Kia Ora means ‘be well’ in the Maori lan­guage. You won’t find it hard to be well in New Zealand, one of the most spell­bind­ing coun­tries on Earth. 

On this incred­i­ble 10-day ride, you’ll ride with ghosts along New Zealand’s most epic back­coun­try track (the now famous Old Ghost Road) and flow through the best rides in the coun­try. You’ll heli drop, boat cruise and shred some of the most thrilling and remark­able slices of sin­gle­track known to Kiwis. Plus, you’ll get to shack up in incred­i­ble and unique accom­mo­da­tions, includ­ing a cozy hut perched 1200 m in the Vic­to­ria Moun­tain Range, a con­vert­ed shear­er’s quar­ters with pic­ture-per­fect views, as well as a mag­i­cal ocean-side eco-lodge acces­si­ble only by water taxi.

Cre­at­ed by two pas­sion­ate and high­ly expe­ri­enced moun­tain bike guides, this trip is every­thing you could pos­si­bly dream of… and so much more.

Price is inclu­sive of all applic­a­ble NZ taxes.

Is This Ride For You?

You are an expe­ri­enced, skilled and fit moun­tain bik­er with sol­id moun­tain bike han­dling skills who gets out to ride fre­quent­ly. You have expe­ri­ence rid­ing in a vari­ety of ter­rain, and can han­dle chal­leng­ing climbs, tech­ni­cal descents, as well as some expo­sure. You can ride for up to 5 hours over sev­er­al days. You live for adven­ture, and the big­ger the better!

Itinerary

DAY 1.  Arrivals, Nel­son New Zealand

Kia Ora Mates!

You’ll be arriv­ing into one of NZ’s sun­ni­est, art­sy fart­sy craft brew lov­ing towns, of beau­ti­ful Nel­son New Zealand. Home to the most epic Moun­tain Bik­ing — aka  IMBA Gold Sta­tus for Moun­tain Bik­ing. Ferns, gold­en beach­es, bike shops, cafes , and google Kiwiana lifestyle shine here mates. Welcome!

This after­noon we’ll meet up and go test our bikes out on some local Nel­son clas­sics, and grab a cold brew or two post ride.

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

DAY 2. Cop­per­mine Sad­dle and Dunn Mountain

Ris­ing ear­ly to the smell of fresh flat white cof­fees, 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 favorite après ride hang outs. 

Day 3. Waka­ma­ri­na Track, Marl­bor­ough Sounds Or Takaka/ Rame­ka Track

Since we will be locat­ed cen­tral­ly in Nel­son, we are sur­round­ed by some awe­some MTB trails in any direc­tion. Depend­ing on the group and the weath­er, your guides will choose the most appro­pri­ate back­coun­try trail today. Either ride is an hour or so away from Nel­son, and does require a local’s knowl­edge and logis­tics & transport. 

The Waka­ma­ri­na is an old gold min­ing trail, that’s techy and gnarly filled with heaps of stream cross­ings and fern gul­ly val­leys. Ride up to an old back­coun­try via a super workout.

 The Rame­ka Track is a super shut­tle assist grav­i­ty fed trail, that swoops down through a vari­ety of chang­ing ter­rain into the sweet sur­ren­der of Gold­en Bay. Ride and wash your wor­ries away.

Day 4. Old Ghost Road & Heli-bike to Kir­wans Track

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.

Day 5. Kir­wans Track Descent

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! One of our all time fav’s, that screams adven­ture the whole way down. There’s  just noth­ing like it!

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.

Day 6.  Craigieburn, The Edge, The Luge and more!

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!

Day 7. Lake Tekapo/Mt Cook & The Hobbit

Wak­ing to the beau­ty and stun­ning land­scapes of the Macken­zie Coun­try, we’ve got an inspir­ing sin­gle­track ride to warm up with, in the heart of NZ’s  glaciat­ed peaks. It flows through native Tus­socks along with incred­i­ble views of the turquoise taint­ed Lake Tekapo. A real beau­ty to start the day with.

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 NZ’s high­est peaks with MT Cook, sheep and  flow­ers on a super fun cross coun­try ride, end­ing with a cold beer (or two)! Oh yeah and a wee bit of sheep shit.

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!

Day 8. Cen­tral Ota­go Desert Rides

Time to head South to some leg­endary sin­gle track in NZ’s dry rocky desert coun­try. This after­noon we’ll ride through some Thyme cov­ered hills, over rocky knol­ly ris­es and hid­den val­leys for a real hoot. You’ll feel like your in yet anoth­er dif­fer­ent coun­try, as you total­ly shift in gears and ter­rain. NZ deliv­ers yet again, straight to the fin­ish line mates!

Day 9. Queens­land Epic

Yes, that’s right, we’re head­ing to explore some  must-do rides in Queenstown!

Today, we’re up ear­ly for some local Kiwiana 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. Sweet As! We’ll do a few laps of this before con­nect­ing onto the adren­a­line pump­ing Skip­pers Canyon trail. A good climb out and onto a grand finale trail that takes us all the way to Arrow­town for a well deserved finale brew… high ‑fives all around  — need we say more?

