Following the NZ Herald feature recently headed “Wheelie good news for cyclists” – about how the Government are to spend $13.2 Million to extend the Otago cycle trail with the total project cost at $26.4 Million! North Island tracks are also getting additional funding with a total of $281,313 for Hauraki Trail, Hawkes Bay Trail and Waikato river Trails.
So we have to take a deep breath and wonder why they have not helped with the T2T – Taupo to Turangi trail? This has been promoted in front of the previous Government for about 9 years without any offers of assistance. Yet all the feasibility and economic reports confirm it ticks all the boxes for a very successful tourist bike trail. Everyone agrees it will be a winner. But, sadly, it keeps on missing out…
As soon as more Government funding gets announced for other trails TRM get asked what did little Turangi do wrong?
T2T (Turangi to Taupo) Trail
This was based on the article from Taupo Times 13 November 2015 – by Matt Shand describing the ambitious plan to build a 50km bike trail connecting Taupo and Turangi could mean big money for both towns when it gets the green light. But first some background stuff:
The project was proposed by Destination Great Lake Taupo (Damian Coutts) and Bike Taupo (Rowan Sapsford) and aimed to make Taupo to Turangi (T2T) towns a destination for tourist cyclists of all skill levels in the same way the Otago Central Rail Trail has revitalised South Island towns along the route.
Now the Government have announced their continued sponsorship towards tourist bike trails:
Cycle trails funding
As the Government Department involved with sponsoring bike tracks has been under media attack following a whistle blowers leaked report on excessive spending on consultants, (MBIE – Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment) TRM have tried to detail their contributions. Without them many would never have started.
In February 2014, $8 million over four years was announced for the Maintaining the Quality of Great Rides Fund. A total of $4.2 million had been approved for 46 projects across 19 Great Rides.
In 2016 the Government invested $837,132 in nine new projects for the upkeep of the New Zealand Cycle Trail. That investment came from the fifth round of the Maintaining the Quality of Great Rides Fund. An evaluation released in October 2016 estimated that the Great Rides had produced $37.4 million in economic benefits in 2015 alone, through revenue from visitor spending.
The nine projects to receive funding last year (2016) from the ‘Maintaining the Quality of Great Rides Fund’ were:
Motu Trails Trust: Motu Trails (Bay of Plenty), $29,752
Tasman District Council: Tasman Great Taste Trail (Tasman), $96,800
Queen Charlotte Track Incorporated: Queen Charlotte Track (Marlborough), $255,000
Mokihinui-Lyell Backcountry Trust: Old Ghost Road (West Coast), $42,971
Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency: Rimutaka Cycle Trail (Wellington Wairarapa), $221,000
Hauraki District Council: Hauraki Rail Trail (Hauraki), $26,196
Central Otago Clutha Trails Ltd: Roxburgh Gorge and Clutha Gold (Otago), $21,713
Nelson City Council: Dun Mountain Trail (Nelson), $69,000
Ruapehu District Council: Mountains to Sea (Ruapehu), $74,700
Destination Great Lake Taupo: Taupo to Turangi (T2T), $ ??? Ooops? Sorry…
In 2017 a further “Round 6” funding of $ 527,732 went to:
Queenstown Trails Trust – $ 91,119
Waikato River Trail – $ 84,758
Hauraki Rail Trail Trust – $ 77,757
Otago Central Rail Trail Trust – $44,500
Rotorua Trails Trust – $ 41,500
Mokihinui Lyell Backcountry Truat – $34,474
Bike Taupo $ 28,431
Ruapehu Mountains to Sea Trail – $ 18,000
West Coast Wildernes Trail – $15,000
Motu Trails Charitable Trust $ 10,000
etc..
Destination Great Lake Taupo: Taupo to Turangi (T2T), $ ??? Ooops? Sorry, again…
The MBIE Funding of many other trails continues – Since then, MBIE approved eight applications for funding from round seven of the Maintaining the Quality of Great Rides Fund. A total of $707,999 was awarded in the seventh funding round.Hauraki Rail Trail Trust: Hauraki Rail Trail
Mokihinui-Lyell Backcountry Trust: Old Ghost Road
Motu Trails Trust: Motu Trails
Queenstown Trails Trust: Queenstown Trail
Tasman District Council: Tasman Great Taste Trail
Waikato River Trails Trust: Waikato River Trail
Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency: Rimutaka Cycle Trail
Hauraki Rail Trail Last April Government approved $3.4 Million to extend the trail…
Meanwhile….T2T (Taupo to Turangi Trail) and beyond to Pillars of Hercules…
We have repeated all the claims so you can understand Turangi are not trying to be greedy – Turangi deserves a proportionate share. After comparing the tourist impacts from the above grants it appears unfortunate that the most deserving tourist trail proposal is still missing out on the sponsoring is the T2T (Taupo to Turangi) bike trail?
