#newzealand #travel #adventure #mountainbikes
It’s been three weeks since my last post…….that sounds like a confession. I confess I have been trying my hardest to enjoy myself. Which sounds like an easy and obvious thing to do, after all, I’m on a trip of a lifetime, but if you read my last post you’ll know the cycling part of the trip was proving to be a little tough at times. So here’s an update…..
We ended up spending 10 days in total in Queenstown, it took us a few days to fully acclimatise ourselves to it, having spent the previous few days in Milford Sound, Queenstown seemed ridiculously busy (16000 urban residents, 2million annual visitors :bloke), which made us laugh when you consider not two months before we were in Ho Chi Minh city and that is the busiest place I have ever been to! Our campsite was pretty chilled out, with 360 degree mountain views and very close to town, so we were able to dip in and out of the Queenstown madness as much or as little as we liked. 
We found a cool little bay not far from the centre of Queenstown called Wilson Bay and spent a lot of our time there. It gave us access to Seven Mile Bike Park and a beautiful sheltered section of Lake Wakatipu to SUP on, perfect for a couple of occasions when bloke went off to do a big ride, it meant I could chill by the lake. (The best of the rides was the Moonlight circuit to Ben Lomand Saddle. A 26km loop with 1300m of climbing, some of that actually carrying the bike because the path was too steep and too overgrown to pedal up. The reward is a stunning view of Queenstown then a 1300m technical/very exciting/very fast downhill. The descent was simply amazing lots of terrain variation from raw alpine paths to forest singletrack then in to the bike Park for jumps, berms and high speed turns. Finished with a swim in the lake. Perfect.
This is the view, the mountains opposite are 2200m. Zoom in, you can just see the passenger jet in the sky, clearing the mountains left of center. The path “missing link” on the ridge in the center, then dropping off the back in to the trees was my route down. :Bloke)
Bloke taking a quick dip after a hot ride.
Before cleaning his bike off in the lake.
On one such afternoon, he decided to go off mid-afternoon and hit the “4 Lake loop” out to Moke Lake and back. Knowing he would be gone for a couple of hours, I set off for a little adventure of my own, on the SUP. The conditions on the lake had been good all day and I paddled out of the bay and up the lake, heading back towards Queenstown. After about 40 mins paddling along happily, checking out the little bays en route, I turned back, and just at that moment the wind picked up, I couldn’t believe it, the paddle back was comical in how hard I had to work to get back. By the time I got back to shore I was bloody exhausted and just as I got out of the Lake, the wind dropped. Typical! That was one decent workout I wasn’t anticipating. (At the same time I was on my way back from the lake, in an unforecast squall, in a vest. no jacket, no jersey. A chilly reminder that i should not be blasè about the weather in mountain country. :bloke).
Stunning – while it was calm.
Look at that clear water!
The following day, we hit the Gondola for a bit of DH (downhill) Bike Park Action. The view from the top of the Gondola is simply stunning, it’s worth the ride up (in the Gondola) for that alone.
The trails didn’t disappoint, challenging and fun, with a broad mix of stuff to keep you interested. After my very challenging day at Seven Mile a few days previously, it was nice to feel comfortable on the bike again and felt like I made some good progress. We also went on a weekday which meant it wasn’t too busy either, no need to worry too much about anyone else charging up your backside, something I always fear, most riders are pretty patient, but we’ve all had that one idiot that almost takes you out. We even spotted a few pro riders like Tracy Hannah and Laurie Greenland and were graced with sharing the Gondola with local hero George Brannigan. The skills these guys and gals have is unbelievable, it’s a pleasure to watch them, even for the split second it takes for them to go past you. I always wish I’d started riding much younger, like them, when I had far less fear, but the nice thing about doing an uplift day, it means I can concentrate on my riding skills rather than all the pedalling uphill and feeling too knackered to concentrate properly on the downhill sections. I finished the day feeling much better and felt like I had regained some confidence, and more importantly, I was itching to get back up there.
Sadly it was not meant to be.
Don’t overshoot the corners, you never know how far down the landing might be…
As you can see, I’m not shy with the body armour on an uplift day.
