New Zealand mountain biking tours

country:	New Zealand
location:	South Island
trip type:	Challenging mountain biking holidays
departures:	2008: 23 Nov 2009: 29 Mar
price:	From NZ $4900 (14 days) excluding flights. Single supplement NZ $840. Bike hire NZ $300 - NZ $400. Price includes accommodation, transfers, guides and some meals

Challenging mountain biking holidays

Small group cycling holidays

New Zealand holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

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 South Island mountain bike trip is a challenging journey and a scenic overload for your senses. We cross over New Zealand’s highest main road pass and dividing range, challenge ourselves with a few long distance riding days, and enjoy cruising along remote mountain valleys.

Your journey begins in the capital city - Wellington “The Windy City” – where we board the inter-island ferry for the cruise across to the South Island, passing through the beautiful Marlborough Sounds to Picton. We have chosen quiet country and scenic roads, where-ever possible avoiding busy main roads as we pass through stunning mountain valleys and follow meandering rivers, swim on the un-spoilt beaches in Golden Bay and the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park and experience genuine Kiwi hospitality and lifestyle.

Choose the 8 day option finishing in Christchurch or continue on with us for the full 14 days as we ride on down into the wide open spaces and mountains of Otago to the winter resort town of Wanaka and on to Queenstown – New Zealand’s adventure capital. With full vehicle support, this trip can be enjoyed by anyone with a good fitness level. 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.

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1:	We catch the mid morning Inter-island ferry to the South Island, passing through the stunning Marlborough Sounds to arrive in Picton. Onto our bikes for an afternoon warm-up ride we cycle along the scenic Queen Charlotte Drive as it winds its way to Havelock. Approx 40kms riding.
Day 2:	We start to stretch our legs as we ride through fertile farmland and areas of native forest, crossing the Rai saddle (300m) and Whangamoa range (480m) to Nelson. Approx 75kms riding.
Day 3:	Riding out of Nelson City we follow the coastal route to Motueka and on to Marahau on the edge of the stunning Abel Tasman National Park. In the afternoon we board a water Taxi for a scenic trip along the Abel Tasman coastline to Totaranui in beautiful Golden Bay. Approx 70kms riding.
Day 4:	Now we have got our legs working it’s time for our first big day. After a 20km warm-up we climb the “Marble Mountain” Takaka Hill (900m) and then drop back down into the Motueka Valley. Stop and swim in the Motueka River as we head inland to Nelson Lakes National Park – St Arnaud Village and a welcome cold beer. Approx 140kms riding.
Day 5:	Optional morning walk in Nelson Lakes National Park. A gentler day as we follow the Buller River to Murchison. This is a beautiful valley ride with bush clad ranges all around us and unlimited swimming opportunities. Approx 60kms riding.
Day 6:	We continue following the mighty Buller River, one of New Zealand’s premier white water rivers that winds its way through lush native forest and the Buller Gorge to the West Coast. Approx 100kms riding.
Day 7:	Wild coastline, crashing surf, amazing rock formations and more of New Zealand’s stunning rainforest. All this and more as we follow the coastline to Greymouth. Stop to check out the famous “Pancake Rocks” at Punakaiki and local craft galleries along the way. Approx 95kms riding.
Day 8:	Our second big challenging day as we leave the coast to cross the main divide over Arthurs Pass (920m). Stunning mountain backdrops, challenging climbs and never ending down-hills bring us out onto the Canterbury plains. We finish the day with a vehicle transfer across the flat farming plains and city suburbs to Christchurch - “the Garden City”. Approx 130kms riding.
Day 9:	Christchurch free day.
Day 10:	We drive away from the bustling Christchurch City and suburbs to Mount Hutt Village at the base of the Southern Alps. Today’s ride takes us through Canterbury farmland, small rural towns and rolling hills to Fairlie via little used back roads. Approx 100kms riding.
Day 11:	The landscape opens out into wide open and wild tussock country, snow capped mountains and glacial lakes. We stop for lunch at Lake Tekapo and an icy dip in Lake Pukaki. We finish the afternoon with a 1 hr transfer to Mt Cook Village, nestled at the base of New Zealand’s highest mountain. Approx 92kms.
Day 12:	Today we ride along the shoreline of Lake Pukaki, a glacial lake and hydro-electric dam and into Merino sheep country to Omarama. Stop to check out a salmon farm and cruise through this wide open countryside. Approx 95kms riding.
Day 13:	The landscape changes as we leave the Mackenzie Basin and enter the Otago high country tussock land. We cross the Lindis Pass at 971m and follow the Clutha River to the resort town of Wanaka. Approx 113kms riding.
Day 14:	Leaving Wanaka our ride takes us up the gently climbing Cardrona Valley to the historic Cardrona Village. We take a break before tackling the Crown Range - the highest main road in New Zealand at 1119m and then zigzag down for the final stretch into Queenstown. Approx 80kms riding.

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.