"It's a beautiful run. This was just absolutely picturesque, just beautiful," Mr Kowalewski said.
Mr Smith said, "It was nice and flat and it was just awesome to be the first to run it."
The pair set off at 6am well before crowds were expected to arrive.
Initially the community day was scheduled to begin about 8am, however cyclists were too keen to wait and headed off earlier, with about 300 people on the new route by 8.15am, a NZTA spokesman said.
Keen cyclists Cory Simkin said the new highway had been a long time coming.
"It's pretty exciting to get out and be one of the first to get on it."
Mr Simkin said once the road was officially open, traffic volumes would influence whether he rode the highway again.
"That was one of the reasons I thought it would be another great opportunity to ride it because I might potentially never ride it again," he said.
The Appleton family also hopped on their bikes and joined the crowd.
"We would use [the cycleway] because we're always looking for new places to ride, especially for the little ones," said mum Tania Appleton.
The crowds set out from the Domain Rd interchange and looped their way back where pop-up food stalls serving tea and coffee, hot pies and wraps were waiting.
NZ Transport Agency senior project manager Wayne Troughton said about 10,000 people visited the new road throughout the day - 2000 of them on bikes.
"It was an awesome day, everyone was really happy."
Even people from Gisborne and Auckland went along, many making use of the free tour buses.
Acting Senior Sergeant Wayne Hunter said police would be cracking down on speedsters on the new highway from today.
Speeding had become a daily concern for police since the stretch of State Highway between Domain Rd and Te Maunga opened in May, with several drivers being caught doing between 115km/h and 150km/h.
"Now the new TEL is open, and we have a nice new straight road which has got all the new safety features, that doesn't mean the speed limit has changed."