Wandering down to Seven Mile bike Park a few days later, our intention was to do a quick loop before the forecast rain arrived, but when we got to the park there was a bike demo day going on. We obviously hadn’t booked a timeslot, but after a bit of chatter with the NZ importer for Pivot Cycles, I was lucky enough to get a ride on a few brand new bikes 😁.
The following day I wanted to go back and try my own bike out for a direct comparison and after doing several loops, deliberately incorporating some of the trails that had tested my patience and skill set on the first visit, my knee decided all that pedalling uphill was a terrible idea. I have no idea what happened to it, lots of crunching and grinding and then excruciating pain. For the following few days I could barely walk on it, I was gutted, not to mention bloody miserable.
Armed with some body armour this time and a full face crash helmet! Look how red it is!! And it handles really well too.
It was a week before the pain subsided enough for me to even attempt another ride and in that time I played shuttle driver to bloke, ferrying him to and fro for him to get a few big rides in (“every cloud…etc etc” :Bloke). We also squeezed in a few other activities, the Bloke had a rest day and I was feeling particularly grumpy about my knee, so he convinced me to take a slow wander in to town and take a trip on the TSS Earnslaw, a beautiful old steam boat. We sailed (or did we “steam”?? 🤔) up the lake and back, taking in the gorgeous views of the mountains, some of which we had been riding on. I can’t imagine ever getting bored of the scenery around here.
We stopped at a bar on the edge of town on our way back to the campsite. A few pints later accompanied by some pretty decent live music, my knee pain was momentarily numbed, well almost.
After 10 days, we felt ready to move on from Queenstown and head north again. We had a brief stop over in Arrowtown, a very chocolate box, old gold mining town. The weather that day and night was awful, a storm had passed over the whole island and there were many trees down, heavy rain and high winds, and even snow on the peaks when we got up the following morning. It felt pretty cold overnight too, there was a slight frost – in summer!?!?!? We were very glad for the extra blankets we’d bought up in the Northlands!
However, the next morning the weather was beautiful and bloke was feeling ready to do a decent ride and so I shuttled him to the top of Coronet Peak – at 1649m the views up here are amazing! We met back down in Arrowtown for lunch (two, black graded Descents: rude rock, pack track and sack, then a 500 meter climb back to the road, finally Coronet water race and Bush Creek tracks to Arrowtown – bloody awesome couple of hours riding!! :bloke).
Look, we’re up way higher than the paragliders.
Shuttle driver selfie at the top of Coronet Peak
If you zoom in, you can just about see bloke on the climb up from the drop off point.
The next few days plan was to go back to Lake Tekapo and have another crack at seeing the stars. The area around Tekapo and Mount Cook is in the dark skies reserve and when we stopped here last time, it was cold and cloudy, so we couldn’t see a thing and gave up after two nights. This time was…. You guessed it: pretty much the same, and with no clear skies forecast over the following nights, we moved on. What was an unexpected addition to the trip however, was an overnight stop in Omarama and a last minute booking on a couple of glider flights. Unbeknown to me, this had been on blokes bucket list for several years and we just happened to turn up at the right time. I had never really given it much thought before, but seeing as I couldn’t ride it felt like a pretty good alternative way to getting some kicks. We were each assigned a glider, complete with pilot and were taken through the safety briefing, had a parachute strapped to our backs (just in case they said and re-assured us they had never had cause to use them, yet) and off we went. We were each towed, one at a time behind a light aircraft and taken up to the highest point, a peak referred to as Big Ben and then the cable dropped and we were gliding. We then spent the next 40 minutes soaring around some incredible scenery, with a clear view to Mount Cook in the distance. It felt so incredibly chilled, quite peaceful and somehow more relaxing than I thought it would be. That said, when it was my turn to take control, I didn’t feel particularly relaxed, those pilots must have nerves of steel to teach people to fly. The absolute highlight of the flight was the loop de loop, the exhilaration of the free fall to pick up speed was amazing, then a 4G pull up on the turn up and next minute you’re hanging upside down at 0G (my absolute favourite bit, seeing the world upside down was absolutely amazing) and then back to about 3G to come back down again. The pilot then threw in a couple of half barrel rolls for good measure. An incredible experience, even more incredible if you think that I hate roller coasters (maybe I should give them another try now). What was a real surprise though was the landing, I had expected it to be really bumpy but it was smooth as. The most amusing thing was that I didn’t feel sick while I was up there, but I did for the next hour or so after landing 😂.
