This is a cycling guide to the South Island of New Zealand. As a cycling guidebook, it’s not a traditional tourist guidebook. It covers the pertinent information that a cyclist, whether a touring cyclist, or a cyclist wanting to ride somewhere while visiting the island, would like to know when planning his own itinerary.
The guide focuses on cycling information — where to ride — routes and stages, stage-related distances and elevation profile, and what is to experience and encounter along the way of each stage.
The guidebook focuses on the southern half of the South Island. It covers de facto a 360-degree circumambulation of the Southern Alps, starting from Christchurch and returning to Christchurch, an itinerary that totals some 1,500 km. It’s a composite of several routes in several regions. One can follow the entire itinerary or pick just a single region or route where he’ll want to ride. Following are the key regions covered:
Christchurch to Kumara
Kumara to Queenstown, the West Coast Route
Where to ride around Queenstown
Queenstown to Cromwell, the Kawarau River Trail
Cromwell to Clyde and Alexandra, the Dunstan Trail
Otago Central Rail Trail and the route to Blue Lake and Saint Bathans
Alexandra to Roxburgh, the Roxburgh Gorge Trail, the Clutha Gold Trail and the route to South Otago
Queenstown to Christchurch via Lindis Pass, Aoraki and Lake Tekapo
As a guide on cyclist-specific information, the guide does not discuss the history of New Zealand, other than mention of sites, events or monuments of historical importance, only if it’s deemed of use. While the guide emphasises how to structure stages of cycling A to B in each region or along each route, and notes where one can overnight, whether to stay at campgrounds or needing to wild camp, the guidebook does not provide a list of hotels at any location and discuss the details of each, unless there is one worth a mention.
Aside the essence of distances and elevation profile of each stage, the guide includes vivid pictorial of each stage for better insight into each stage and route.
Written by an avid cyclist and a photographer, with many cycling guides to his name, an adventure and cultural travel professional with four decades of travel throughout the world, Cyclist’s Guide to New Zealand’s South Island provides an insightful background for a richer and more rewarding cycling experience on this extraordinary island.
At 80 pages, containing 197 photographs with informative narrative, details of routes and stages, the guidebook offers not only relevant and useful information but also the related GPX files you can download and follow as if a guide is showing you the way. In short, the guidebook promises to entice not only an intrepid cyclist but also an armchair traveler.
The downloadable format of the book on this page is a PDF.
To purchase the paperback version, go to: Amazon paperback May 2025 edition.