New Zealand Silver Fern Rally

About the New Zealand Silver Fern Rally

The New Zealand Silver Fern Rally (often written as one word, Silverfern) is a multi-day historic and classic marathon rally run on closed-road gravel special stages, ranked by competitors and press alongside the UK's RAC Rally and Kenya's Classic Safari Rally as one of the world's great long-distance historic events. Organised by the Ultimate Rally Group (which acquired the event in 2015 and also runs Targa New Zealand), its modern revival has run biennially since 2006, alternating between the North and South Islands — 2026 marks a return to the North Island for the first time since 2018. The 2026 running takes place 27 November to 4 December, based in Rotorua: documentation is Friday 27 November, the competitive start is Saturday 28 November, and crews head out through the Bay of Plenty, King Country, an East Coast leg to Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and the Central Plateau ski town of Ohakune, before returning to Rotorua for the finish. The supplementary regulations put the route at approximately 974 km of special stages within 2,979 km of touring — close to 3,000 km all up.

Organiser

Ultimate Rally Group (URG)

Base

Rotorua

Surface

Gravel

The route & format

• Format: Doco/scrutineering Fri 27 Nov; competitive start Sat 28 Nov; finish/prize-giving Fri 4 Dec. Approximately 974 km of special stages within 2,979 km of touring per the supplementary regulations; the 30 June draft itinerary breaks down as 987.93 km of stages across 48 stages within 3,007 km overall, and the organisers' own WOLF event listing states 1,054.1 km competitive against 1,648.7 km of liaison. Three official figures, none of them final — treat roughly a thousand kilometres of stages as the working number until the final itinerary lands. Four competition categories — Historic (outright title, pre-1985 2WD), Challenge Trophy (modern 2WD), Classic 4WD (pre-1996 4WD) and Time Trial — across three durations announced in August 2026: the full seven-day event, the three-day Silver Frond (28-30 November), and the new one-day Rally of Otorohanga (29 November). Time Trial is offered on the three- and seven-day events but not the one-day.
• Terrain: Gravel closed-road special stages across the North Island: Rotorua's gravel hinterland, King Country (Waitomo), the East Coast to Gisborne, Hawke's Bay, and the Central Plateau around Ohakune.

Watching it

Free — there's no ticket, gate fee or spectator pass, and the organisers pitch it as one of the most accessible marathon rallies in the world, with open service areas and evening parc fermé displays in town centres. No named 2026 spectator points have been published as of 30 July 2026; the official advice is general — expect changeable weather and bring a windbreaker, raincoat, sunscreen and something to sit on, because a 50-plus car field takes a while to pass. The most reliable public access is the town halts in the draft itinerary: lunch stops, service points and each night's parc fermé, all in towns on sealed roads with parking. The stages themselves are closed roads on forestry and farmland.

Spectator points

• Rotorua Village Green — scrutineering, Friday 27 November

  Every car is presented for scrutineering, RallySafe fitting and numbering between 10:00 and 14:00, in the centre of Rotorua. The best free close-up look at the field all week.

• Rotorua start and nightly parc fermé — Saturday and Sunday

  Rotorua is start and parc fermé for the first two legs: away 07:30 Saturday and 07:00 Sunday, back in at 18:00 and 18:45. Two mornings and two evenings of car-watching without moving your own car. The organisers' event listing puts the ceremonial start on Tutanekai Street, in the middle of town.

• King Country lunch halts — Te Kuiti and Otorohanga

  On SH3 roughly 1 hour 45 south-west of Rotorua. The whole field parks up for an hour's lunch and a 60-minute service — Te Kuiti 11:50-12:50 Saturday, Otorohanga the same window Sunday. Easy sealed access, town parking, cafes.

• Matawai School service — Monday 30 November

  The service base for the two big Motu-country stages, Te Wera Road run twice at 25.34 km with a 55-minute service between. Matawai is on SH2 inland from Opotiki, and this is the closest published access to the Motu region.

• Ohakune parc fermé — Thursday evening

  Cars in at 16:55 Thursday and away again 07:30 Friday — the earliest finish and latest start of the week, making it the most relaxed evening to look over the field, in a small ski town.