Day 10. Queen­stown Goodbyes

Final morn­ing, your guides will be offer­ing air­port trans­fers or bag drop off to your hotel in Queenstown.


The fol­low­ing data rep­re­sents a typ­i­cal itin­er­ary, but adven­ture trav­el can be unpre­dictable, and our Guides may need to make last-minute changes to ensure your enjoy­ment. Inclement weath­er, road clo­sures, changes to the itin­er­ary to accom­mo­date requests, and oth­er issues may affect the itin­er­ary. The ride data rep­re­sents an ‘aver­age’ itin­er­ary, and may dif­fer when you actu­al­ly show up to ride. Our guides make every effort to stick to the itin­er­ary as post­ed, but your safe­ty is our #1 priority.

Ride Data: Misty Mountain Hop

Day Hours of rid­ing Dis­tance rid­den Ele­va­tion gained Ele­va­tion lost High­est ele­va­tion
1 3 12.5 984 984 820
2 5 40 3280 3280 2952
3 4 12.5 1312 3608 2952
4 3 17 1312 3937 4265
5 3 8 328 3937 4265
6 5 17 3937 3937 4101
7 3 11 1312 1738 3608
8 3 18.5 1640 2788 1968
9 5 18.5 1968 5249 5413
10 0 0 0 0 0
Totals 34 HRS

Picture Yourself Here…

Book Misty Mountain Hop Now

Dates chosen: Feb. 22, 2024—Mar. 02, 2024
Skill Rating: Blue Square
Fitness Rating: Blue Square
Exit Booking
Skill Levels
Black Diamond

The Black Diamond Rides are  suitable for riders looking for that edge. Maybe it’s the edge of a drop, the edge of a cliff, or singletrack requiring focus and fast reactions developed from extensive experience riding “the edge”. You will find yourself on steep trails of varied surfaces. In the Pacific North West that could be slick roots and loam, in Nepal you will find exposed granite in the Mustang Valley and in Guatemala it maybe narrow stairways through cliffside villages. While airtime is rarely required, the ability to find the backside or clean a tabletop should be comfortable or in a state of progress. Obstacles on Black rides are likely to be outside the range of your bikes ability to cover your goofs with its awesome suspension and grip.

Blue Square

In general, Blue trails are narrower than green trails, encounter unavoidable obstacles such as roots, rocks, and drops that are up to 8-inches tall. You will want to have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of mountain biking including body positions, powerful braking, cornering, riding on varied terrain, steep sections and experience riding trails that requires line choice. Airtime is not mandatory, but you will find yourself on trails with alternate lines giving you the option.

Double Black Diamond

A Double Black ride is for those that already know they are looking for a Double Black. It’s going to be very hard and require advanced bike handling skills. You will find yourself on trails with sections most non-riders would look at and say, “that’s totally nuts!”. You will know how to look at a line and contemplate where it will work and where it won’t. Drops of a couple feet should be comfortable and getting your bike off the ground should feel predictable and fun.

Green Circle

Typically, green Rides are safe for beginners. Green Rides may have both avoidable and unavoidable obstacles. Trails are generally low grade, wide, consistent surface texture and have minimal features. You are likely to come across unavoidable obstacles 2-inches or shorter, which is small enough for mountain bike tires to simply roll over. More challenging than tarmac, but in general, a wonderful Ride for those riders new to mountain biking or looking for a casual experience.

Fitness Levels
Black Diamond

A Black Fitness ride will test you. Aside from needing to be able to manage up to 6 hours on the bike, day after day, including distance up to 50km/30miles and elevation gains up to 1750m/5000feet of climbing, you will be adding extra challenges along the route like periods of hike-a-bike and the extra effort required by the whole body to safely dance with your bike over technical terrain. Generally, riders who are up for a Black Fitness ride, likely spend time on the bike a couple times each week.

Blue Square

Blue should be considered a good deal more effort than our Green Rides.  You should be able to handle 3 to 5 hours in the saddle covering up to 45km/30miles and be able to pull off a big day of 1000m/3000feet of elevation gain. Managing fuel is important as well.  You should have a good understanding how your body responds to multiple days on the bike. We will help with positive coaching, a manageable pace and plenty of trailside snacks.

Double Black Diamond

A Double Black will be for those with the strength and endurance to get to the top of anything they want and understand the term “turning the screw”. Distance could be quite high on some routes and elevation gain numbers could hit 2000m/6000 feet+ in a day. You are likely riding multiple days a week during the dry periods and have a trainer or belong to a gym for the rest of the year.

Green Circle

You should be ready to spend 2-4 hours per day on the bike. Mileage may be up to 30km/20 miles and elevation gain will be under 500m/1500feet. On e-MTB tours, numbers will be higher, however the approximate effort would be considered similar to a standard Green Circle ride. If you get on your bike once a week, you will be just fine. However, when preparing for a Ride, you will benefit from more rides and time in the saddle.