Cycling around the Manawatu

In November 2019 I did a series of rides in the Manawatu from Cheltenham which is a very small town with a population of only 66 but with a hotel. Cheltenham is only 12.9 kilometres from Feilding which is 20 kilometres from Palmerston North.

We stayed at the hotel and did local rides each day and this type of cycle touring can be described as a hub tour. The rides we did included both tarmac and also shingle surfaces on demanding backcountry roads with lots of uphills.
One of the main advantages of a hub tour ride is that you do not have to put up your tent each night and breakfasts and dinners can be catered for in the hotel. We found that the Cheltenham hotel is well set up to cater for cycling groups.
These are the three routes that we did from Cheltenham:

Cheltenham East 

Route:

 ·  Turn right onto Coulters Line -6.1 km

·  Turn right to stay on Coulters Line - 11.7 km

·  Turn right onto Ridge Rd -14.0 km

·  Turn left onto Branch Rd -14.9 km

·  Turn right onto Finnis Rd - 21.9 km

 Ridge road as the name suggests runs along the ridge is shingle and is a hard but an interesting ride.


Cheltenham North 

This route includes a visit to Kimbolton and Apiti and then a return along and old friend Ridge Road. All in all a hard day but includes great scenery.

Route:

·  Turn left onto Haynes Line - 3.4 km

·  Turn slight right onto Levett Line - 7.0 km

·  Turn left onto McBeth Road - 11.3 km

·  Turn left onto Flyger Street -20.4 km

   Cheltenham West

 This route incorporates a visit to Feilding.

Route

·   Turn left onto Mckays Line - 3.1 km

·  Turn left onto Makino Rd - 6.2 km

·  Turn left onto Reid Line W - 13.9 km

·  Turn right onto Pharazyn St - 15.2 km

·  Turn left onto North St - 17.0 km