KAIPARA
Missing Link HEARTLAND HEARTLANDRIDES RIDE • KAIPARA MISSING LINK
NZ.com
DARGAVILLE to AUCKLAND 2-3 days
118km Kaipara Missing Link provides a connection between Auckland and Northland’s touring routes as well as Great Rides including the Kauri Coast, Far North and Twin Coast cycleways. It’s a route etched with spooky landmarks.
O
nce you’ve soaked up every Dargaville charm, cycle south-west towards Pōuto Pt, located on the bottom tip of Pōuto Peninsula. This long and exposed bulb of land captivates visitors with its ever-shifting sands, petrified kauri forest and eerie sailor stories. Cycle along a windwhipped beach harassed by an explosive ocean. As you draw closer to Pōuto Pt, you’ll be confronted with the Valley of the Wrecks and The Graveyard, haunting monikers coined from the area’s turbulent seafaring history that has left 150 shipwrecks stranded on its sandbars. Considered one of the most treacherous stretches in the country, skeleton vessels chewed up and spat out by the Tasman Sea lie motionless on the sand. At Pōuto Pt, board a boat heading for Parakai. You’ll be crossing the calm and picturesque Kaipara Harbour before continuing towards the Victorian village of Helensville, and dropping into Auckland, the dazzling City of Sails. TOP TIP: The boat across Kaipara Harbour is not a commercial ferry and only operates for groups and charters. Fortunately, several charter services, including fish charters, operate in the area so an option is to link up with one of these.
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