Hawkes Bay NZ Water trail
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Gold Coast swimmers
A couple taking a morning dip next to the Roxy Pro/Quiksilver Surfing Championships at Snapper Rocks, Coolangatta.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Farewell New Zealand for now
View into the Glenorchy valley: Routeburn, Greenstone, Caples, Rees-Dart, take your pick and
William the Conqueror at the Queenstown Lakeside YHA, getting boxed for the flight to Gold Coast, Australia
In a nutshell: if you're a cyclist, how could you resist a country that serves up views like this? And, if you're not a cyclist, it's there for everyone.
Christchurch will rise from the dust and rubble. It's a temporary disaster. The rest of New Zealand is open for business.
It's a great place to ride.
Mavora Lakes Around The Mountains Mountain Biking
Photos: bikes in the hold of the good steamship Earnslaw, enroute from Queenstown to Walter Peak Station; Sheep Jam! Ever patient Sebastian, mountain bike guide and a happy customer, overwhelmed with photographic possibilities and the author, thinking about adding a mountain bike to her stable of machines.
Scenes from Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track
A spectacular tramp in Southwestern Fiordland. Had it all: solitude, wilderness, bird song, cloud forests, tors and tarns and mud!
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Around the Mountains Mountain Bike Ride
I decided to risk the "iffy" weather here in Queenstown, which delivered a dusting of snow yesterday to the tops of The Remarkables. I booked a $199 NZ day trip to Mavora Lakes, a joint venture between Real Journeys, one of the bigger Queenstown tourist outfitters, and Around the Mountain Cycle Trail, which is hosted out of Outside Sports, on Shotover Street. This is one of New Zealand's future "Great Rides" 18 mountain bike trails distributed throughout the country, and all expected to be open for business by Summer 2012. Read about the cycleways at www.tourism.govt.nz
The gods smiled. Threatened rain, but just made things atmospheric. Took the 10am Earnslaw steamboat ride to Walter Peak Station, then did a van supported ride through an incredibly grand glacial valley, bounded both sides by steep mountains. The high peaks still wore a little snow, and in places you could see up to the end of Lake Wakitipu, all the way to Glenorchy. I could make out the valleys of the Routeburn, Rees-Dart and Greenstone.
Three companions (2 US, 1 Hong Kong) and Sebastian the guide meant a great private trip, with lunch in a corrugated iron musterers' hut in another superbly scenic spot. Then great riding on a public dirt road, past tussocks, glacial fans, braided streams, and beech forests reaching up the mountainsides to the treeline. Saw about 3 cars, 2 ATVs, used by farmers, and a bunch of skinny and smart working farm dogs.
Great downhill at the end, with endless views of a snaking stream. Then, on the race back to catch the 4pm steamboat ride to Queenstown, we hit the proverbial "sheep jam", where we pushed a huge flock of sheep in front of the van, like a rolling carpeted river.
This was my first ever mountain bike trip. I've always stuck to sealed roads, and have limited experience of dirt. I did fine, didn't skid out, didn't crash off a cliff, figured out the bouncy bouncy ride of a bike with front shocks. The scenery is like that you get when you do some of the kiwi tramps. If you like feeling really really small in really really big country, this is a good one. I met two Aussies, Renee and Sarah, coming back from a loaded bike tour on their mountain bikes. You don't have to take a tour to ride this road, which takes you through to Te Anau, but you do need to be prepared to carry everything, as there's no facilities, just some camping at Mavora Lakes.
A lovely end to my multisport visit to New Zealand. William the Conqueror is resting in a cardboard box back at the YHA, waiting the final sealing up.
At 10am local time tomorrow, I'll be in the Gold Coast airport, loading it all into a rental car.
The gods smiled. Threatened rain, but just made things atmospheric. Took the 10am Earnslaw steamboat ride to Walter Peak Station, then did a van supported ride through an incredibly grand glacial valley, bounded both sides by steep mountains. The high peaks still wore a little snow, and in places you could see up to the end of Lake Wakitipu, all the way to Glenorchy. I could make out the valleys of the Routeburn, Rees-Dart and Greenstone.
Three companions (2 US, 1 Hong Kong) and Sebastian the guide meant a great private trip, with lunch in a corrugated iron musterers' hut in another superbly scenic spot. Then great riding on a public dirt road, past tussocks, glacial fans, braided streams, and beech forests reaching up the mountainsides to the treeline. Saw about 3 cars, 2 ATVs, used by farmers, and a bunch of skinny and smart working farm dogs.
Great downhill at the end, with endless views of a snaking stream. Then, on the race back to catch the 4pm steamboat ride to Queenstown, we hit the proverbial "sheep jam", where we pushed a huge flock of sheep in front of the van, like a rolling carpeted river.
