Marlborough Sounds biking holiday

country:	New Zealand
location:	South Island, Marlborough Sounds
trip type:	Adventurous mountain biking holidays
departures:	2008: 25 Oct, 24 Dec 2009: 17 Jan
price:	From NZ $1490 (4 days) excluding flights. Includes twin share accommodation (single supplement NZ$ 195), breakfasts and lunches, support vehicle and trailer for luggage, and land transfers. Bike hire available. Group size 4-10 plus bike guides/drivers.

Adventurous mountain biking

South Island holidays

New Zealand holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

Sometimes challenging, and at times technical, our Nelson and Marlborough Select Single Track weekend escape is a compilation of both scenic and fun single track.

We ride on a variety of single-track, from the well formed Queen Charlotte track which for two days winds its way through the Marlborough Sounds to a maze of purpose built mountain-bike trails in the Nelson forests. A final blast across the top of Takaka Hill, the "Marble Mountain" brings us to a 900m descent through stunning native bush to Golden Bay and a welcome 'Classic Kiwi BBQ" on the beach.

Our trusty support vehicle carries all your luggage. Accommodation is twin share - 3 nights in guesthouses and lodges. Food includes breakfasts and lunches from lunch on day 1 to lunch on day 4; evening meals are at your own cost at local cafes and restaurants so that you can experience some of New Zealand's famous local cuisine of your own choosing.

What is the mountain biking like?

4 days mountain biking - 90% cross country single track.

Suitable for anyone with a reasonable level of single-track experience.

A good level of fitness will add to the enjoyment of your trip.

From 20km to 60km per day. Total distance approximately 150km.

how this holiday makes a difference

We are active members of New Zealand Forest and Bird, and Greenpeace.

We are currently working on a project where we calculate the environmental cost of each of our biker’s air travel to New Zealand. We then transfer this cost into trees and plant the trees in a local reforestation project on our biking journey. In addition to this for every trip we lead we will plant sufficient trees to offset the CO2 emissions of our support vehicle. We plan to initiate this project in 2008.

As a company we are committed to running our tours in a responsible manner as highlighted below:

Small group size – Our groups really are small! With a maximum of 10 in any one group we minimize our impact on the small communities that we visit.
Support local economies – buy locally made products, use local accommodations, restaurants, markets and support small businesses. (Buying locally made products also decreases the environmental cost of importing). We also employ local drivers and guides in the countries we visit.
Encourage positive interaction and social exchange – again by supporting locally run businesses (and by travelling by bike!) we develop relationships with local communities and families on our trips where our clients from all over the world can meet and engage one to one with local folk; Also by learning the local languages.
Educate our bikers – about the effects of buying products that come from endangered species, or products that are destructive to wildlife or the environment. We also like to think about – “What are the short and long term effects of aid/charity on local communities?”, “Who benefits?”
Waste/rubbish management – when we travel we should treat our surrounding as we would treat our home (or better!). We do our best to avoid ‘single use packaging’ only using reusable or recyclable packaging. We recycle what can be, and manage any rubbish in the best possible way e.g. in Africa – all of our organic waste is feed to local domestic pigs and goats, and we always leave our campsites as we find them (or better!).
Environmentally conscious office – To avoid paper waste we aim to use as much computer technology as possible in our office. We don’t have any mass production of hard copy advertising/brochures/flyers etc… and when we do use paper it is recycled!

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.