Turangi is still waiting to develop the T2T Bike Trail around the eastern edge of Lake Taupo… It is worth waiting for as it should easily become the most popular in NZ. It will do more for Turangi than any other single proposal. But Turangi has been neglected again…
In the same eight years since the original T2T to connect with Tree Trunk Gorge was proposed to Taupo Council, other bike trails have been conceived, developed and are now being extended – i.e. The Timber Trail, The Hauraki Trail, etc.. Meanwhile Turangi patiently waits…
Taupo to Turangi – T2T – bike trail is all go (?)
After considering the rapid development and increasing popularity of so many successful tourist mountain bike trails throughout NZ, it is amazing that this T2T trail has not already been completed years ago.
Last year the good people at Taupo Council led by John Ridd and Destination Great Lake Taupo – “DGLT” – the Taupo Council’s tourism promotion team lead by Damian Coutts – realised the dream of many. DGLT commissioned a feasibility report on the T2T (Taupo to Turangi) bike trail to sort out the exact route, cost benefits, etc. for Government funding purposes.
According to many in Turangi, it was a nonsense – prepared by Perception Planning Ltd of Taupo (can hardly be described as independent?) planning consultants associated with Bike Taupo, who calculated the costs of the T2T 42 km trail following SH1 at over $18 Million?
Compare the 84 km Timber Trail cost about $6 Million or last southern stage of Waikato River Trail for the same 42 km length cost $3 Million?
No other bike trail in NZ cost anywhere near that?
The specification for a 2.5 m wide trail was excessive.
No wonder many months later nothing more has been achieved.
Most of the Taupo bike trails were designed and built by keen fit bike club members to create challenging routes where their members wanted to test their biking skills and improve their fitness for endurance events, etc. They are too tough for tourist novices. There is nothing at all wrong with that except the original Government funding (Nga Haerenga) for bike trails was supposed to be directed towards encouraging tourism – particularly aimed at the more remote or marginally economic locations that were missing out on many benefits from the tourism bubble – like the Republic of Turangi?
Market research on bike trails by Tourism Resource Consultants for Nga Haerenga, (the New Zealand Cycle Trail) found there are approximately four times more domestic bikers than international.
But tourism is the biggest employer and most important industry in this Taupo region. There is strong demand for a longer one-two-three day bike trail more suitable for the broad range of tourists of all ages and abilities, rather than physically testing routes largely restricted to keen fit mountain bikers or bike club members in remote locations, such as Waihaha.
Just consider where some of the bike trails are located? The latest locally is the Timber Trail leading from a popular tourist hot spot to another tourist mecca – Benneydale to Ongarue? i.e. The target market, domestic and international tourists, would be lucky to find either and then there is always the other difficult logistical issues – transport problems to get bikes back to the start, affordable bikers accommodation at either end, etc.
DOC invested more than $5 million on this 80 km multi-day Timber Trail mountain bike ride in a remote wilderness.. Despite those limitations it attracted over 6.500 riders over the past year. Comparatively this T2T proposal following SH 1 should attract ten times as many visitors. Which brings us on to DOC.
Throughout NZ, DOC currently has over 1600 km of tracks for bikers with 19 of the 23 Great Rides developed as part of Nga Haerenga on public conservation land.
DOC is also the manager and primary developer of four of these bike trails including the central North Island Timber Trail, and three in the South Island being Queen Charlotte Trail, St. James Cycle Trail and Otago Central Rail trail.
DOC also opened the Heaphy Trail for seasonal mountain biking last year after a three year trial. The Heaphy Trail is visited by more than 10,000 walkers each year. It has been improved over recent years with over $4 million spent on track upgrades, three hut replacements and other bike friendly facilities such as bike washing stations and widening bridges for bikers.
The daddy of all NZ’s bike trails, the Otago Central Rail Trail, attracted more than 20,000 annual visitors for each of the past seven years with about 40% traveling to Clyde from the North Island (They probably drive the T2T route to get there…). The Otago Central Rail Trail provided the specification for many others to follow. So TRM are surprised that DOC have not been more involved financially, as compared to many of the other tracks, the commercial success of T2T is a no-brainer.
The T2T is a natural fit for DOC as it would link their other bike tracks to tourist destinations such as the TRT (Tongariro River Trail) to their Trout Centre (Trout Farm?) located to the south of Turangi and Huka Falls to the north of Taupo. Even beyond Turangi are DOC tracks between Tree Trunk Gorge and the Pillars of Hercules which could be linked up for a 3-4 day experience to provide another “Great Walk” trail (to take pressure off the over-crowded Tongariro Crossing?) to eventually link with the Waihohonu Track across the Tongariro National Park to Whakapapa.
