Cape Reinga to Bluff it follows a combination of cycle trails, tracks, paths and lanes connected by the most enjoyable country roads available. The Tour Aotearoa route is designed to highlight the best New Zealand Cycle Trail Great Rides, Heartland Rides, and quiet back country roads. The route was/is designed by Jonathan Kennett, a New Zealand cycling guidebook writer. Tour Aotearoa is open to anyone to ride at anytime, but there is also a Tour Aotearoa Brevet. The Brevet event is an organised ride occurring in February each year. This is an amazing, self-supported, 3,000 km ride from Cape Reinga to Bluff. A brevet is not a race, rather it’s a ride following a set course, via 30 photo checkpoints, which you must complete between 10 and 30 days – no more and no less under the following rules. In summary…

1. Do it all yourself, under your own steam

2. Follow 100% of the course

3. Carry all your own gear

4. Riders must finish in under 30 days

5. Riders must not complete the course in less than 10 days

6. Between 9am one day and 9am the next, every rider must spend at least one block of at least six hours not travelling. In other words, the maximum time any rider may spend riding each day will be 18 hours (between each 9am-to-9am period).

7. No support vehicles of any kind meeting you along the way

8. You must have a Spot Tracker

9. When on public roads, follow the NZ Road Code

10. There are 30 photo control points on the course. At these places you must take a photo to prove you were there, and to collect a visual album of your journey

11. Leave no trace.