The New Zealand Cycle Trail in the Manawatu Region is an on-road trail from Mangaweka to Palmerston North City. Named the Manawatu Cycleway on The Country Road, this 126km ride takes you through the heart of rural Manawatu into the urban centre of Palmerston North City. More info at the links above.

Trail Fund NZ is a not-for-profit project supporting the development and maintenance of publicly accessible, environmentally sensitive and sustainable mountain-bike accessible trails in New Zealand. You can assist the development of some wicked mountain-bike trails, but donating or purchasing great looking clothing at NZ Trail Fund

DOC, and the Manawatu Gorge Project Partners (Horizons, PNCC, MDC, TDC, NZTA, OnTrack, Rangitaane Iwi) have collaborated with the Manawatu Mountain Bike Club to investigate mountain bike trails in the Manawatu Scenic Reserve.  A 25km trail from the Gorge Car Park near Ashhurst to Gorge Road near Woodville has been mapped and is in the process of being assessed for feasibility, sustainability, ecological and cultural aspects. 

Submissions for Phase 2 of the New Zealand Cycle Trail closed on Dec 18th. There were 7 exciting trails in the local region put forward for funding. These ranged from multi-day, touring sections that combined to form 750 km of cycle trails, covering the Ruapehu, Wanganui, Rangitikei, Manawatu and Tararua regions; to mountain bike trails in the Tararua and Ruahine ranges.

The Ministry of Tourism received 53 submissions in total and will announce those proposals that will move to the next stage of evaluation in February 2010.

The trails that have been submitted  in the Manawatu (Horizons) region are as follows.
Wild Rover - 220km from Wanganui to Woodville, proposed by Destination Manawatu.
Tararua Elements - 271km from Woodville to Masterton, proposed by the Tararua District Council.
Gorges to Sea - 285km from Ohakune to Himitangi, proposed by Rangitikei District Council.
Kahuterawa Loop - Mountain bike trails behind Linton - rebuilding around 20km of trails after current logging is complete. This has been proposed by the Manawatu Mountain Bike Club.
Te Apiti - Mountain Bike Trails in DOC estate on Northern edge of Manawatu Gorge. Around 20 km of trails when complete. Proposed by the Manawatu Mountain Bike Club in partnership with DOC.
Shannon to Eketahuna - proposed by Horowhenua District Council. An adventerous 50km trail that crosses the Tararua Range, climbing to 900 m.  From Shannon there is a short ride to the Mangahao Power Station and then a steady climb to the top dam in the power scheme.  This part all exists.  The proposal is to build a new trail from the top dam over the Tararua Range to Putara and from there on public roads again to Eketahuna.
Manawatu River Trail - this  trail proposed by the Palmerston North City Council, will link the end of the existing bridle track with the Saddle Rd bridge at Ashhurst.  This links with the Te Apiti and Wild Rover Trails.

At long last the Mikimiki ride has been added to the site.  This is a great ride if you like bush single track.  Can get pretty technical if its wet, but this is a ride I am planning to do over summer.

Just mapped the great ride at Mikimiki.  This is a great ride along an old tram railway (Kiriwhakapapa tramline) used to extract logs in the 1920's. A bit more research to do before I add the ride.

This site is designed to be used with Firefox or any other browser which uses tabs.  Links are all set to open a new window, but you will find browsing so much better if you set your browser to open a new focused tab, rather than a new window.  This means you will jump to the linked site, but this website will remain in another tab and you can quickly get back to it.

Driving directions have been added to most ride descriptions, using the Google Maps directions tool.  Click on the How to get there link to open a new window or tab with a Google map.

By default the origin location is Palmerston North,  If you want directions from somewhere else, simply click on the start point on the map, enter where you are starting from and click the "Get Directions" link. The route will redraw. 

If you press print, you will get a new window with the turn by turn directions.  You need to check the "include large map" box to print the map and the instructions