Plenty of options to hire a DH bike in Queenstown and the perfect place to ride it. Don't reckon you'll need leg warmers, there could even be some warmish days. And you'll be riding up in an enclosed Gondola.Only going to get a couple of rides in during my visit and never ridden a DH bike before so was thinking of hiring one. Wasn't planning on doing any climbing on the bike, hoping to let the gondola and chair lift do all of that work.
Sounds like merino layer under my riding shirt and a rain jacket should be suitable to keep dry and warm. What about the legs? Will I need leg warmers or will knee/shin pads do the trick?
November in ChCh is totally fine, most locals ride all year round anyway. Cashmere is the perfect spot to stay. Hopefully the bike park will be up and running again by then, the latest I heard was that the retardant the helicopters was using to put out the fires was corrosive to the chairlift! Doh! On the up side, a lot of the forrest is still standing, so it's still going to be a bike park with trees, not some awful barren wasteland.Hey guys, figured I might jump in on the thread. I'm planning on doing a month or so on the south Island in November this year, mainly around Christchurch. Just trying to get a scope of how close you can stay to the trails on the southern side of the city. When I went to Rotorua we stayed in accommodation just down the road from the geyser, so it was a quick pedal to get to the redwoods. I understand Christchurch is a fair bit larger than Rotorua, but has anyone done a similar style of trip? Or have any recommendations?
Is November far enough out of the snow to avoid the really cold parts of the year?
That sounds PERFECT!!!November in ChCh is totally fine, most locals ride all year round anyway. Cashmere is the perfect spot to stay. Hopefully the bike park will be up and running again by then, the latest I heard was that the retardant the helicopters was using to put out the fires was corrosive to the chairlift! Doh! On the up side, a lot of the forrest is still standing, so it's still going to be a bike park with trees, not some awful barren wasteland.
If the bike park isn't open by then, there's heaps of stuff in Vic park and the port hills all near where you are staying. If you can talk your GF into some shuttles up Dyers Pass Rd you'll save yourself some massive climbs and get to know the trails a lot better.
And as I've said before, it's totally worth hiring a car for a day and heading out to Craigieburn/Cheeseman to ride the epic trails out there. Just over an hour out of ChCh.
Queenstown- Coronet Peak and the stuff closer to the lake looks like The Remarkables.ANy idea where the trails are that they used for filming the Yeti "Proven Here" clip for the SB5.5c?
Leave approved this morning! I'm in! Gonna have to hit all th trails I can.
Stumpy or Strive?
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I'll take you up on that offer!! I was looking at trailforks to give me an idea of where the trails are, but these never match local knowledge. I've heard that the local sneaky tracks are sort of death grip terrifying fun, usually takes a couple of days to just get used to the speed you carry on trails with actual vertical again; sadly don't get a lot of it out in Alice, gotta spin legs for speed out here.Good stuff! I'd definitely do as much research as you can beforehand if you want to hits lots of awesome trails that aren't on the map or well known. Hit me up if you need info as I used to live in NZ and still ride there regularly.
Stumpy (FSR? 29er?) and Strive are pretty similar geo/travel, I'd go for whichever has the slackest HA! 66 on the Strive would probably be the win.
Quantas has sales every year that are a fraction of the usual (extortionate) price. I've been over there twice and both times I paid only around $1k. You can sign up to receive alerts when the sales are on, you have to move fast as they sell out quickly. The riding over there is unbelievable!(although, holy jesus, flights in and out of Santiago are unbelievably expensive!!)
I'm on it!! Thanks for the heads up on that one as well!! Gonna owe people some beers for all this.Quantas has sales every year that are a fraction of the usual (extortionate) price. I've been over there twice and both times I paid only around $1k. You can sign up to receive alerts when the sales are on, you have to move fast as they sell out quickly. The riding over there is unbelievable!
NZ to Santiago? Obviously you'd have to pay the Aus to NZ component on top of that, but usually you can get that for around $350 return, which, overall makes it still a very good deal.I'm on it!! Thanks for the heads up on that one as well!! Gonna owe people some beers for all this.
It seems those are the deals running on NZ flights at the moment, it's about $1k return (just under) into Welli, ChCh and Aukland. Get it while the going is good.
NZ to Santiago? Obviously you'd have to pay the Aus to NZ component on top of that, but usually you can get that for around $350 return, which, overall makes it still a very good deal.