Where should I go in New Zealand on my bike?

I'm off to New Zealand and summer time in a week with my bike. I'll miss the super long skids on the icy London roads. So do any of you folks have any recommendations as to where is good to ride in New Zealand especially off road?

http://www.cyclenewzealand.com/

which part are you going ? I lived there 10 yrs and know it pretty much inside out

depends on whether you are looking for urban or rural...my recommendation would be cycle touring round the south island although never done it there myself although spent plenty of years in that neck of the woods

are you a kiwi Gus?

why not hit up the steading rollin' boys ? one of them, ivan is one of my good pals . They got some great stuff going on over there http://steadyrollin.wordpress.com/

Bellezza - I'm landing in Auckland and probably heading north for a few months then heading may way slowly south seeing what happens on the way. No particular plans as such. I quite fancy touring round the south island and enjoying what winter has to offer. Intially i;m taking my mountain bike and towing a one wheel trailer to carry tent etc. I fancy making camp in Wellington in which case i'll be sending my fixed over. I've been working in London the last few weeks without it and getting jealous of all the fixed bikes passing me by.
Mackenzie - They look like a good bunch of guys. skid comp looks wicked. I'll get n touch when i'm there.

thats where I lived, 45 mins north of Auckland actually, there are lots of great places to cycle, the beauty is definitely in the south island, but up north can be rather spectacular too, the south in winter is even more beautiful then the summer, need any help\info, PM me anytime

why not hit up the steading rollin' boys ? one of them, ivan is one of my good pals . They got some great stuff going on over there http://steadyrollin.wordpress.com/

omg, the tires of fire day is literally 5 mins down the road from where I use to live, still have lots of friends living locally

I'll miss the super long skids on the icy London roads.

Loose mettle roads should sort you out.

I'm off to New Zealand and summer time in a week with my bike. I'll miss the super long skids on the icy London roads. So do any of you folks have any recommendations as to where is good to ride in New Zealand especially off road?
Any chance I could squeeze inside your suitcase caleb? Would love to go back to NZ!

am British born but spent seventeen years of my life in NZ...

Hobbiton and Mt. Doom!

if you're going mountain biking, round auckland - you've got riverhead and woodhill forests - look em up... riverhead rocks but woodhill has a jumps course and is next to the beach just north of muriwai..

Whatever you do, don't go to Dargaville... utter utter shithole, the one place in NZ I didn't enjoy and we were only there for 2 hours as a stop off point

are you a kiwi Gus?

he was .. ;)

Caleb -- i don't rate the riding out of auckland much, but do head out west through titirangi over the hills to piha/murawai/etc. they're black iron sand beaches with big surf coming in from the tasman sea, spectacular. there's a great place to stop coming into piha doing allpress espresso.

i'm biased, but head south to queenstown. you can't go wrong. so much good mountain biking - i rode up the remarkables skifield road in winter about 15 years back. i did a lot of road miles between wanaka and queenstown in late 2006. the roads aren't high because they don't follow ancient goat paths like the roads in the europe do. so no killer high passes, but some great long lonely roads that wind around the mountains, and it's all very picture postcardy. you'll hook up with enough knowledgeable people down that way to sort you out too.. .

Baldwin St in Dunedin

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gX7OxWZmE5I

Damn I recognized way to many people in that blog,
People i used to skate ,surf,snowboard with and goto hc shows with now all ride track bikes it seems.

why not hit up the steading rollin' boys ? one of them, ivan is one of my good pals . They got some great stuff going on over there http://steadyrollin.wordpress.com/

mountain biking - Taupo and Rotorua areas have lots of easy to access rides.
Queenstown/Wanaka have alot of great downhill and forest rides. Honestly you will be spoilt with places to ride where ever you go. I would recomened going to the coromandel as well, some of the most beautiful beaches ever around there.
If you feel like driving at all,going from 90mile beach south down the west coast has some of the most amazing places I've seen lots of windy gravel roads but it's worth it.

I was in NZ the Christmas/NY before last and I really enjoyed cycling (and getting lost) around Auckland. It's probably quite boring if you live there but as a visitor it was good fun. The Auckland sea front, St. Hellier I think it's called, is full of cafés and eateries. Fish n Chips on the beach was great!

Cycling round Lake Taupo (160ish km) is spectacular.

will be back for 3 weeks in 16 days... ahhhh

Lonely planet have a good guide to cycling in New Zealand, I also have classic New Zealand MTB rides by Paul, Simon, and Jonathan Kennett which is very good. I picked them both up from both up from the Ground Effect web site. Also in last month's Singletrack world they had a great write up for a ride in the South Island.
Have a great trip.