The feedback from TRM guests indicates the demand from wannabe bikers is for softer ‘tourist friendly’ trails like the popular TRT (Tongariro River Trail) managed by DOC – suitable for all tourists’ fitness and ability levels and ages with a popular feature or theme. Excellent local precedents include the beginner trails along both sides of the Waikato River – the Rotary Ride, Redwoods Track and the Aratiatia Damn Ride and now a trail along the shoreline of beautiful Lake Taupo to top them all. Wonderful news.
For DOC this T2T would become the jewel in the crown. The T2T track construction beyond Waitahanui could commence as early as next Summer. About nine km of the trail is already formed known as Lions Walk, from Taupo via 5 Mile Bay to Waitahanui so it is largely an extension south along the lake edge and following the general route of SH1 through a number of attractive small holiday and retirement settlements such as Hatepe, Motutere, Waitetoko, Te Rangiita, Oruatua, and Motuoapa. This T2T trail will have massive economic benefits to these villages and to Turangi.
The route crosses over several rivers including the Waitahanui, Hinemaiaia, Tauranga-Taupo, Waimarino, Waiotaka Rivers so most of these will require the construction or addition of bike bridges.
Based on other precedents a total budget of about $6 million was envisaged. NZTA (New Zealand Transport Authority) will inevitably also be involved with funding to upgrade the bridges on SH 1 for better pedestrian and bike access. So everyone was astonished at the $ 18 million cost estimate. It simply does not add up…
Some of the many other bike trails and wilderness walking tracks in this region include:
1 Full day ride from Tree Trunk Gorge to Pillars of Hercules (Upper Tongariro River) to Turangi via Tongariro River trail (Enquire at TRM for route maps).
2 Full day – 42nd Traverse (SH47 on Tongariro National Park to Owhango),
3 Half day – W2K (Whakaipo Bay to Kinloch),
4 Two day – Timber Trail (Benneydale to Ongarue),
5 Half Day – Kawakawa Bay to Kinloch, (Taupo),
6 Half day – Old Coach Road (Ohakune),
7 Full day – Fishers Track (National Park via Bridge to Nowhere to Wanganui River – return to Pipiriki via boat),
8 Half Day – Tongariro River Trail (loop track along the Tongariro River in Turangi).
9 Full Day – Waihaha loop from SH41 following the river and combines a tramp down to Waihaha Bay and return over farmland.
But the T2T is the BIGGIE… So (this was in 2015) everyone in Turangi were celebrating DGLT’s latest initiative to develop a scenic tourist bike trail to link Taupo to Turangi. TRM predict this will knock the socks of so many other bike trails in NZ, but we cannot wait forever…
Interesting background stuff on the Tongariro River Trail…
Some interesting background about the Tongariro River Trail that you may not have been aware of…
The original trail was built by work gangs from the local Rangipo prison about 90 years ago. These were originally dug out as anglers’ access tracks along the banks of the mighty Tongariro River. Prisoners were also used to maintain the trail for many years – and they did a wonderful job. They did many such community work schemes around this region such as building the original basic accommodation on Kowhai Flat for the Duchess of York in 1927 – (the Queen mother, wife of George VI,) near where the Duchess Pool is now located. To keep the visitors supplied with fresh bread, it was transported by horse-wagon from Waikune Prison which had the nearest bakery. These buildings were then transported to be converted into the Government trout hatchery near the Birch Pool which formed the nucleus of the Trout Centre which was an anglers camp back then.
Until the 1920’s only the pools below the road bridge were fished intensively. Above the bridge any access was too difficult. The American author, Zane Grey, first made the upper river so popular in 1926 when he was taken by his guide Hoka Downs, upriver to fish the Dreadnought Pool. He was so impressed he tried to buy the river when he returned in 1932. On a tourist map of 1929 the only pools named were Major Jones Pool, the Hatchery, the Duke’s camp, the Tawaka Pool (Red Hut?) and the Dreadnought Pool. Staying in the fishing camp on the site of the hatchery had certain privileges; each morning a pool was allocated to one angler who changed his pool with someone else at mid-day. On the 1928 map of the anglers camp is the Sly Grog Pool – its close proximity to the anglers’ camp was significant in the prohibition era. These pools enjoyed so much interesting history – but I digress… Back to 2017…
To form the bike loop, all the Tongariro River Trail needed was to link up various parts to become the success enjoyed by so many today – shared by tourists, anglers, walkers as well as bikers. It is such an easy and attractive track for all ages with several track options between the swing bridges and road bridge over the Tongariro River. A feature is the constantly changing environment varying from natural riverside habitat to intensive fern glens to mature native bush to conifer plantations to farm land to landscaped reserve along the river bank. The well drained pumice base makes it accessible in all weather.
