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The section between Hamilton and Tamahere is UNDER CONSTRUCTION until September 2022

 The Te Awa River Ride is one of most accessible and scenic cycling and walking trails in New Zealand. It is the longest concrete path in the country winding its way for 65km from Ngaruawahia to Lake Karapiro following New Zealand’s largest river – the mighty Waikato.

It began in 2009 with a vision of the Te Awa River Ride Charitable Trust to open up more of the Waikato River to our locals and visitors alike and connect our communities along the way.

From lake and river to waterfalls, along bridges and elevated boardwalks, the Te Awa River Ride showcases parts of the Waikato that have never before been seen – a world-class recreation experience for the whole family and right on our backdoor step.

We hope you enjoy the experience!

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Te Awa walk and cycleway stretches along the Waikato River, from Ngaruawahia in the north to Karapiro in the south.

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Te Awa The Great NZ River Ride
4 days ago
Te Awa The Great NZ River Ride

The FINAL section of the Te Awa River Ride is nearly complete!

With some awesome elevated boardwalks, the country’s longest "Glulam" (glued laminated timber) bridge and a native bat colony – it is FULL of variety between Tamahere and Hamilton Gardens.

While the new path, boardwalk and bridges are all three metres wide, as we pass through the sensitive bats’ habitat in Hammond Park, we’re using the existing boardwalk which is pretty narrow. So to keep ALL users safe and to avoid any conflict, there will be a 450 metre dismount section for all on wheels along that boardwalk.

For those in a hurry, you will be pointed in the direction of an on-road route that you can ride all the way – and not a bat in sight!

We will let you know as we near a completion date – otherwise, here are a few pics of what will be open later this year! ... See MoreSee Less

The FINAL section of the Te Awa River Ride is nearly complete! With some awesome elevated boardwalks, the country’s longest Glulam (glued laminated timber) bridge and a native bat colony – it is FULL of variety between Tamahere and Hamilton Gardens. While the new path, boardwalk and bridges are all three metres wide, as we pass through the sensitive bats’ habitat in Hammond Park, we’re using the existing boardwalk which is pretty narrow. So to keep ALL users safe and to avoid any conflict, there will be a 450 metre dismount section for all on wheels along that boardwalk. For those in a hurry, you will be pointed in the direction of an on-road route that you can ride all the way – and not a bat in sight! We will let you know as we near a completion date – otherwise, here are a few pics of what will be open later this year!Image attachmentImage attachment
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  • Comments: 45

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Thanks for all of the feedback! We understand a dismount section is less than ideal (and there will be a sign posted detour!). The path uses a boardwalk which is in a “SNA” - Significant Natural Area and cannot be widened. In the interest of safety, users are asked to dismount.

I'll reserve judgement until opening however seems a strange option to have 450m of "substandard " track when total cost of entire track is topping $13m. Seems a shame, and obviously people will ride it anyway I suspect.

Amazing and can’t wait for it to open. Being an avid cyclist and a local and who walks the park regularly, the dismount section is needed. You can’t ride it safely, it’s narrow, windy and slippy. People need to understand the effort and time people volunteer to keep the Hammond park maintained and pest free for the bats and native wildlife.

Te Awa The Great NZ River Ride keep up the great work…this is already a fabulous ride that we all get to enjoy! A short walk is not a negative and could actually allow for people to take in more of the surroundings, just thinking it would be good to remove the swing gates each end of the narrow section, these are not ideal especially for people who may not have the strength to lift/manoeuvre their bikes….ebikesers will find hard.

So your saying you can create 40+ KM of new track through bush beside the river but you can’t widen 450m of existing track because of bats?

Wow that's awesome looking forward riding my bike there

I just ran Cambridge- Hamilton yesterday, and wondering when this was opening. Will definitely have to run it again once it’s open

How wonderful. Can’t wait. Awesome work you guys.

So exciting. Cant wait for the opening day. Hope it is soon.

Great work guys.Looking forward to riding it

Denise Roberts we should do a little trek along here when I'm back xx 💙☀🤗 back a snack bag and off we go hehe xx

Very exciting to be so close to opening. This is just going to be outstanding 👏

Looking forward to that ride!🚲🚲

Any approximate time til opening? Would happily delay an intended trip over to do this section. Or we could come over twice!

Looking good. Our 33 rider group E-Bike Social Riders Hawkes Bay are looking forward to riding/walking the trail in late November. Great work guys.

Yes…🤩I would love that🥰xxx

Looks awesome

Peter the next stage

Just wondering about this for Bikes and Pies this week Warwick Roberts Graeme Mead and others.

Will this section be open by Labour weeked

Great that this section is nearly ready, but not widening that section is disappointing. There must be ways with modern technology to pull the existing boardwalk out and put in a wider one to match the rest of the Ride, while also considering the bat habitat.

Steph Mildon

Terri Shaw

Melissa Lovell

Rosemary Dunn

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