Access Ride Guide Hawkes Bay

Access Ride Guide

People with physical disabilities enjoy getting outdoors and with careful planning, and a little help, many sections of the Hawke’s Bay Trails can be enjoyed. We want to encourage and help riders with specialist mobility needs to enjoy the trail, fresh air, the wonderful scenery and landscapes. For people with a wide range of physical disabilities, and on a variety of chairs, mobility devices and bikes, or towing buggies for children, we suggest the below sections. They are more accessible to larger bikes and trikes, most suitable for all sorts of different mobility needs and helps plan your ride.

Recommended Accessible Sections:

1. Ahuriri to Waitangi Star Compass and back 24km approx. Plenty of places to stop at in Ahuriri, and attractions along Marine Parade.
2. Napier to Bayview and Water ride back via Westshore – Please note there are ‘garden gates’ along some sections. This ride goes through a working farm, has a couple of short/steep sections up onto a stop bank, and road crossings. Ahuriri underpass has some sharp corners making tricky for longer or wider bikes, it can flood on high tide - however there is another option, you can backtrack and cross with care, over state highway roundabout. 23km approx.
3. Clifton to Haumoana Haumoana Rd – Grange Rd North and back 14.6km. 
4. Ahuriri, Napier to Taradale to Mission or Church Rd winery for lunch and back 24km.
5. Puketapu and return km. Park opposite Otatara Pa and access the trails via a standard gate, ride upstream beside the Tutaekuri river, across the wide Turirau stream bridge, and exit the trail at the village at the road crossing. Use caution at crossings. Ride up beside lake on trail, to Dartmoor Rd intersection, and cross road with care, to arrive at Puketapu Pub. This side of the Puketapu Loop has no squeeze barriers. You can also ride over the Moteo Puketapu Bridge from the village, however the trail on the other side of the river (Puketapu Loop) is steep, has several squeeze barriers/box gates and an open on-road section detour, so currently is not recommended.

We hope to have a PDF guide in 2026 that can be downloaded. It will identify rides with specific details like; gates, crossings, gradients or any known hazards, so that individuals can make their own judgements if the ride is suitable or for their equipment.

Gates and Access to Trails

We are privileged to be allowed Hawke’s Bay Trail Great Ride on private farm, stop banks and conservation land, where we need to ensure stock stay in, wildlife and property protected. To to do so we need to keep unauthorised vehicles out. Unfortunately, we must install gates in some of our river corridors, regional parks, reserves, and working farms. This is to prevent undesirable behaviour like damage of property, stop banks, trails, bird nesting areas, the dumping of rubbish and for the safety of trail users.

We know gates can restrict some genuine users, those with larger bikes, mobility devices or trikes, we apologise and do our best to minimise impact to all trail users. Hence as per above, we recommend the most accessible trails to enjoy. Some wheel chairs are able to negotiate the box gates, as per below image, we recommend trying first to see if it works for your mobility device. We are in the process of upgrading all existing box gates to this standard, with concrete bases.

We do not permit or allow dirt motorbikes or unauthorised vehicles on reserves, sportsgrounds, or to share trails/footpaths. Unauthorized vehicles do damage to reserves, lime sand trails, stop banks, parks, the fragile bird nesting habitats and pose a safety risk to trail users walking or cycling.

Image: Box/Squeeze gate located end of Guppy Road, Taradale, Napier

Feedback: We would love to hear both the good and not so good. It helps us to know what we do well and where we could improve.

Please take the time to let us know by filling in a short on-line survey, for New Zealand Cycle Trail Inc. and you could win a cycle trail book.