• Rotorua finish — Friday 4 December

  End of event back in Rotorua, first car due 16:00 after the 21.03 km Mangaokewa Road closer and a touring run home.

Running order

1. Friday 27 November — documentation

   Scrutineering 10:00-14:00 at Rotorua Village Green, then documentation, licence checks and signing-on at the Novotel Rotorua Lakeside. Start list published before 19:00.

2. Saturday 28 – Sunday 29 November — Legs 1 and 2, based in Rotorua

   Leg 1 away 07:30, eight stages and 120.00 competitive km, lunch at Te Kuiti, parc fermé back in Rotorua 18:00. Leg 2 away 07:00 with a 140 km touring run to the first stage, eight stages and 129.74 km, lunch at Otorohanga, King Country loop repeated in the afternoon, parc fermé 18:45.

3. Monday 30 November — Leg 3, Rotorua to Gisborne

   Away 08:00 through the Bay of Plenty, service at Te Puke, lunch at Opotiki 11:50, then Te Wera Road twice from the Matawai School service and the 31.66 km Whakarau Road at 16:45. Parc fermé Gisborne 18:55. Six stages, 115.87 km. Also the finish point for the three-day Silver Frond tour.

4. Tuesday 1 December — Leg 4, Gisborne to Hastings

   Away 07:15. The 38.14 km Waihi/Ruapapa Road at 11:30, lunch and service at Wairoa College, then the 27.77 km Cricklewood Road at 14:00. Parc fermé Hastings 18:30 — the longest competitive day at 155.91 km over seven stages.

5. Wednesday 2 December — Leg 5, Hastings to Palmerston North

   Away 07:00, lunch at Dannevirke 10:55, then the longest stage of the rally — the 42.80 km Manuhara/Makuri Ongaha Road at 15:00. Parc fermé Palmerston North 17:50. Six stages, 142.26 km.

6. Thursday 3 December — Leg 6, Palmerston North to Ohakune

   Away 07:45 with the 33.96 km Zigzag/Ridge Road at 08:30 and the 31.93 km Peep-o-Day/Waipuru Road at 09:55, lunch at Taihape, then Turakina Valley Road in two legs. Parc fermé Ohakune 16:55. Six stages, 141.07 km.

7. Friday 4 December — Leg 7, Ohakune to the Rotorua finish

   Away 07:30 for the biggest competitive day of the week — 183.08 km over seven stages, including three separate 33-42 km tests and lunch at Ohura. First car due at the Rotorua finish 16:00.

Access, timings and prices checked 30 August 2026. Organisers move spectator points and road closures at short notice — confirm on the official event page before you travel.

Getting there & staying

• Getting there: Rotorua Airport is about 6 km from the CBD but domestic-only — Air New Zealand from Auckland (45 minutes), Wellington and Christchurch, with no trans-Tasman service. Australians fly to Auckland then either connect or drive 226 km, roughly 2.5 hours south on SH1 and SH5; the major rental firms are all at Rotorua Airport. The critical point: this rally covers close to 3,000 km over seven legs and finishes each night in a different town — Rotorua, Gisborne, Hastings, Palmerston North, Ohakune — so following it properly means a hire car and daily relocation, not a base in Rotorua. On the stages, coverage is patchy and the nearest fuel is usually the lunch-halt town.
• Where to stay: The Novotel Rotorua Lakeside is rally HQ and the official hotel for the Rotorua nights. The organisers' preferred-provider list also names hotels in Gisborne, Havelock North (next to Hastings), Palmerston North and Ohakune, some with event discount codes. The competitor accommodation package — two twin-share rooms for eleven nights at NZ$7,200 — was already marked sold out as of late July 2026. Ohakune and Gisborne are small towns, so book the whole route now rather than just Rotorua.
• While you’re there: Rotorua is New Zealand's geothermal capital: Te Puia for the Pohutu Geyser and the NZ Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, and Whakarewarewa The Living Māori Village, where Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao have hosted visitors for 200 years and still cook in the steam. For mountain biking, the Redwoods Whakarewarewa Forest is 5,600 hectares of world-class trails from easy to expert with bike hire and shuttles on site. Further out, Mt Tarawera hikes and heli tours and the Waimangu and Wai-O-Tapu thermal valleys are all a short drive south-east.

