Safest Wellington to Auckland (weatherwise) route

[wanpo]

I'm flying down to Wellington this weekend and am going to be riding back up to Auckland on a new bike. With SH1 snowed/flooded out and National Park presumably just as bad, what would be the safest route up?
I'd like to avoid snow/ice as much as possible. Would prefer doing it in 1 day, but can stop somewhere if I have to.
I was thinking either Wellington->Wanganui->Stratford->New Plymouth->Auckland or Wellington->Hutt Valley->Auckland->Hastings/Napier->Taupo->Auckland.
I've done the scenic thing around the North Island, so this is more about safest roads, than most beautiful. Suggestions more than welcome.

[marty]

it was snowing on the rimutakas yesterday, so that kinda rules out the hutt>hastings road. wanganui/stratford/new plymouth is the least likely to have snow, but carries more risk from rain/slips/slippery roads i reckon. desert rd is a 50km trip out of 600kms. personally, i would take desert rd as long as the weather looked OK. it really has to be shit wx before it gets closed, and it would be at least an hour, maybe 2hrs shorter than going stratford. you could go thru the manawatu gorge to pick up the hastings rd, but if the desert rd is closed, it is possible the napier taupo will be too. and napier taupo is a long lonely road when the wx is crap! at least sh1 you can stop evey 50km if you want!

[CookMySock]

While it will be further, the most reliable route will be SH3 through Taranaki. While there will always be obstacles on any road, SH3 is unlikely to close completely due to slips or snow.

Have a fun trip! No being an arse on that much more powerful bike!

If you get stuck and need a place to stay in the New Plymouth area, flick me a txt.

Steve