Full Remutaka Cycle Trail: Homestays (3 Day / 2 Night, 1-4 people)

Ride the Remutaka Cycle Trail, whilst staying at cozy, homely homestays! We organise everything so that you can just turn up and ride. Just make your own way to Wellington and we'll take care of the rest!

We provide:

• All Extra "Bike Bits"  |  Helmet, night-riding lights, bike lock, repair kit and instructions, carrier racks and trunk / pannier bags.
• All Accommodation  |  Stay with fantastic hosts at our favourite locations: Spellbound Rural Homestay and Prairie Holm Cabins.
• All Food  |  Delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner provided (some assembly/cooking required), plus snacks and water for while you’re out on the trail. Please note that alcohol is not included, but feel free to BYO. For more about our food & to see a sample menu, click here
• All Transport  |  Shuttle right from your doorstep to the start of the trail (or a ferry pass if preferred), then back again at the end if required.
• Bag and Food Transfers  |  We take your luggage around the trail, along with any extra food and beverage you want taken ahead of you.
• Safety Support  |  GPS tracker and locator beacon supplied so you can call in the cavalry, with shuttle support and first-aid-trained drivers for anything less serious.
• Information and Daily Briefing  |  All maps and other info, plus an evening phone call to check in on the group and provide weather forecasts and briefing for the next day.

Upgrade your bike: If you're not taking your own bike out on the trail, we can supply one for you! Please see below our list of options, which you can choose once you click the 'book now' button. For more info on our bikes, click here

• Mountain Bike  |  Our mountain bikes feature quality components with front suspension, gel seats and adjustable geometry, for a rugged, capable, and comfortable ride. The best choice for most riders.
• Electric bike (eBike)  |  With a choice of either a step-thru frame (Moustache X Road 2s or Sinch Jaunt EZ 2.0) or a mountain bike frame (Avanti Montari E Performance or Merida ebig 9) our fleet of eBikes have the largest capacity batteries on the trail, powerful and reliable motors, rugged and capable mountain bike components for when the going gets tough, all with comfortable gel seats.

Itinerary:

Day One - The Hutt River Trail - 40km (57km with Pencarrow Lighthouse extension)

Start your adventure with either a 10am shuttle from Wellington / Hutt Valley or a 10am scenic cruise across Wellington Harbour to our start point at our base in Eastbourne. (If you would prefer to start at Petone Wharf instead please let us know, though you won’t have access to the Pencarrow Lighthouse extension, and long term parking can be tricky if you are driving). We'll have your bikes ready to go, and will give you a quick briefing on what to expect for the day. If you’re keen for a longer ride today, firstly head south around the Pencarrow coast on an out-and-back 17km ride to check out Pencarrow Head’s beautiful lighthouses and lakes before heading back to join the main trail.

From Eastbourne, follow a meandering road around the harbour edge to the start of the Hutt River Trail. Ride this picturesque riverside trail through the Hutt Valley, stopping at the numerous picnic spots or swimming holes on the way. Follow the trail through Upper Hutt and to your accommodation at Spellbound Rural Homestay, where your friendly hosts, Paul and Steph, will be waiting for you. Enjoy a lovely home cooked dinner, then settle in for the night at your beautiful homestay in a relaxed country environment.

Food included: Lunch, Dinner & Dessert

Day Two - The Remutaka Rail Trail - 37km

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast, then head back to the trail and ride through the beautiful Pakuratahi Forest to the Remutaka Rail Trail and our base at Wildfinder Kaitoke. Check in for a cool drink or snack, then follow an historic rail line up a gentle incline, passing through tunnels (headlights provided!) and over bridges, while checking out information boards detailing the enormous task of constructing the old fell railway system. Keep an eye out for trout in the streams and native birds in the treetops - this is a very active and healthy little ecosystem! Reach Summit - a large grassy plateau with the remnants of an old township and railyard, the perfect spot for a picnic or cold drink - then enjoy a fun (but easily controllable) descent to Cross Creek in the Wairarapa, surrounded by some of NZ's most scenic farmland. Continue your journey along a quiet country road to your accommodation at Prairie Holm Cabins, a stone's throw from Lake Wairarapa. Enjoy the beautiful gardens at this delightful country setting, before settling in for the night. A cheeseboard will be waiting in the fridge upon your arrival, along with your delicious dinner & dessert provided by our local Eastbourne caterers (some assembly/cooking required).

Food included: Breakfast, Lunch, Cheeseboard, Dinner & Dessert

Day Three - The Wild Coast - 46km

Wake up to the sound of local birdlife, then follow a quiet country road as you pass through the beautiful Wairarapa countryside. Stop for a break at the rest point beside Lake Wairarapa and enjoy the views of the North Island’s 3rd largest lake. Continue your journey down to Ocean Beach and on to Orongorongo. This part of the trail is stunning - we've seen orca, dolphins and seals from the trail, and it really is an incredible part of the country. Though beautiful and one of the highlights of the Remutaka Cycle Trail, the coastal track is also quite rugged and may be a challenge for some riders - we provide options to get picked up from Ocean Beach at 1pm (at no extra charge) so you can take on as much or as little of a challenge as you like - we usually leave this flexible, and just confirm the night beforehand based on your experience so far and the weather forecasts for the next day. We’ll pick you up from the end of the trail at Orongorongo at 3.30pm, then shuttle you directly back to your accommodation in Wellington / Hutt Valley, or to Days Bay, where you can relax by the beach with a gelato or a coffee (or something a bit stronger) before finishing your adventure with a harbour cruise back to Wellington. Our default finish time for the tour is 4:30pm, but we are happy to discuss alternatives if this doesn't suit. For those getting shuttled to the airport, arrival time is approximately 5pm.

Food included: Breakfast, Lunch

Important notes - we’ll discuss all of these with you at the time of booking if relevant:

• Accommodation specified above is dependent upon availability. If these options are not available, we have several great alternatives.

• Pricing is per person, and based on twinshare accommodation. Those wanting a room to themselves, will incur a solo accommodation supplement of $150. This supplement isn’t applied to groups with odd numbers (for example where there are 5 people in your group, so one person has a room to themselves).

• Solo travellers will incur both the solo accommodation supplement of $150, and an additional solo traveller supplement of $400. This is due to the high costs of servicing these tours. 

• The Remutaka Cycle Trail passes through dynamic landscapes, and as such can sometimes experience outages. In this event, we have several great contingency options available.