The original scheme in 2010 was for a three day trail extending much further south up the Tongariro River linking other trails extending through the Kaimanawas. These would have provided even more circuit options but have never been completed – apart from the 7 km trail between the Pillars of Hercules to Tree Trunk Gorge. The three stages were from Turangi to Poutu Dam, then a loop up to Tree Trunk Gorge returning on the opposite side, then back to Turangi on the opposite side. It would have been so popular and spectacular. Unfortunately it was postponed until the local Waitangi settlement was signed off in respect of the prison property. Now that has been done it is only a matter of time before these extensions to the existing Tongariro River Trail commence.
The Tongariro River Trail provides a choice of circuits which is so important for planning. This allows bikers (and walkers and anglers) to leave their car on whichever car park they choose and return without going over the same track. Much better than any other bike trails in this region, none of which are loop tracks. Whilst there are so many wonderful bike trails such as the easy tourist tracks such as Lions Walk, Rotary Ride, Waikato River Trails, Craters of the Moon, Timber trail, Great Lake Trail (W2K, K2K), or more difficult technical rides like 42nd Traverse, Tree Trunk Gorge, Waihaha Trail, none are loop tracks. They all involve ‘there and back’ rides or planning is necessary to leave one vehicle at the start and another at the finish or arranging pick up by boat or shuttle service. For tourists that is so inconvenient.
Then there are the other attractions like the stop off at the Trout Centre for something entirely different, or starting from the more southern end at Red Hut Bridge so you can enjoy a coffee or lunch break at any of about eight cafes at the Turangi end. There are also interesting side-tracks off to some very pretty secluded pools for summer picnics. The views over the Tongariro River vary from being close ups beside the pools (fly fishermen wade the river to provide endless entertainment) – look out for the Blue Ducks – to elevated views over a km or more of the river and beyond over Lake Taupo in the distance – these are what tourists look for.
In summary it ticks all the boxes for a perfect tourist bike trail. But after five years it is so sad that it has not been extended further north or south. So here is the last interesting statistic that has emerged from the NZ Government sponsored bike trails. These bike trails return to the local community on average $3.50 p.a. for every $1 spent on their construction. So they are more than just bike trails. They are such a sensible investment in the local community that Turangi cannot afford to be without. Could someone please tell the council. The completion of the trails to Tree Trunk Gorge in the south and to link with the Great Lake Walkway (Lions Walk from Taupo to Waitahanui) in the north would result in an economic boom for Turangi and all the little settlements on the eastern side of Lake Taupo..
The Taupo to Turangi (T2T) bike trail feasibility report prepared about 2 years ago made it unaffordable. It was quite misleading and ridiculously expensive at $18.3 Million due to their specification for a 2.5 metre wide board-walk most of the way. A realistic tourist trail would cost $6M. They could save $2M in the first four km from Turangi by using existing tracks instead of their board-walk version. Tourist bikers have been asking what has happened since? It needs leadership. Everyone is waiting… Watch this space. It will happen. The only question is when?
TRM’s own special bike trail…
TRM have their own off-road event…
This report is to tell you about their wonderful scenic 3-4 hour bike ride back to Turangi – a trail that not many know about – for mountain bikers it is a good test with heaps of variety around every corner – it has a little bit of everything linking up several other interesting tracks.
It leads from Tree Trunk Gorge (about 5 km east of the Desert Road – SH1) north along the eastern side of the upper Tongariro River on a DOC track to the Pillars of Hercules swing bridge (image on right)
Then a feature of the ride is through some spectacular mature bush enclosed unsealed roads past remote DOC camping grounds where tramping tracks (Umukarikari and Urchins Tracks) lead into the Kaimanawas, eventually emerging from the bush onto the Poutu Dam and then on a peculiar route linking several other tracks which offer so much variety they are beyond our descriptions, eventually linking back to TRM via the Tongariro River trail. Whew!
You can see from the images it also incorporates a speed section along the banks of the Poutu canal leading under SH1 to the outlet – Poutu Stream – from Lake Rotoaira. Confused?
If this appeals then contact TRM for our ‘exclusive’ map of the route.
You will not find it on any other biking publication or website.
We have not measured the length but at a guess it would be about 40km and it takes about 4-5 hours depending on how much time bikers spend drooling over the scenery.
Strongly recommended.