I have tried something different with this post. I have attached links to the best rides we did while on our 7 weeks sojourn in the South Island over February, March & April.
In total we biked over 1,100km. We chose to ride the best bits of the plethora of tracks on offer around the parts of the South Island that we visited.
Select which rides you wish to view and enjoy the magnificent scenery on offer around the south Island.
After crossing on the ferry we started with a little ride around Blenheim and finished off with a visit to local wineries.
Dunedin provided us with the harbour loop which involved riding down one side of the Otago harbour to Port Chalmers across the harbour in a little ferry to Portobello. We then cycle back to the city along the other side of the harbour. 5 minutes from home we experienced our one and only shower of heavy rain.
We made the most of our time in Christchurch by visiting the earthquake “Red Zone”
We met up with LOTSW (Last of the Summer Wine) guys who I have biked with over the last couple of years. The first ride was on the Gold Trail from Lawrence to Roxburgh.
The following day we cycled from Roxburgh to Shingle Creek to where the boat takes you to Doctor’s point and the continuation of the track to Alexandra. We opted to cycle back and ride the rest of the track from Alexandra (Below)
We biked from Alexandra to Doctors Point to completed the Lake Roxburgh Clyle Track. On the return to Alexandra Ann decided she wanted to go further so we cycled up to Clyde before returning to our base at the NZMCA site in Alexandra
We took two vehicles up the Old Dunstan Trail, through 7 gates to the high point of the trail. Once the bikes were off loaded we cycled to the old Serpentine gold fields settlement. The only building left standing was the old stone church with the roof held down with no. 8 wire and large rocks.
Next stop was Naseby and a little blast through the trees surrounding town.
After the Palmerston North Crew headed home we based ourselves in Cromwell for a few days and rode some of the local cycleways around the town. The new Lake Dunstan track from Cromwell the Clyde was not opening for a few weeks, but we went as far as we could cycling from Cromwell to Cornish point were the new track was starting from.
We drove to Luggate to ride the track up one side of the clutha River into Wanaka and returned down the other side. This was certainly challenging at times but the views were spectacular,
We headed through Wanaka for the day to ride the trail from there to Glendhu Bay. I had completed this the year before with the Palmerston North crew right before COVID lockdown, but it was something Ann wanted to complete. She coped very well with the steep hills and twisting downhills but had one slight slip over a narrow plank bridge over a creek in the Glendhu Bay foreshore.
We parked up at the old Lumsden Railway Station loaded up the bikes and drove over to Mossburn then 86km over a very rough and dusty access road to Mt Nicholas Station on the shores of Lake Wakatipu (opposite Queenstown)We then cycled the 28km return to Walter Peak Station where we joined the tourists as they disembarked from the TSS Earnslaw. We had free tea and coffee in the woolshed as we mingled with the tourists before riding back to the Ute for the return drive to caravan.
We found a great location at Arrow Junction and stayed 3 nights while we explored some of the cycle tracks around the Queentown/Arrowtown area. The two rides below were the highlights of these few days.
We headed through to the Waitaki Basin and stayed with Ann’s sister Julie and her husband Al at their lovely holiday home in Twizel. They took on a ride over the Dusky trail with another couple. This ride was accessed from the main highway into Aorangi/Mt Cook and we finished in Twizel. The next day we rode the new cycle track over Sailors cutting that runs between Lakes Aviemore and Benmore. This was a challenging grade 2 & 3 ride compounded by quite strong winds. The other noteworthy ride was around the shores of Lake Ohau to the Ohau Lodge.
We stopped off at Motukarara for two nights. This is a little settlement on the way to Akaroa from Christchurch. We rode the Little River Cycleway, stopping off at Birdling Flats on the return ride.
We stayed the last night in the South Island at the NZMCA site in Kaikoura and had an enjoyable day exploring the sights around the town. The next day we headed to the ferry and crossed to begin our way back home.
It was nice to be back home in Taupō on familiar rides. This was one of the last rides on our Cube E-MBT’s before they were removed from the locked bike rack on the back of the Ute in the middle of the night by persons unknown .
Smith's Journeys 