New Zealand

country:	New Zealand
location:	South Island
trip type:	Introductory/moderate & challenging cycling holidays
departures:	This trip is no longer running
price:	From NZ $1190 - NZ $1375 (4 days) excluding flights and bike hire. Price includes accommodation, transfers, guides and meals as per itinerary. Depends on choice of trip, see below for details
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

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South Island holidays

New Zealand holidays

introduction to New Zealand

These cycling adventure “weekend escapes” are a great excuse to escape from the city and enjoy 4 days of fantastic worry free riding.

Sometimes challenging and at times a bit technical, our Nelson and Golden Bay Mountain Bike Long Weekend escape are achievable by anyone with a reasonable level of single-track experience. With a focus on scenic and cross country trails we ride on a variety of single-track, farm tracks and 4x4 roads - starting in the hills & forests behind Nelson City and including the famous ‘Rameka Track’ which drops us down into stunning Golden Bay.

We spend our days riding through the spectacular scenery and fantastic tracks which Golden Bay is famous for finishing each day in our pick of the region’s guesthouses and lodges with the ever-present hot showers, cold beers, local wines and food and, at times, quirky restaurants!

our trips

Road Cycle Long Weekend: From NZ $1375 (4 days) ex flights
Departs 2009: 19 Nov, 17 Dec
Departs 2010: 21 Jan, 18 Feb, 18 Mar, 25 Apr, 18 Nov, 16 Dec

Itinerary:

Day 1:	Arrive in Blenheim in the morning. If you are flying in we will pick you up at the airport. We meet for a morning coffee and a chat about what is to come over the next few days. After getting ourselves set up on our bikes we head off through the Marlborough wine region then gently climb along the Wairau Valley to St Arnaud and Nelson Lakes National Park. 105kms. Accommodation: Log Cabin. (L)
Day 2:	Enjoy an early morning walk beside the lake and then its back on our bikes as we head towards the coast. Today’s ride, although dropping towards the coast, includes two notable climbs to test your legs as we pass through lush forest and follow stunning river valleys. The day’s ride ends with a glass of wine at a Nelson vineyard. Approx 100kms cycling. Accommodation: Nelson Guesthouse. (B, L)
Day 3:	Outside Nelson City we follow quiet rolling back roads to Motueka. After a coffee and lunch break we climb the ‘Marble Mountain’ Takaka Hill (900m) before dropping back down into Golden Bay and a final cruise out to the beach. Approx 110kms riding. Accommodation: Guesthouse.(B, L)
Day 4:	With an early start we board a water taxi for a 2hr scenic boat ride around the Abel Tasman National Park coastline to Marahau. Back on our bikes we follow an undulating coastal road before heading inland into the heart of the Moutere wine growing region and end our journey with a vineyard wine tasting. In the afternoon we transfer you back to Nelson in time to catch a flight out. Approx 40kms riding. (B)

B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner

Trip includes: 3 nights accommodation on a share twin basis, bike guides/drivers, support vehicle and trailer to carry all luggage, meals as per itinerary, land and boat transfers for the duration of the tour as per itinerary. Bike hire: Hybrid - NZ $300, Road bike - NZ $400. Single supplement NZ $195.

Nelson and Golden Bay Mountain bike Long Weekend: From NZ $1190 (4 days) ex flights
Departs 2009: 29 Oct, 03 Dec
Departs 2010: 07 Jan, 04 Feb, 04 Mar, 02 Apr, 04 Nov, 02 Dec

Itinerary:

Day 1:	Arrive in Nelson in the morning. If you are flying in we will pick you up at the airport. We meet at our accommodation for a picnic lunch and a chat about what is to come over the next few days. After getting ourselves set up on our bikes we head out for a return ride on the historic trails in the hills behind the city. 20-40kms. Accommodation: Guesthouse. (B)
Day 2:	A 1½ hr transfer (with coffee stop on the way) brings us to the top of Takaka Hill, locally known as the “Marble Mountain”. We start the day’s riding with a loop of the Canaan Downs MTB tracks. This is an area only recently opened up for mountain biking and is being developed by the local mountain bike club in conjunction with DOC (Department of Conservation). After a break for lunch and a short walk to check out the famous Harwood’s Hole we head down the bush lined Rameka track to finish the day at Pohara Beach. Approx 45kms biking. Accommodation: Guesthouse. (B, L)
Day 3:	This morning we head to the west coast near the base of Farewell Spit. Our first ride of the day is on farm and 4x4 tracks near Kaihoka Lakes with spectacular views stretching in all directions. After lunch you can choose either a ride or walk to explore more of the area near the spit. Approx 20-35kms biking. Accommodation: Guesthouse. (B, L)
Day 4:	For our last ride of the weekend we head to the historic Aorere Goldfields and a loop ride taking in 4x4 tracks and some more technical single track as we get a taste of the bygone gold-mining boom in the area. After lunch at the famous Naked Possum we transfer you back to Nelson. Approx 25kms biking. (B)

B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner

Trip includes: 3 nights accommodation on a twin share basis, 3 breakfasts and 3 lunches, bike guides/drivers, support vehicle and trailer to carry your all luggage, all land transfers for the duration of the tour. Bike hire if required – Hard tail: NZ $200, Full suspension: NZ $300. Single supplement NZ $195.

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’:

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.

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South Island holidays | New Zealand holidays