Sam Warriner's Favourite Ride
- Location: Tutakaka Coast, Whangarei
- Ride distance: 90 km
- Type of Ride: Road
- Difficulty: Intermediate
Start point of the ride: Hikirangi, 10kms north of Whangarei - Returns to this point.
Starting from Hikurangi you head out over Valley Road climb (1km), then head through the country roads towards Sandy Bay.
Once at Sandy Bay (25km mark) this is a great surf spot and you can sit on the cliff and watch the surfers for hours, you carry along the coast climbing up and down through heaps of bays such as Wooleys, Matapouri, Tutakaka (where there are quite a few nice cafes if you fancy a stop), Ngungaru (where I used to live when I first arrived in NZ). Once you have been through Ngungaru you head back in land towards Whangarei and climb gradually for around 5 km’s up to Glenbervie and the fruit orchards.
After Glenbervie you head into Tikipunga on the outskirts of Whangarei before turning right onto Vinegar hill which is a bit of a back breaker, it’s around 3km’s of solid climbing, the steepest part is at the bottom. Over Vinegar hill and rejoin State Highway 1 for 5 km’s before turning back onto Jordan Valley Road for a km and then it’s straight into a cup of tea and a piece of my own chocolate brownie back at home.
It’s quite a solid ride with hardly any flat, mainly undulating with about 4 long climbs with hairpin bends and gradients ranging from 8-15%. There are heaps of cafes in Tutakaka, and also Ngunguru. There are also lots of lookouts along the coast road where you can look out to the Poor Knights Marine Sanctuary.
Why Sam enjoys the ride- It keeps you honest, it’s quite hard. The scenery is awesome, there’s a point where you see the coast for the first time about 5 km’s before Sandy Bay and then you just descend down this hair pin climb for 5k’s all the way to the ocean, it feels great riding at 70 kph down to the coast. Whenever friends come and stay who are cyclists we always take them on this ride and they come back all saying the same thing 1) What a beautiful ride 2) God I’m shattered!
