DARGAVILLE to AUCKLAND
KAIPARA
Missing Link Tangihua Forest
2-3 days
Te Kopuru
Mangawhai
TOP TIP – There’s nowhere to buy provisions in Pōuto Pt but you can grab supplies in Dargaville, Te Kōpuru and Helensville.
Kellys Bay Leigh Matakana
POUTO POINT
Warkworth
MAP LEGEND
South Head
open section boat route
busy road section
Shelly Beach
start/finish point
Orewa
point of interest
Whangaparaoa
PARAKAI
i-SITE Visitor Centre
Helensville
town
Riverhead Forest
Woodhill Forest
café/restaurant toilets Tangihua Forest
Riverhead
1
DARGAVILLE
Te Kopuru
12
12
Mangawhai
1
Leigh Matakana
POUTO POINT
Warkworth
1 South Head
16 Shelly Beach
Orewa Whangaparaoa
PARAKAI Woodhill Forest
Helensville Riverhead Forest
1
Riverhead Kumeu Muriwai Don Buck Rd Te Henga (Bethells Beach)
BRITOMART TRANSPORT CENTRE
AUCKLAND
Kumeu
car park accommodation
Britomart Transport Centre
Muriwai
camping
Don Buck Rd Te Henga (Bethells Beach)
state highway
AUCKLAND
nzcycletrail.com for more Trail Detail...
Dargaville 100m
0m
Parakai
Pōuto Pt 65km
boat
Britomart 49km
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. 29
HEARTLAND RIDE • KAIPARA MISSING LINK
BEST FOR: Seekers of shipwrecks and ghost stories.
DARGAVILLE
118km
