NZ South Island DH Trip

[Scott101]

I thought I would share with you all a trip I have been planning since may to NZ for 2 weeks in Feb then give a full report during if I have time and after with photos and videos.


I have organized for my self and 8 friends to travel to Christchurch at the start of Feb.

We are getting picked up by Jonno of Queenstown bike taxis and he is going to drive us around and shuttle for some of out time.

Day 1 - Fly to NZ and stay in Christchurch.
Day 2 - Ride Chirstchurch and drive to Mt Hutt
Day 3 - Ride Mt Hutt and drive to Wanaka late arvo.
Day 4 and 5 Stay in Wanaka in New house for $295NZ per night total, QT bike taxis will leave us here and we can do what we like.. I am thinking a Heledrop and some well needed beer drinking. We are getting the bike taxis to pick us up and drive us to Queenstown.
Day 6 till Day 13 in Queenstown where we will ride the gondola and have QT bike taxis take us to the different places to ride. We Plan to do another Heledrop with Vertigo ( I did one 5 years ago with them and was awesome) . Also some of the other activities to be done, sky diving, jet boating, Freg Burger i hear is good!!
In Queenstown We have decided to stay in a 4 bedroom apartment that was at $750 per night. I was able to get the room for $600nz unserviced, and they will service and room after 5 days anyway and remove rubbish daily. It worked out to be $50aus each per night. That's for a 5 start penthouse with 180 degree view of lake and 2 min walk from town!! Its worth the extra than staying in a back packer for $30 a night!!!
The apartment has been set up for 1 double room (for the couple) and singles in the rest.
Day 13 - Drive to and ride Dunedin
Day 14 - ride Dunedin and drive to Christchurch.
Day 15 - Fly home..

We are all taking out DH bikes over. None of us have traveled with our bikes before but pretty sure it will be fine. We have bike bags or boxes and AIRNZ are happy to count our bikes as our 2nd bag.

I have organized bike insurance through Real Bike Insurance and they were very easy to deal with. I had to take out a 1 years cover on my bike and covers for all travel in NZ and Aus, and I was told i can just cancel after my trip at a charge of $35. I pay monthly for the insurance on a 2nd hand bike.

Counting down the days and waiting for the final CRC order to arrive!!

Any one else going to be in NZ riding the 1st 2 weeks??

Scott

 

[kynan77]

Sounds like you have it planned out well, i just got back from QT on Monday. All the track are looking good!
if you are taking DH bikes over i would proberly give the Vertigo heli a miss, i did a run with them on my 6 inch AM bike and there was a few up hill pedal sections and flat pedal sections, it was fun but i defiantly wouldnt do it my DH bike considering all the other good riding around town.

 

[Sov]

If you have time when you're in Wanaka, it's worth checking the DH track that starts near Snow Park in Cardrona. About 1000m vert, minimal pedalling, 10-15mins. You need a van or something to shuttle it though. The alternative is to do it as a day trip out of Queenstown - about an hours drive I think.

I don't know if you've seen Follow me, but it's one of the tracks that Gee Atherton and Steve Smith rode. The dry, dusty one with the big grey rocks and spikey bushes.

 

[cressa]

Me and a mate will be there from the 3rd-7th of Feb. Driving christchurch to QT on Friday so looking for a ride option along the way. Then we'll spend three days riding the Gondola and maybe find something else as well around the place.

It's going to be awesome.

 

[kynan77]

Me and a mate will be there from the 3rd-7th of Feb. Driving christchurch to QT on Friday so looking for a ride option along the way. Then we'll spend three days riding the Gondola and maybe find something else as well around the place.

It's going to be awesome.

hope u and stu have an awsome time, buggar i cant head back over with you. Make sure you grab at QT mountain bike map when you get there, it has all the tracks in the area on it and only costs a few bucks. have a look at the queenstown mountin bike club website as well has some sutff woth looking at.

 

[cressa]

hope u and stu have an awsome time, buggar i cant head back over with you. Make sure you grab at QT mountain bike map when you get there, it has all the tracks in the area on it and only costs a few bucks. have a look at the queenstown mountin bike club website as well has some sutff woth looking at.

Cheers Kynan. Yeah would have been sweet to have more guys coming but nevertheless it will be sick and won't be the last time.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Bluemutt]

I'm off to the South with a mate and our familys in April for two weeks and looking at motorhomes, any advice for rentals or otherwise to look at would be great.
Are we better of to fly with Air NZ due to bikes or are there other options?

My mate has family in Christchurch and Queenstown who ride heaps so making the most of our time should be no problems

 

[doosh]

I'm jealous, I love Q-town. Whoever told you about Fergburger is right - they're awesome. The atmosphere is great, friendly people, and you can have a beer while you wait.
Make the most of Monteiths and Speights beers.

For anyone thinking of a trip - AirNZ has some cheap deals on flights direct at the moment. The special ends today, and if you're happy to travel light you can get there for as little as $150. If we weren't about to buy a house we'd have booked for the snow season :miserable:

 

[m_robinson]

My wife and I had 2 weeks in South Island just before Chrissy. We hired a camper for a week and rented a house in Queenstown for a week. We found Britz to be the best value. We picked up from Christchurch and dropped off in Queenstown.

