Coromandel MTB crossing

A leisurely 55 km, 5 hours, 1570m of altitude gain

Lunch Spot

We started the ride with 10 of us meeting at Puriri Township, just south of the turnoff to the Kopu / Hikuai hill.  We rode a short distance along the main road, then turned into Neavesville road, and began the 11.5 km climb up to 600 metres above sea level. Once we left the sealed road, the gradient got gradually steeper and the structure of road gradually changed to be a steep, rutted 4wd track when we were reduced to the granny gear. We stopped a couple of times to admire the views both of a rather nice Kauri tree and the Hauraki Plains .
From Neavesville, we stayed reasonably high for a couple of kilometres and stopped on a bit of a knoll from which we had great views of the Eastern Side of the Coromandel ranges. Then we began our 7km clay track descent (through some very technical sections some of which were unrideable!) down to the Tairua river at about 60 metres above sea level. We followed the river track through a rather pretty bush setting to find a nice picnic spot at which to have our lunch beside the river.
After lunch, we retraced our route for a short distance and began the tricky part. The  short bush bash was unmarked (required local knowledge to find) and river crossing carry for about 500 metres onto private land. This part of the ride went past two homesteads, so should not be done without permission from the

Pritchards Kauri

owners.
After about 6 km of farm roads, we were back into forest roads, and made the climb back up to 300 metres to get views of the coast and down to Whangamata. Another short descent to view Pritchard’s Kauri, a magnificent Kauri too big to fit into one photo!
Then we had another 8 km of downhill to the “Luck at last” mine site – still in recognisable condition after 100 years.  After this a wonderful 4 km stretch of single track, through stream crossings sharp corners, narrow ledges and interesting bush back to Tangatara road. We had a short climb and then a gradual 3 km of metal road down to Tairua road (SH25), where the last part of our trip is signposted.
It all seem to end too soon, with 8km flat sealed rd, then 2km pine forest singletrack  to finish at the beach with a swim.

Our route can be found here.

Much of this ride is accessible and can be planned from maps, but our guide Tony had done a considerable amount of detailed research to link it all (including getting permission from landowners) to put it together. I would warn against trying without an experienced guide.