This was my first ever mountain bike trip. I've always stuck to sealed roads, and have limited experience of dirt. I did fine, didn't skid out, didn't crash off a cliff, figured out the bouncy bouncy ride of a bike with front shocks. The scenery is like that you get when you do some of the kiwi tramps. If you like feeling really really small in really really big country, this is a good one. I met two Aussies, Renee and Sarah, coming back from a loaded bike tour on their mountain bikes. You don't have to take a tour to ride this road, which takes you through to Te Anau, but you do need to be prepared to carry everything, as there's no facilities, just some camping at Mavora Lakes.
A lovely end to my multisport visit to New Zealand. William the Conqueror is resting in a cardboard box back at the YHA, waiting the final sealing up.
At 10am local time tomorrow, I'll be in the Gold Coast airport, loading it all into a rental car.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Wrapping It Up in Queenstown
I took the Awesome Bus back from Te Anau to Queenstown last night. Extraordinarily gorgeous evening ride. All the mountains painted in late summer light, all the peaks out, no snow, but you can tell it won't be long.
I've booked 3 nights at YHA Lakeside, in a little "cell" of a single room, but it is a private room, so I don't have to use the earplugs any more, or worry about disturbing the other 5 bunk occupants if I need to get anything out of my bike bags.
This morning I went into R&R Sports, and traded a bottle of ginger beer for a cardboard bike box. Looks like the wrenches have a nice little barter arrangement going here. Made me laugh, so I bought them a big size in the 4 Square supermarket across the street.
It's raining in Queenstown, so I used my time to pack up William the Conqueror. I've used at least one kilometer of duck/duct tape, and the box is under a great deal of pressure, but thankfully, I have several blue NRS kayaking/river straps to hold it all in.
My flight to the Gold Coast is from Queenstown "International" airport on Friday. I changed the flight due to the continued difficulty of knowing what is/isn't going to work in Christchurch airport. They're still pulling bodies out of the rubble, and the work of reconstruction can't begin for a while.
I am watching the weather. If it clears tomorrow I might spring for the guided mountain bike tour of Walter Peak, near Mavora Lakes. You take the steamship Earnslaw across to a station on the other side and go for a ride. I ran into Mary and Ermanno, my fellow Seattle touring cyclists, in Te Anau, and they'd ridden this route. Said it was even better than Molesworth Station, up near Hamner Springs, which I keep hearing is paradise for mountain bikers.
Would be a great way to wrap up my time in lovely New Zealand.
Ironically, at the end of my adventure, I learned there's a book from Kennett Press called Classic New Zealand Road Rides, published just late 2010. Queenstown is big enough to have a bookstore, so I plan to look for it. After figuring it out on my own, using old trip reports found here and there on the good ol' Internet, parsing out the possibilities from the ripped up South Island section of the Lonely Planet Guide to Cycling New Zealand, that I found in the bike cave back in the Wellington YHA, and asking around and following my nose, there is actually a book of rides.
Isn't that just the way it is?
I've booked 3 nights at YHA Lakeside, in a little "cell" of a single room, but it is a private room, so I don't have to use the earplugs any more, or worry about disturbing the other 5 bunk occupants if I need to get anything out of my bike bags.
This morning I went into R&R Sports, and traded a bottle of ginger beer for a cardboard bike box. Looks like the wrenches have a nice little barter arrangement going here. Made me laugh, so I bought them a big size in the 4 Square supermarket across the street.
It's raining in Queenstown, so I used my time to pack up William the Conqueror. I've used at least one kilometer of duck/duct tape, and the box is under a great deal of pressure, but thankfully, I have several blue NRS kayaking/river straps to hold it all in.
My flight to the Gold Coast is from Queenstown "International" airport on Friday. I changed the flight due to the continued difficulty of knowing what is/isn't going to work in Christchurch airport. They're still pulling bodies out of the rubble, and the work of reconstruction can't begin for a while.
I am watching the weather. If it clears tomorrow I might spring for the guided mountain bike tour of Walter Peak, near Mavora Lakes. You take the steamship Earnslaw across to a station on the other side and go for a ride. I ran into Mary and Ermanno, my fellow Seattle touring cyclists, in Te Anau, and they'd ridden this route. Said it was even better than Molesworth Station, up near Hamner Springs, which I keep hearing is paradise for mountain bikers.
Would be a great way to wrap up my time in lovely New Zealand.
Ironically, at the end of my adventure, I learned there's a book from Kennett Press called Classic New Zealand Road Rides, published just late 2010. Queenstown is big enough to have a bookstore, so I plan to look for it. After figuring it out on my own, using old trip reports found here and there on the good ol' Internet, parsing out the possibilities from the ripped up South Island section of the Lonely Planet Guide to Cycling New Zealand, that I found in the bike cave back in the Wellington YHA, and asking around and following my nose, there is actually a book of rides.
Isn't that just the way it is?
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