Misty Mountain Hop

Kia Ora Mates!

You’ll be arriv­ing into one of NZ’s sun­ni­est, wine lov­ing towns, home to beau­ti­ful sauvi­gnons blancs, and sun drenched val­leys of the Marl­bor­ough Region.

Most of you will have arrived a day or two pri­or to set­tle in and recov­er from jet lag.

Today, your guides will be arriv­ing to meet you at The Blenheim Palms Motel at 10:00 a.m. You will need to be packed up to move to a new accom­mo­da­tion today.

We’ll be offer­ing a ‘Bike Assem­bly’ ses­sion at the bike shop next door this morn­ing. We’ll also be offer­ing an air­port pick at 11 a.m. for those fly­ing in.

This after­noon, after the ‘Bike Assem­bly’ ses­sion and round­ing up all the crew mem­bers, we’ll hit the road and head off to a small local sea­side town called Have­lock for the night.

We’ll set­tle into the accom­mo­da­tion in the evening and then get togeth­er for a group BBQ and go over the epic adven­ture ahead!

Good morn­ing mates!

We’ll start this trip of a life­time by head­ing north to the head of The Marl­bor­ough Sounds, just down the road from our lodge.

After dri­ving through the lush coun­try­side, we’ll gear up to ride The Queen Char­lotte Track. The Queen Char­lotte Track will take us through beau­ti­ful native New Zealand fern forests, past stun­ning green bays and gold­en sandy beaches.

We’ll ride our way into the heart of The Marl­bor­ough Sounds, and enjoy a swim or two with local stingrays in one of the beau­ti­ful sandy bays. We’ll then keep on rid­ing and make our way back to the start of the track.

We’ll ride up to a beau­ti­ful look­out before return­ing back to the start of the track. This after­noon we’ll trans­fer over to an ulti­mate gem of a  local ride called The Waka­ma­ri­na Track, set in the fern-filled forests of The Rich­mond Range. This track will get the tech­ni­cal side of rid­ing start­ed, as we tack­le some ‘techy’ climbs and rooty nar­row sin­gle­track — it’s a hoot! 

The after­noon ride will end up in town where we’ll enjoy din­ner at a  deli­cious local water­front restau­rant with our new rid­ing buddies. 

Ris­ing to the sounds of Bell­birds and the crisp, fresh ocean air, we’ll head north to Nel­son and Motue­ka in the scenic Tas­man Bay.

From here, we’ll make our way over to the start of Gold­en Bay, which is a trop­i­cal par­adise at the top of the South Island.

We’ll gear up for an all-time favourite — the epic Rame­ka Track.

We’ll warm up with a loop on the super fun Canaan Downs Track first, before descend­ing into some sweet Kiwi singletrack.

The Rame­ka Track winds through beau­ti­ful native bush before head­ing down through open pas­ture land, to pine forests before hit­ting native for­est again. You’ll be beg­ging for more! This track has been known to ren­der rid­ers “speech­less”.

We’ll ride into the hip­pie town of Taka­ka, where any wor­ries are said to be washed away!

Ris­ing ear­ly to the smell of fresh flat white cof­fees, we’ll make our way over to Nel­son, where we’ll be embark­ing on one of Nelson’s most clas­sic moun­tain bike tracks.

Here we’ll gear up and take on the local’s Cop­per­mine Sad­dle Track.   A grunt of a 1000 m climb, start­ing in pine trees, rid­ing through native bush and then ris­ing into the dry alpine with views across the Tas­man Bay. This ride is a real goodie!

The sweat and tears are all worth it for the flowy, red rock down­hill on the Fern Gul­ly Track!

We’ll hop in the riv­er for a swim to cool off, then ride back into Nel­son Town­ship for a cold craft brew in one of our favourite apres ride hang outs. 

Today, we get a well-deserved rest day in the funky town of Nel­son, as it has lots to offer off the saddle. 

Nel­son is well known for its moun­tain bik­ing as well as its art scene and local pro­duce; it won’t dis­ap­point.  This is a gem of a town and one of the sun­ni­est in NZ (and the craft brew cap­i­tal of the South Island, might we add); it has a Euro­pean feel with loads of cool cafés and pubs.  Take a fer­ry over to the stun­ning Able Tas­man Nation­al Park, go for a ride or savor the awe­some local restau­rants and cafés. The Sat­ur­day morn­ing mar­kets make for a great start to your day!

After an ear­ly start, we’ll head west to the ghost town of Lyell and get ready for a good climb up part of the Old Ghost Road.

Here, we’re head­ing into New Zealand’s newest and epic back­coun­try sin­gle­tracks ever made.  We’ll ride up a well grad­ed incline of awe­some sin­gle­track, through mag­i­cal forests and alpine ridge lines of the wild west coast.  The Old Ghost Road is NZ’s longest sin­gle­track, com­pris­ing of an impres­sive rugged 87 kms in total. Today, we’ll ride and enjoy a stun­ning part of it!

