Hi there
I live in Wellington NZ. The recommended route into Wellington from the north puts cyclists onto State Highway 1 (which is a very busy road) while for large parts of the route there is a perfectly acceptable bike path beside the road cf https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellington/comments/d2p4gd/how_to_cycle_from_wellington_to_waikanae/
From Paekakariki heading south the route should be the Te Araroa trail (a shared footpath beside the road and the sea) to Pukerua Bay; then Ara Harakeke and Te Araroa shared pathway ( mostly off road asphalt - small part is hardpacked gravel but rideable on a loaded touring bike) to Paremata station via Plimmerton and then west of the Main Trunk railway through Mana; Papakowhai Road and off road trails which work OK already as marked to Porirua Station , then Ara Tawa (shared footpath off road) connected by suburban streets to Takapu Road Station, by road to Johnsonville and then either down Ngauranga Gorge on shared footpath or roads through Khandallah - both to join Hutt Road shared path Wellington Station to Ngauranga Station (much of which is now a dedicated two way cycleway despite what the name says).
I'm not sure which tags need to be changed in OSM so that cycle.travel picks this up automatically and recognises the off road routes as being usable bike paths as well as walking paths. Maybe a link to the relevant instructions in OSM for those who want to help by adding in their local details?
Comments
Thanks for the detailed feedback!
If something is tagged as a cycleway (highway=cycleway) rather than a generic path (highway=path) in OSM, then cycle.travel will pick it up accordingly.
Alternatively, if you keep it as a path, then you should add a surface tag (surface=paved or surface=asphalt for a paved path; unpaved paths might be surface=compacted or surface=gravel), plus a tag to say bikes are allowed (bicycle=yes).
From Paekarakiki cycle.travel currently seems to favour a route via the Paekarakiki Hill Road, which looks scenic but perhaps a bit too much climbing. (I have family in the area so know how hilly it can be!)
Worth noting too that the routing updates roughly every month or so – you can see the date at https://cycle.travel/map/info (Australia/NZ are the same date as Europe).