Entering

Entries opened 27 July 2026 with Supplementary Regulations Part 1 and close 17:00 Friday 6 November 2026, with the Time Trial closing earlier at 17:00 Thursday 31 October; late entries to 18 November attract a NZ$500 surcharge. The field is capped at 120 starters with overflow to a reserve list, and 50 entries from 11 countries had already been accepted by 27 July. Enter online at silverfernrally.co.nz. All entrants need an AASA NZ Rally Licence — not a MotorSport New Zealand one — and Time Trial crews also need a full civil licence plus an AASA General Speed Event Licence. Fees cover the car plus two service vehicles: seven-day Competition NZ$11,385 including GST, seven-day Time Trial NZ$9,085, three-day Silver Frond Competition NZ$4,882 and Frond Time Trial NZ$3,899, with extra service vehicles NZ$350 each and a 3-4% card surcharge. Reconnaissance is banned outright from 27 July 2026 on penalty of exclusion — you buy stage notes and drive-through videos from the approved provider instead. Refunds drop to 80% after 31 July, 60% after 30 September and nil after 31 October. Shipping from Australia is quoted at around NZ$6,000 per car return with three cars to a container, and cars need a NZ Warrant of Fitness on landing to be driven on the road.

• Entry list: 50 crews on the organiser's list, updated 26 August 2026 — 37 Historic (pre-1987 2WD), 6 Challenge Trophy (modern 2WD), 5 Classic 4WD (pre-1996) and 2 Time Trial — drawn from New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Ireland, the USA, Czechia and Thailand. Ford Escorts dominate the Historic field, and entries stay open until the field fills. The full crew-by-crew list is below.

On this page: the 50-crew entry list, the route and format, all 48 special stages, 6 spectator points, the running order, travel and accommodation, entry fees and deadlines. Entries and official documents are handled by the organisers on the official event page.

History & form

• History: The original Silver Fern Rally dates to 1969; the modern historic-focused revival has run biennially since 2006, alternating North/South Island (2022 & 2024 were both South Island, Christchurch-based). 2024 winners: James Ford/Neil Shanks (UK, Ford Escort), a back-to-back win.

Worth knowing

• Sanctioning and licences: Run under AASA National Competition Rules on an AASA permit — not MotorSport New Zealand. Every entrant needs an AASA NZ Rally Licence, obtainable online from aasa.com.au and recognising equivalent licences from other bodies; MSNZ schedules are used only for vehicle eligibility for NZ-based historic and pre-96 4WD cars. Worth noting if you're coming from Australia: buying an MSNZ licence would be the wrong one.
• Route map: Ultimate Rally Group publishes the official route map and stage schedule to entrants closer to the start; the published outline so far runs Rotorua → King Country → East Coast/Gisborne → Hawke's Bay → Central Plateau → Rotorua — 48 special stages and roughly 974 competitive km over seven legs. The leg-by-leg route, town by town, is in the itinerary below.
• New for 2026 — the one-day Rally of Otorohanga: Announced late August: a one-day version of the Silver Fern on Sunday 29 November, starting and finishing at Island Reserve in Otorohanga and running the same stages as Day 2 of the full event — 8 special stages, 130 km competitive and about 190 km of touring. It was created partly for crews left without a drive by the cancellation of November's Maramarua Rally, and as a low-commitment taste of the Silver Fern for local competitors; entries are open now through rallyofotorohanga.co.nz (no Time Trial option on the one-day). The organisers also confirmed in the same announcement that repairs to Motu Road are complete and SS20 Motu Road is officially back in the 2026 route.
• Notable: Frank Tundo, a 12-time East African Safari Rally veteran, called it "the most amazing rally on earth." The event is ranked alongside the Safari Rally by historic-rally enthusiasts worldwide, and regularly attracts a strong field of period Ford Escorts.