This after­noon, we’ll head over to the real wild west of New Zealand, and gear up to fly high in a heli­copter!  We’ll strap the bikes up and set off in style to the top of The Vic­to­ria Range to a sweet hut perched in pure beau­ty over­look­ing end­less ridge­lines of west coast wilder­ness at its finest!

We’ll be on top of the world mates!

Please Note:  Weath­er and/or rid­ing abil­i­ties may dic­tate the heli-bike to be changed to the Croe­sus Track. Heavy rain does not allow us to chop­per up here. The heli-bik­ing expe­ri­ence requires all bikes to be strapped secure­ly to a rope that hangs under the chop­per in flight. Although the bikes are secured with care, it is like­ly for the bikes to shift dur­ing air trans­port and scratch­es to bike frames may hap­pen. If you are con­cerned with your bike get­ting scratched, you have the option of wrap­ping your bike with foam pads and duct tape. Rent­ing a bike through the add-ons tab is also an option. Sacred Rides is NOT respon­si­ble for scratch­es or dam­ages to bikes.

Ris­ing to the smell of fresh brewed cof­fee and great views, we’ll test our brakes out for our awe­some mis­sion ahead!

We’ll be enjoy­ing a 1100 m descent down the pre­mier Kir­wans Track. We’ll flow through stun­ning Beach tree and Fern Gul­ly forests on this epic tech­ni­cal descent!

After our ride, we’ll hop in the shut­tle and dri­ve down the Grey Val­ley head­ing inland, up and over the South­ern Alps to the Craigieburn Forest.

Ris­ing to the high dry moun­tains, we’ll get back in the sad­dle for some epic rid­ing in Craigieburn Forest.

Tack­ling an uphill grav­el road to the bot­tom of Craigieburn Ski Field, we’ll take a short rest before head­ing down the well-named Edge trail which leads on to a track called “The Luge”.  After the Luge, a short uphill is fol­lowed by the new Dra­co­phyl­lum and  Hogs­back Track.  This is New Zealand’s sin­gle­track at its best mates… a real hoot — sweet sin­gle­track all the way!

We’ll rest our mus­cles as we dri­ve to the high dry McKen­zie Coun­try to the stun­ning turquoise waters of Lake Tekapo, also home to the clear­est skies in the world! 

Wak­ing to the beau­ty and stun­ning land­scapes of the Macken­zie Coun­try, we’ve got an inspir­ing sin­gle­track ride to warm up with, which flows through native Tus­socks along with incred­i­ble views of the turquoise taint­ed Lake Tekapo.

We’ll then move onto our secret gem of a ride which flows through the best alpine views the South Island has to offer.  Imag­ine rid­ing through high peaks, sheep and  flow­ers on a super fun cross coun­try ride, end­ing with a cold beer (or two)! 

We’ll ride to our unique accom­mo­da­tion tonight — we’ll be stay­ing in a con­vert­ed shear­er’s quar­ters with views to die for.  It does­n’t get more Kiwi than this mates!

A quick lunch break at Tatopani, and we’ll con­tin­ue rid­ing towards Beni where our van to Pokhara awaits.

After leav­ing this breath­tak­ing place, we’ll head down to Cen­tral Ota­go, home to semi desert-like land­scapes, great Pinot Noirs and amaz­ing riding.

We’ll enjoy anoth­er post­card dri­ve as we head over the Lindis Pass, and on to the beau­ti­ful lake­side town of Wana­ka.  Here, we’ll spend the after­noon rid­ing some amaz­ing, fast, flow­ing sin­gle­track made by the keen local moun­tain bike com­mu­ni­ty. We’ll ride Dean’s Bank, a flowy and fun local ride. 

After the ride and a cold brew, we’ll make our way up to the Car­dona Val­ley and over to the adven­ture tourism cap­i­tal of the world known as Queenstown! 

Yes, that’s right, we’re div­ing into more must-do rides in Queenstown! 

The rid­ing around here is just too good to not stay for a sec­ond day. .. you’ll be drool­ing and want­i­ng more! 

Today, we’re up ear­ly for some local Kiwian break­fast in town and a deli­cious flat white before head­ing to Coro­net Peak for some enduro style rides. 

Start­ing with a good climb over­look­ing unre­al views of the  Wakatipu Basin, we’ll then descent onto the famous Rude Rock track.  Berms,   swoops and pure fun on top of Queenstown. 

We’ll end with our adren­a­line pump­ing on the Skip­pers Canyon trail … high ‑fives all around  — need we say more?

Our last morn­ing of the trip! Sob, weep, waaaaa!

High five your new rid­ing pals and say your goodbyes.

Today, break­fast will be on your own, as Rider’s depar­tures times and plans vary.

Your guides will be doing drop offs at the Queen­stown Air­port at 10:00 a.m. or at your hotel of choice in Queen­stown by 11:00 a.m.

If stay­ing a few extra days, we rec­om­mend stay­ing at the Crowne Plaza.

Until next time!