Mountain Biking
New Zealand
Mountain Biking in New Zealand can range from cruisy to suicidal. One of the easiest trails Kim and I rode was beside lake Wanaka. (Photo-left) Near the end were a few roller coaster dips but other than that it was flat flat flat, but spectacularly beautiful.
The above photo and the one on the left were from the Queen Charlotte Track, a popular walking track, and fairly challenging, although very ridable trail. The days we were there were extremely muddy, making it a dirty, slow run, but really good all the same. At the end of April 2000, Kim and I tagged along on a mini bike tour around the north of the South Island,with my friends Rob and Emma, whom I knew from Lincoln University five years earlier. We met up at the little town of Portage in the middle of the Marlbourough Sounds,and our first day was pretty fun, although quite a workout. The first leg of the Queen Charlotte we planned was 40 K's, and some of us were quite sore by the end of the day.
The second leg was a bit drier, and more cruisy, although Rob's chain broke about four times.(#@%!*&!) A great downhill to the town of Anikiwa, where our drivers were waiting for us, as well as cool water to take a swim in. Left-Rob,Kim and I ready to take off. Below-Kim negotiating swingbridge.
Driving down to Reefton, we spent a day waiting for the rain to stop and the next morning took advantage of a semiclear sky to fly all of our bikes in a helicopter up to Kirwan's Hut, to ride down Kirwan's Track. It was all downhill, but quite tricky for Kim and I. My brakes chose that moment to grind through the rubber to the metal underneath and the whole trip sounded like grinding tortured metal screaming for help. Several obstacles required a lot of off bike manouverings, around fallen trees, over cliffs to certain doom if we fell, but at the end of the day it was experience few can say they have had.
Below: Landing site, start of the Kirwin's Track downhill.
