Riding in the Bush… A Short (as I could!) Ride Report from NZ

 So, as a few people have been asking about our trip to NZ, and more importantly the riding, so here is a wee ride report, with plenty or photos.

Ride 1: Rotorua

Trails: Whakarewarewa forest (also known as The Redwoods)www.riderotorua.com/

The trail network is one of the oldest in NZ, and with 130km network of trails, and we could- and possibly should- have spent more than one day here. The trials are all man-made but nothing like our trail centres as you are riding on a combination of loose, dusty forest floor, with some fire roads cutting between them.

As this was our first ride (3 days after arriving), we decided to travel out to the furthest point, then climb to the highest point (900m), so we could see some of the landscape and get some perspective on scale of the forest. Little did we know that after 2 hours climbing through dense bush with no views, we’d get to the top only to find the same! Our reward was a 5km of gnarly single track. Felt a bit like a sweatier, jungle-er version of Mugdock!

 

Ride 2- Tongariro National Park

Trail: 42 Traverse http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/central-north-island/turangi-taupo/42-traverse/

The Kennett Brothers (NZ’s bike gurus) described this as “one of the best rides” in NZ so our expectations were high. It is a 46km one way multi-purpose track, with restricted access to vehicles, so the trail was wider than expected on loose, dusty pumice (the hire bikes were not in good nick).

 

Not long into this ride, we began to notice a theme emerging: riding in the bush = no views or scenery. Every now and then we were treated to some glimpses, but mostly we were riding up and down around many, many switchbacks amongst the trees! And, it never seemed to end!

With a few picnics stops, we managed to complete the ride in 6 hours. And, as its one-way, the bike hire company (Kiwi Experience) provide a shuttle service to the start, then a quick phone call from the local pub (with a lovely, cool pint), and they come and get you. Perfect!

Ride 3- Napier

This doesn’t really count as it was on leisure bikes, visiting the local breweries and vine yards.

Ride 4 – Wellington

Trails: Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park http://www.makarapeak.org/

This was featured in last November’s MBR, and they weren’t wrong! Our expectation for this was that it would feel a lot like our trail centres, but as usual, it was different to expected! MakaraPeak is a short bus trip into the suburbs of Wellington, with a well-stocked bike shop near-by (Mud Cycles).

Although quite a lot of the riding is in the bush, there is more open hill-side with view down into the valley. But by the time we reached the top, the cloud had descended and the wind had picked up to 120km, so we didn’t stop for long!

 

Ride 5, 6 and 7- Queenstown

Trails: Roaring Meg and Queenstown Bike Park

 As I’m sure many of you know, Queenstown is the “outdoor capital of NZ”, which is pretty accurate! As well as all the usual adrenalin-fueled activities, there are a couple of companies that offer Heli-Bike trips, which was going to be our “Adrenalin-fueled” activity. So, after a leisurely half-day pootle around Lake Wakatupi (ride 5) to get our legs working again, it was time for the main event.

After weighing the options provided by 3 companies, we decided to go with Fat Tyres as they seemed to offer the best technical riding, and after all the mad-made stuff we’d encountered so far, Roaring Meg didn’t disappoint!

This ride is marketed by Fat Tyre as “probably the best back country single track ever”. Starting with a 20 minute heli-taxi (with a wee tour to pick up Henry from his house), we landed at 1600m on a barren knoll with 360 degree views over the Pisa Conservation area which stretches from Queenstown to Wanaka.

 

This precarious pack track perched above the wild RoaringMegRiver was full of steep, rocky, ungroomed descents, before dropping to the valley floor for some great flowing single-track, ending with a 5km blast down a loose, gravely forest road to finish.  There were moments that this reminded me of the Glen Devon ride, but a little steeper and higher!

The bonus of the day, was discovering we were riding with Henry -aka Mr Bungy- who was the joint creator of AJ Hacketts. So, after the ride were  kidnapped and forced to jump off Kawarua Bridget (I chickened out),  then back to his millionaire pad for us to see his collection of GT’s (one from every year, right back to 1989). Random but great!

Ride 8- Nelson

Trail Dun Mountain Trail & Codgers MTB Park http://www.nzcycletrail.com/dun-mountain-trail

 After a bit of effort to find suitable bikes (not cruisers) we headed out on this ride, quite late in the day, meaning it was pretty hot. I bailed early as couldn’t face 4 hours climbing through bush in the heat, but John did the whole thing in about 6 hours, riding mostly in the bush, with just a few views…

Ride 9- Picton

Trail: Queen Charlotte Track

 This is one of the few official Department of Conservation tramps that you can ride, albeit with some calendar restrictions. The whole route is 70km, but as we couldn’t do the whole thing, we ended up doing the middle section.

So, after an hour on the water taxi, accompanied by a pod of dolphins, we arrived to start the climb to the track. The track was great, and even better, we had loads of views. Lots of granny gear climbs, with steep rocky descents.

Would we go back again? Definitely but:

• With our own bikes. Bikes hire was expensive, between £30-70 a day depending on type, and some of them were pretty “well-used”.

• Access is much more restricted than here. Many of the rides they promote have been developed with Government investment, meaning they have a fantastic network, but it not the same as our open-access. If you want to ride real NZ “back-country” you’ll need to go with a guide, or try knocking on a farmer’s door to seek permission. Apparently a bottle helps!

• Although December is still off-season and the weather was pretty good, this meant some rides were out-off bounds to bikes, so Spring may be better time to go.

• We only did day rides, but they have an amazing number of multi-day off road routes, some that stretch right across both Islands. And, with companies proving luggage transport, next time we’d think about doing one of them.