Queenstown and Christchurch in May advice please

[Gravity Addict]

I have done Rotorua, and if you're looking for trail riding, would highly, highly recommend there. the locals are awesome, there's enough trails to keep you going for hours

and good coffee at the bottom of the redwoods..
as well as shuttles when you need em

 

[Nautonier]

Timely thread.
Finishing up my job this week and will have 3 weeks before the new gig starts. I'm still got some uni coursework though, so can't spend the whole time riding bikes...

So was thinking of a quick trip to NZ, somewhere between 6-10 days. Leaving next week!
Anyone got some tips on what to look for (besides searching through here), where to stay etc.

For context I ride a Yeti SB95 that I'll bring with me. For fitness / riding style, I'm happy to ride up and down, ideally in the range of 40 - 50km a day, 1000-1500m vertical. I'll be following up on Dozer's comments on where to ride, just after how much time I should be looking at staying in various areas, and if in 10 days would be enough to cover the south as well as a trip up to Rotorua

Dozer has it mostly covered but I'd highly recommend a couple of days in ChCh riding in the Craigieburn/Cheeseman ski areas about an hours drive from ChCh. Tracks to keep you busy there are the full Hogsback loop, Edge, Luge, Gorgonzola, Haloumi and the epic Cocaine Alley. There's also riding to be had at Mt Hutt near Methven around the bottom section of the skifield road. You've also got Mt Richardson and the Blowhard tracks out the other side of ChCh.

As for Queenstown, there's just so much if you're happy to do some pedalling: Coronet Enduro and DH tracks, Corotown (all the way down to Arrowtown), Rude Rock, Zoot, Skippers and 7 mile. And that's all aside from the bike park.

Alexandra is good but the tracks are a little hard to find, I'd recommend Clyde instead where there is an awesome enduro track way up above the dam, which can be accessed easily via the gravel road up to the lookout.

Wanaka is fun, but really there's only enough there for a day. Dean's Bank and Sticky is pretty much it.

Rotorua is amazing, but it's super weather dependant and can be really limiting if there's been a lot of rain (which is likely at this time of year). I reckon the EWS riders secretly hated every minute of it recently as it's so much better when it's not pissing down and muddy. For my money if you were going to throw in an extra location other than ChCh and Qtown Nelson would be a better bet.

 

[Robb]

Thanks for your help guys.
I think I'll give Christchurch a miss and do Rotorua and Queenstown - do a day trip out to Wanaka.

A rough plan is to fly to Aukland, drive to Rotorua, spend 5 days there, drive back to Auckland and fly to Queenstown for 5 days. Will probably also get a car in Queenstown as well. Seems there will be more than enough trails and other things to do for 5 days in each place. If I tried to do Christchurch I'd spend too much time in transit..

 

[uglybob]

Thanks for your help guys.
I think I'll give Christchurch a miss and do Rotorua and Queenstown - do a day trip out to Wanaka.

A rough plan is to fly to Aukland, drive to Rotorua, spend 5 days there, drive back to Auckland and fly to Queenstown for 5 days. Will probably also get a car in Queenstown as well. Seems there will be more than enough trails and other things to do for 5 days in each place. If I tried to do Christchurch I'd spend too much time in transit..

Wanaka - if its a nice day the trail out to Glendhu Bay is worth doing. its not single track, but a bit of up & down and great views along the lake. Deans Bank & Sticky Forest are worth the effort, see if you can grab a map for Sticky Forest from a shop before you head out, it can get pretty confusing in there.

If you're heading to Alexandra, Butchers Dam trails are meant to be great. It can get pretty confusing trying to find the trails out in the hills, so a stop into a shop would be worth doing if you can. There is one on the main drag as you come in from the Queenstown direction, they should be able to point you in the right direction.

If you've got time to kill, Naseby would be worth a trip too.

 

[hifiandmtb]

Nelson, but yeah:

[video=youtube;gUDMGF4X6B8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUDMGF4X6B8[/video]

I'm like...steep, would be getting tiring. Then at 4 mins, all hell breaks loose...

 

[slowmick]

be interested to know what happens on the side of the trail at 5 minutes where they've added a fence. given the rest of the trail it must be one hell of a drop at that point. :faint2:

 

[pink poodle]

and good coffee at the bottom of the redwoods..
as well as shuttles when you need em

You're easy to please! There is plenty of good things at the bottom of redwoods (parking, bike wash, toilets...), but the coffee is not one of them. It is gold that it is there. It just isn't good.

 

[northkona]

Great thread , plenty of good info has me drooling ...
I'm planning a family trip to NZ in September and my son and I cant wait to ride some new terrain. I was looking at a campervan but now leaning towards a hire car and various levels of accommodation. I can sleep in a car but my wife tends to like a comfy bed and room service. I guess we can comprimise , does drive thru count ?

 

[Zaf]

I just got back from my trip.
In ChCh I was staying in Dyers Pass Rd, so it was a quick pedal up the hill there into the Victoria park area. There's a few great tracks dropping down into the Bowenvale Rd area there, you can happily spend a few hours a day just smashing tracks there.
If you're after something a little bit more scenic and less steep gravity, get out and do the Godley Head trails from the WW2 AA Battery reserve. The first part of it is like a shared walking track, and I had some serious doubts about how good the trail was going to be after climbing up that for a while, but you cross over a fence or two and then shit gets REALLY good, just awesomely rocky trails and features, some brilliant speed and all the while looking out into Governers Bay.
I actually connected out there by riding the Bowenvale Traverse track (also has a track called Lava Flow coming off it that's worth riding) over to Witch Hill. From there you're following along the remains of the Summit road since the quake, but there are few little fun tracks coming off that like Castle Rock that are better than just pounding tarmac, until you get over to the Godley Head track.

