Misty Mountain Hop

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

After an ear­ly start, we head west to the his­toric ghost town of Lyell, the gate­way to one of New Zealand’s most icon­ic back­coun­try moun­tain bike trails: the Old Ghost Road.

This leg­endary route is New Zealand’s longest pur­pose-built sin­gle­track, stretch­ing an impres­sive 87km through remote wilder­ness. Today, we’ll ride and savour an awe­some steady climb on beau­ti­ful­ly grad­ed sin­gle­track through lush native for­est and along dra­mat­ic alpine ridge­lines over­look­ing the wild West Coast.

Expect a true back­coun­try experience—remote, immer­sive, and unforgettable—with flow­ing climbs, spec­tac­u­lar views, and a real sense of jour­ney through untouched ter­rain. This is clas­sic New Zealand wilder­ness rid­ing at its very best.

Optional Heli-Bike Upgrade 

For those look­ing to ele­vate the adven­ture even fur­ther, an option­al heli-bike upgrade may be avail­able, weath­er and con­di­tions per­mit­ting. This allows us to fly by heli­copter into the high alpine ter­rain, max­imis­ing time spent rid­ing spec­tac­u­lar ridge­line sin­gle­track and access­ing ter­rain oth­er­wise unreach­able in a sin­gle day.

Please note:

• Heli­copter access is weath­er depen­dent and may be altered or can­celled due to wind, cloud, or heavy rain.
• The heli-bike expe­ri­ence involves bikes being secure­ly slung beneath the heli­copter. While care is tak­en, bikes may shift dur­ing flight and cos­met­ic scratch­es can occur.
• Rid­ers con­cerned about poten­tial marks may wrap their bike with foam and tape, or choose to rent a bike instead.
• The oper­a­tor is not respon­si­ble for cos­met­ic dam­age incurred dur­ing heli transport.

If heli­copter access is not pos­si­ble, the day will remain an Old Ghost Road rid­ing expe­ri­ence, adjust­ed to ensure the best and safest rid­ing avail­able on the day.

Tonight we’ll stay in an old Kiwi Back­coun­try Hut in a clas­sic Gold Min­ing Town of Reefton.

This after­noon we’ll hit the Reefton local trails for a sol­id few hours of prop­er West Coast rid­ing. Tucked away in dense native for­est and old gold-min­ing coun­try, these trails punch well above their weight—short, sharp climbs, fast flow­ing sin­gle­track, and just enough tech to keep things interesting.

Reefton’s rid­ing is raw and authen­tic. No bike-park pol­ish, no crowds—just good dirt, tight trees, and clas­sic sin­gle­track that rewards rid­ers who stay light on the brakes and trust the trail. We’ll link togeth­er a mix of for­est trails and local con­nec­tors, stack­ing descents and adjust­ing the loops to suit the group’s legs and appetite.

After the ride, we’re off for a scenic trav­el over the South­ern Alps to a won­der­ful rid­ing des­ti­na­tion in the Craigieburn Mountains.

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, 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!

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!

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?

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