Kawatiri Coastal Trail

The latest addition to the West Coast cycle trails

The West Coast of the South Island has been slowly developing its network of cycle trails. Many of them - like the Old Ghost Road, the Paparoa Track and the trails around Reefton - are grade 4 (advanced) trails and are only suitable for experienced mountain bikers. But the West Coast Wilderness Trail (which goes from Greymouth to Ross) caters for easy to intermediate riders. And now, there's the Kawatiri Coastal Trail.

The Kawatiri Coastal Trail is New Zealand’s newest cycle trail and is located in the Buller district (on the upper West Coast). It's just 40 kilometres long and goes between the small settlement of Charleston and the town of Westport. It's billed as a family-friendly grade 2 (easy) trail and has been developed with rallying communities and stimulating economic activity in mind.

The community first started talking about the trail in 2015, and construction got underway in 2020, with the first section opening later that year. But the full trail has only recently been completed (mostly) and it officially opened on 22 March 2025. (There's a small section still being finished but people can ride on a quiet gravel road right next to it in the meantime.)

As luck would have it, Chris and I had planned a short break near Charleston just a few weeks later, so we got the chance to give the trail a try.

Given it's a grade 2 trail and only 40 kilometres, we opted to ride from Charleston to Westport and back again in the one day. We figured it was going to be a fairly gentle and undemanding ride.

Many parts of the ride are exactly that - gentle and undemanding - with long straight sections along bays, roads and paddocks. But there's also quite a bit of narrow winding cycling over hills and through the bush - which makes it a whole lot more interesting. (And more of a workout than we were expecting.)

Like any good cycle trail, the Kawatiri Coastal Trail has been designed to take in the district’s best scenery and provide diversity for visitors. So, there's suspension bridges over coffee-coloured rivers, there's wild stormy beaches, there's dramatic cliff-top coastline, and there's dense native bush and views of the Paparoa Ranges.

The trail passes through many kiwi and penguin nesting areas. While you're unlikely to see those birds, there are plenty of weka and pukeko scurrying about, as well as various sea birds around the coast and small birds in the forest. And the trail connects to the Cape Foulwind Walkway, which looks out over a seal colony.

The trail surface is mostly a fine compacted gravel, with some small sections on sealed or gravel road. There's also some lovely boardwalk sections winding through wetland areas on the flat.

The trail can easily be cycled in either direction. However, I think it's more enjoyable starting from the Westport end. From there, it's only five kilometres to Carter's Beach, and not much longer to connect to the lighthouse end of the Cape Foulwind Walkway, and then the walkway’s Tauranga Bay end. (Yes, the name of the walkway is a clue to what weather you might get.)

Most of these sections are easy cycling, with a few windier bits near Tauranga Bay. Tauranga Bay is a beautiful spot and we could easily have spent a few days relaxing here. (We returned by car the next day, when it was much calmer and sunnier.)

Moving on, the trail heads down an exposed and wild stretch of coast for several kilometres before turning back inland across farmland and into the hills. For me, this is where the best cycling is - winding up and down through a long section of native bush, with lots of tight corners and full concentration required.

Eventually, the trail connects to a gravel road, passing by a few more wild beaches, and then over the final suspension bridge and into one last climb through the bush to Charleston.

The Kawatiri Coastal Trail does not have Great Ride status. But it does appear as a ‘bonus ride’ on the Great Rides app, and has very good infrastructure. It is well sign-posted throughout, including lots of warning signs for cyclists to slow down in the steeper and narrower sections, and there's clearly been significant investment into bridges and boardwalks. I’m guessing it will be very popular.

We had a very full day out, and ended up cycling close to 90 kilometres by the time we added on a short trip into Westport’s town centre and estuary area. We were impressed with the trail, and would cycle it again, but we would split it into two rides next time, perhaps doing there and back rides in either direction from Tauranga Bay.

Despite the overall grade 2 rating, some sections are actually grade 3 (intermediate). I didn't realise this until later, but it certainly explained how tired we felt at the end of the day.