Queenstown, make sure you check out 7-Mile. There is also a track out to Bob's Cove, most of that track is a shared access walking track and fairly path beating flat (not an exciting ride, but a pretty one). BUT, when you get out to the end of the cove, the scenic lookout has brilliant black diamond runs (the front is rocky as hell, the back has some more roots involved). The lookout is stunning up there (I'll post a photo later) , if you're after a bit of a leg spinner with an adrenaline hit at the end of it, it's a great track to hit.

I'll edit in some photos later. The CHCH park was still out of action, Trailforks was saying some of the trails were re-opening while I was there, but still massive logging operations in the area, and despite all the signage saying that it was finished as of October, they were cautioning anyone found out there and threatening with trespassing fines.

 

[Nautonier]

Nice one, sounds like you found most of the good stuff. Doesn't sound promising at all with the ChCh bike park, I was there in Sept and could see that they've rebuilt the jumps track as wells as the flow and green trails, but it's butt ugly surrounded by logged forrest... There's speculations that they've been building over the other side in the trees, but nobody, not even locals, seem to know exactly what the deal is.

 

[Dozer]

Christchurch opens on December 5th.
Glad you did 7 Mile and some stuff around it, there's tons of trails in that little area and most of it is better than the bike park stuff. Did you spend a 24 hour period just doing laps of Kachoong? Thats a majestic trail.

 

[Zaf]

I don't think it's looking hopeful to have that area cleared of the logging machinery and the trails fixed in time for that start date. Even the track that dropped into the back of the quarry trails were closed off because of the logging in the area.

7-Mile was amazing, my GPS hadn't charged to pick up a lot of it on the second day we went riding there. Pretty much head out to the lower carpark (down by the lake, rather than up on the hill) took "What's Up" into that central area with the little tool shed and then just spin on the spot with eyes closed, whichever way you face go down that track and you're gonna have a pretty awesome time. Also, they're not lying when they call pine cones "natures ball bearings", got kicked out wide a few times and learned a few quick lessons in straying from the main ride line with those suckers.

 

[Dozer]

Also, they're not lying when they call pine cones "natures ball bearings", got kicked out wide a few times and learned a few quick lessons in straying from the main ride line with those suckers.

Haha, thats the shit we don't get a lot of in our parts, it makes for a damn fine riding surface though.
If you're in the car park looking at the lake, there's a trail on the hill to your right on the other side of the road called Phoenix, steep little climb but fun flow trail down. On the other end of 7 mile is the road to Moke Lake, that has a trail running next to it called God digger, that's also a hoot. Next time you're there (lets face it, there is always a next time with that place) try to hit those trails, they are fun as and totally diversify that area. You can even ride from Moke Lake through some back country back onto Phoenix and into 7 mile for a big leg day.
Did you get to ride the park or even treat yourself to Fernill loop and / or Salmon Run?

 

[Zaf]

I didn't get to hit Skyline at all!!! And Coronet Peak got a huge dump of snow out of season the weekend I flew in, so those trails were all out of commission when I got there. I did get to hit up the lakes (Moke and Dispute) and that loop that drops into Pheonix, actually REALLY stunning out there. Also highlighted to me a great reason not to have been on the Yeti for the trip (Christchurch trails as well now that I think of it); the sheep and cow shit that flicks up onto the bike is just unreal!!!

Got some great photos out at Moke Lake as well, when we came up on it there wasn't a breath of air, so the lake just mirror reflected the hills around it. Couple of ducks came up and tried to bludge some snacks whilst sitting down on the grass after the ride.

There better be a next time. I also didn't get to ride in Wanaka, we did a kayak on the lake and then got stuck into some wine that night so were dusty the next day and had to get up to Mt.Cook (no riding but the absolute highlight of the trip!! Incredible place!!!) so just didn't have any time, but the drive between Queenstown and Wanaka is so fast, and you can see the potential of the place. Next trip will be centered around those two spots without a doubt!!

 

[mint355]

I didn't get to hit Skyline at all!!! And Coronet Peak got a huge dump of snow out of season the weekend I flew in, so those trails were all out of commission when I got there. I did get to hit up the lakes (Moke and Dispute) and that loop that drops into Pheonix, actually REALLY stunning out there. Also highlighted to me a great reason not to have been on the Yeti for the trip (Christchurch trails as well now that I think of it); the sheep and cow shit that flicks up onto the bike is just unreal!!!

Got some great photos out at Moke Lake as well, when we came up on it there wasn't a breath of air, so the lake just mirror reflected the hills around it. Couple of ducks came up and tried to bludge some snacks whilst sitting down on the grass after the ride.

There better be a next time. I also didn't get to ride in Wanaka, we did a kayak on the lake and then got stuck into some wine that night so were dusty the next day and had to get up to Mt.Cook (no riding but the absolute highlight of the trip!! Incredible place!!!) so just didn't have any time, but the drive between Queenstown and Wanaka is so fast, and you can see the potential of the place. Next trip will be centered around those two spots without a doubt!!

Yawn... ghey!!! who goes to QT and doesn't ride the bikepark. Anyways the drive around must of been boring from the passenger seat

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