I highly recommend Vertigo bikes in Queenstown. My rear hub shat itself the first day so I hired a rear wheel from them for the week (was actually one Gee Atherton left them). When we went to pay for it at the end of the week they said don't worry about it. We also brought some gear for my wife from them. They are by far the most helpfull/ friendly bike shop I have ever been in. The main difference between Aus and NZ bikes shops I found was they would go out of their way to help you out (one of the guys at Racers Edge in Wanaka let me borrow his wheel for a carton of beer). I know this is a big generalization but from my experience lately with my LBS I would rather give my money to people like Vertigo and Racers edge anyday.

Also recommend Air NZ. We flew over with them and it only cost 20 Bucks for each bike. We flew back with Qantas which was a nightmare. It was $150 for each bike and we spent about 2hrs on the phone to them the day before we flew organizing baggage. Even if I had to pay more I would always fly Air NZ. Only reason we flew Qantas was that we used points.

The trails at Queenstown are amazing too. I have never seen the quality and quantity that they have there, perfect for all levels. I rode a couple of days with the wife and she loved it. The day passes are cheap (compared to thredbo) and you can ride until 8pm. Wynyard trails which is in between Queenstown and Fernhill is unreal also. Sticky forest at Wanaka has some nice riding too.

 

[sensai_miagi]

yew!

yeah I am going to be lurking around the South island (Christchurch and Queenstown) in my Jucy van Jan 29 - Feb 14 with my bike. Going for the riding and travelling solo actually so would really enjoying meeting up with you guys for a ride or two if you're interested? Sweet as,

 

[RYDA]

Heading to QT in a few weeks - can't wait!

 

[Petercass]

Myself and a few mates are heading over on monday.... we are in queenstoen for a week!!

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk

 

[Scott101]

6 days till departure

Well its 6 days till we leave and I have the bike all cleaned and packed ready to go!!

30.7kg with some tools, helmet and some gear. Airnz have been very helpful so far about taking bikes.

I have booked a works deluxe tickets which gives you meal on flight, lounge access and most important 2 bags up too 23kg, on speaking to airnz i can have a max of 32kg for sporting equipment at an extra $40, much better than qantas at $10 per kg.

My mate came from perth and got stung $270 to take his bike to melb by Qantas.

If you see us out on the trails we will be riding these rigs, come say hi...

 

[RYDA]

How is everyone getting there?

Looks like we are going Air NZ with a stop over in Auckland for around 700 return.

 

[Shoryuken]

Scott101 how much is the trip costing you all up?

 

[russthedog]

that will be awesome, i wish i was going. Four of us did ten days with an itinerary similar to yours and it ruled. Johnno is a great bloke and will tkae you to some great places. Hopefully you can ride the remarkables, it wasnt open when we were there.

Take on board the advise from Sov below, Dirt Oark in Cardrona is absolutely awesome.

One word of advice - take it easy at first. Two of us had big crashes early on (one mate at Port Hills in Chch and me at Mt Hutt on a big jump) and it made it difficult to see the rest of the time out. Max dose of nurofen and trips to the Dr and physio for the rest of the trip haha. Whereas the other two rode at about 80% and didnt try anything dumb and this was a better strategy overall, by a long way

If you have time when you're in Wanaka, it's worth checking the DH track that starts near Snow Park in Cardrona. About 1000m vert, minimal pedalling, 10-15mins. You need a van or something to shuttle it though. The alternative is to do it as a day trip out of Queenstown - about an hours drive I think.

I don't know if you've seen Follow me, but it's one of the tracks that Gee Atherton and Steve Smith rode. The dry, dusty one with the big grey rocks and spikey bushes.

 

[Scott101]

How is everyone getting there?

Looks like we are going Air NZ with a stop over in Auckland for around 700 return.

We are all flying AIRNZ for $670 melb to christchurch on a works deluxe ticket. After I booked i got an email with a discount if i book another flight so my mate got his ticket for $470 and another for $570

 

[Scott101]

Scott101 how much is the trip costing you all up?

I am yet to work out final cost per person here is a ruff est is aussie $$.

Air Fares - $670
Q/Town Bike Taxi tours, Accom, transfers and food - $600
Q/Town accom - $481
Wanaka accom - $56
Gondola pass - $195
Hele Biking - $310

So thats $2310 plus food and beers in QT and Wanaka.

Plus the countless orders from crc, tbsm, launch helmet cams and jenson usa!!!

I think it would be fair to say it will be a $3000-3500 trip.

 

[RYDA]

Bike friendly and close places to stay in QT? I'm a student so it can't be too expensive.

 

[josh88]

Was in queenstown for a couple of weeks at start of december, and was seriously the best riding ive ever done. Just can't describe how incredible they are to ride. Don't forget to hit up the wynyard dh but also leave enough time to hit up the free ride area half way down the track as its a very easy spot to waste an afternoon.
Got to agree with the fact that don't ride at a 100% straight away ease into, it sounds hard but i highly recomend it. First two runs on the gondola resulted in two big crashes (luckly only got damaged egos) due to trying to pin/jump stuff we should have checked out first and then built up over the course of the day.

Also when it comes to customs both australia and NZ having clean tyres will make a world of difference, as both only looked at our tyres and wern't to interested in the bikes themselves (they used the wheels to judge/assume what the rest of the bike is like i figured)