Overview
In a press release released earlier this year, Zwift announced that they would releasing a new expansion to the Makuri Islands. The release containing this new expansion was released in November of 2022, nearly one year after the Neokyo expansion.
The expansion is supposed to be a mix of different roads. The update will not include any major climbs. The roads will be made up of road, gravel, and a new surface that hasn’t been seen on Zwift. The theme of the expansion seems to be a serene island on the coast, and Zwift says that it will have a “Southern Japanese archipelago”. To make the name of this new expansion, Zwift combined several Okinawan words. From Zwift’s press release: “uru” means “shore,” and “kazi” means “breeze.”
More Details
There are around 12 miles of new roads in this world, and 8 routes included in the initial game release. Zwift will definitely add more in the future, but at the time of release, there will be 8 routes. There are a few routes that are over 20 miles long, but we have yet to see any longer uber routes. If you add up all of the new routes, they amount to ~155 km of routes. A complete list of the routes and their details are available below. The first opportunity for Zwifters to ride this new expansion was during the Tour of Makuri Islands or just during a free ride.
Any Climbs?
Unfortunately, there were no major climbs added in this game release. Many hoped that Mt. Fuji would be released, but it appears that that will have to wait another release. I suspect that Zwift will definitely be adding another climb soon. Whether it is Mt. Fuji or not remains to be unknown. However, I do know that the next expansion likely will not be for another 6 months at least.
