Bike, hike and kayak in New Zealand

country:	New Zealand
location:	South Island
trip type:	Adventurous mountain biking holidays
departures:	2008: 5 Nov 2009: 11 Mar
price:	From NZ $3663 - NZ $4995 (11-15 days) excluding flights. Single supplement NZ $475. Bike hire is included
offers:	We offer a 9% late availability discount on the 5th November departure

South Island holidays

New Zealand holidays

Activity holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

15 Days biking and active adventure Christchurch to Queenstown, or 11 days Christchurch to Christchurch.

New Zealand is a land of contrasts compressed into a pacific island paradise. The South Island especially so with dramatic alps, pristine rivers and lakes, golden beaches and wild rocky coastlines.

Our “Bike, Hike & Kayak” adventure is a selection of the South Island’s finest non-technical, off-road and on-road biking combined with some stunning short and day walks, sea-kayaking in the Abel Tasman and scenic train journeys. Your adventure begins in Christchurch “The Garden City” – where we board the Tranz Coastal train for the stunning and rugged journey to Picton.

We bike the famous Queen Charlotte track through stunning mountain valleys and follow meandering rivers, walk through pristine forests and along un-spoilt beaches in Golden Bay, kayak in the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park and experience genuine Kiwi hospitality and lifestyle.

We have chosen remote classic routes and little known back-roads and tracks that not only get us to the next destination but also to show you the real New Zealand. With full 4x4 vehicle support, this trip can be enjoyed by anyone with some off-road cycling experience and reasonable fitness level. At various parts of the journey you will have the choice of a more or less challenging biking or walking options to suit your abilities.

At the end of each day we stay in a variety of guesthouses, hostels, lodges with the ever-present hot showers, cold beers and opportunities to experience some of New Zealand’s finest hospitality and local cuisine.

trip profile

15 days Christchurch to Queenstown or 11 days from Christchurch to Christchurch.
8-10 days biking on dirt and paved roads. Some off road experience preferred.
7 hiking options from 1hr to full day.
1 day sea-kayaking.
Vehicle support to carry all your luggage, to help you up those hills and so that lunch, snacks and water are always at hand.
Accommodation: 14 nights hotel, guesthouses, motels, hostels and lodges.
Food: 2 meals a day included from breakfast on day 2 to lunch on day 15, except when stated on the detailed itinerary. (Most evening meals are not included to give you a chance to experience some of New Zealand's famous local cuisine of your own choosing).
Group size: minimum 4, maximum 10; plus tour leaders.
Bike hire is available, contact us for more information.

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1:	AM: Scenic Tranz Coastal train from Christchurch to Picton. PM: Bush hike.
Day 2-3:	Ride the Queen Charlotte track, NZ’s longest continuous single track. Transfer to Nelson.
Day 4:	Explore the Nelson markets and local vineyards.
Day 5:	Ride the Rameka track (or road option) into beautiful Golden Bay.
Day 6:	Explore Golden Bay, local rides and hikes on Farewell Spit.
Day 7:	Sea kayak in the Abel Tasman - explore the crystal clear ocean and golden beaches.
Day 8:	Take a day hike in Nelson lakes National park and optional evening single track bike.
Day 9:	Bike along a remote mountain valley, through farmland, lush native forest and alongside pristine rivers and streams.
Day 10:	Hike or bike the Charming Creek walkway on the wild West Coast. In the afternoon take a ride out to the cape Foulwind seal colony.
Day 11:	Travel down the West Coast to the Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. *For those that are leaving us today, in the late afternoon board the train at Greymouth to cross the scenic trans-alpine railway over the Southern Alps and through Arthur’s Pass National Park back to Christchurch. .
Day 12:	We spend the day in “Glacier Country” - optional activities, hiking and scenic flights.
Day 13:	A road ride via the Haast Pass to the resort town of Wanaka.
Day 14:	Full day’s cross country ride or hike in the Aspiring National Park region.
Day 15:	A half day ride into historic gold mining country along a 4x4 track. Afternoon transfer to Queenstown.

small group adventure holiday

Typically you will be sharing your experiences with between 2-10 like minded travellers (depending on the trip and how many others are booked on the trip) and you'll have a group leader with you. Whether you are travelling alone or with friends it's good value, and a great way to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is some flexibility and you'll have plenty of privacy. This trip will appeal to travellers of all ages who enjoy meeting new people as well as seeing new places.

how this holiday makes a difference

It is important to us that when we travel to different parts of our amazing planet that our exchange is always a mutual one and that we make a positive contribution to people and places that we visit along the way.

These days ‘responsible travel' and ‘Sustainability' are hot topics. Responsible travel is not about donating large sums of money to charity (at least not without thoroughly researching the long-term intentions or effects of the charity). We believe responsible travel is about taking time to think about how our actions can benefit or how they impact the people, communities, economies, environments and eco-systems we visit, and then use this to make a difference (or sometimes more appropriately - how we can NOT make a difference). We are constantly considering our actions and how we and the people who travel with us can improve our impact on the places we visit.

Here are just some of the ways that we ‘make a difference’:

New Zealand activity holiday

Social integration with the local people is a central part of our trips. Simply travelling by bike is a great start – a great way for our bikers and local people to meet and start a conversation.
We buy locally grown and produced food as much as possible; we support local businesses by staying in locally owned guesthouses, eating in local restaurants and taking our bikers to local operations and parks.
Educate our bikers – about the effects of buying products that come from endangered species, or products that are destructive to wildlife or the environment (feeding some of the New Zealand wildlife can cause a lot of problems for example).
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 re use what can be reused, recycle what can be recycled, and limit what needs to go into landfill as much as possible.
We have an environmentally conscious office – To avoid paper waste we aim to use as much computer technology as possible in our office. And when we do print we use paper from recycled sources!
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 during 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 this is a new trip for us in 2008 and we will be looking into an environmental project for our trip to support.
We are active members of New Zealand Forest and Bird, and Greenpeace.

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.