That small white fleck below me is bloke in his glider.
And a time lapse of the blokes flight can be seen here: https://youtu.be/ss8PAIgQbCE
After we had recovered from what had just happened (it actually took me a few days to recover. I didn’t actually puke, but those loops are truly vomit inducing – airsickness is no laughing matter!! :bloke). The views along the way to Tekapo were spectacular this time. Before, the weather was awful. So at least this time we got some views and had a very chilled evening before moving on to Christchurch. 
We spent the next few days, having a lovely time, catching up with ex-pat friends. We took a drive around the city. It’s easy to see the places that were worse affected by the earthquake in 2011 and the community spirit is evident in how they are rebuilding their lives and businesses. An example of this is the port of Lyttleton, the place is well worth a visit. It is in a beautiful area and the town has a really great colonial/hipster vibe. 
We stopped at the Sign of the Kiwi cafe to check out the view over Christchurch. This place has been rebuilt twice now – the first time after the earthquake and more recently after the bushfire, which burnt the recently opened Christchurch Adventure Park. 
We spent a couple of days in the adventure Park, firstly with two guys we met through Instagram, Cy and Nick. As is the way with insta’, we saw each others pictures and soon it became clear that we had been travelling pretty much the same route around NZ, even being at the same places and/or campsites at the same time. So we got in touch and started chatting. As luck would have it, we were all going to be in Christchurch at the same time for one day only, so we arranged to meet up and go for a ride. As it was an uplift day, I thought I’d take my chances and see if I could manage a couple of runs, I desperately wanted to ride here. I’d attempted a really easy xc (cross country) ride a couple of days earlier and it was apparent that my knee wasn’t happy going uphill and it was painful again during the night but as this was all going to be downhill, I thought I’d chance it. So dosed up to the hilt with anti-inflammatories and painkillers, I was really pleased to have managed three full runs, which doesn’t sound a lot until you realise these are 20 minute plus runs and the tracks are punishing. The tracks out in the open were the worst for my knee – they are weather beaten, dry, dusty, blown out and rough like corrugated concrete. The tracks in the trees were so much fun though, I could quite easily have ridden them all day long. It was hard work for me to pedal from the chairlift, over to the next hilltop to get to it, but the tracks really are fun, so it was worth it.
This bike Park has received a bit of a bad rep from the locals, but I think the park team have done well to rebuild so much of it since the fire and they have plans in the pipeline to do more. Yes the open tracks are hard work, but less so than some of the tracks I’ve ridden in the French alps, the braking bumps in Les Gets are horrendous for instance. I wish them all the success with future projects and if you can, give the place a visit. Ultimately, I was chuffed to bits with the three runs I managed and was happy enough to bail out early and let the guys get a couple more runs in while I enjoyed a beer. We had a great day, both Cy and Nick were really cool and we’ll certainly catch up with them back home in Blighty. It’s so cool to think that social media, with all its many flaws and faults, can work in a good way too, the two guys had only previously met, both travelling solo and had managed to get together for a few rides in the weeks before we caught up with them. Sadly, we are all off in different directions from now on and won’t get to meet up again over here, which is a shame as I think it’s so good to ride with different people, travelling around on your own or as a couple, you can sometimes forget how good it is for your mind and your skills to spend time with other riders, it can help to push you in, or indeed out of, your comfort zone or equally help to remind you of the skills you have, not to mention the laughs and the chat that can go along with it.
Bloke and I went back again a couple of days later and found I had picked up some extra confidence from the previous visit. I can never get away from the feeling that I am holding him up, more so now than ever, with his race fast approaching, so any extra confidence is welcome and much needed. I have spent so much of my time over here feeling either completely “out of my depth” or “within my comfort zone but feeling that I should have pushed harder”. These tracks are hard, there is no getting away from that. They are fun, but my God they are hard. I honesty don’t feel like I am improving much but then, every so often something happens and I think to myself…well I wouldn’t have done that two months ago. I cling on to the hope that I notice a difference every now and again, because otherwise it begins to feel like an uphill struggle (excuse the pun) and the demons creep back in and frustration seems to pop along and steal the fun.
Adventures of a middle aged mountain biker 