South island place NZ - Doing it the Haka Way

South island place​NZ - Doing it the Haka Way

A health practitioner from Switzerland, a nutritionist from Japan, a counter-terrorism professional from Cairns, a city planner from Copenhagen, a company attorney from Belgium, a canine kennel operator from Oregon, a builder, a boilermaker and a candlestick maker…

Okay, I made that ultimate one up. Such a numerous bunch but all linked via one frequent interest; a wish to experience some of the great trails the South Island of New Zealand could serve up. And to do so, all had signed up with NZ based totally operator Haka Tours on their seven-day South Island Dirt Seeker—a trip that would take us from Christchurch to Queenstown. The preceding year I’d flogged myself in the inaugural Pioneer seven-day stage race; an event that

traveled between the same two spots. Now it used to be time to smell the roses and cherry pick out the trails inaccurate organization on a gloriously sunny week.

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I met the crew at the Haka Lodge in Christchurch to find some had already executed a week in the North Island and had been full of memories of Rotorua, Taupo and more. The original design used to be to hit up the trails of the new Christchurch Adventure Park, which had only opened until now in the summer. However, our tour began just after the devastating bushfire that ripped through the Port Hills and the Adventure Park. Christchurch has suffered too a good deal in latest years and it simply looks so horribly unfair that a key new funding for the town was once broken and briefly closed.

Bikes have been loaded onto the trailer and bodies onto the bus as our publications Jason and Morgs had an alternative plan—we headed over to Godley Head to get amongst it on some quality trails that offered notable views over the Pacific and down into Lyttelton Harbour. The welcome that New Zealand provides mountain bikers was bolstered by using path signage announcing, ‘Walkers and runners please hold clear of cyclists’. How frequently is it the other way around?

A run down to lunch on Sumner seashore by using the rocky Greenwood and Captain Thomas tracks offered masses of the task and self-selected our group of eleven. Klaus, our Danish city planner celebrated our arrival at sea degree with a skinny dip that entertained the locals on the beach.

In any riding team that comes collectively randomly, a variety of capabilities and fitness appear. There are those who love to go down,

those who love to go up, these for whom having both wheels off the ground is a badge of honor and these for whom having each wheel and often one foot on the ground is a necessity. Therein lies the mission of any guide; to keep all people happy. It’s never effortless however continuously all people support every person else and the team gels.

And certainly, that used to be the case for us. Chai, Justin, and Rob desired to go down as quickly as they could. Linda, Carl, and Ayumi acquired down nearly everything. Everyone else unfolds out in the back of that.

All aboard, we headed west into the mountains for a night time at Springfield with now not a Simpson in sight. Jason was reduced straight from the mold of tour bus drivers with witticisms and commentary in the course of our time on the road. The difference was he was once mild in stature, in Haka Tours tee no longer white collar shirt and a bloody accurate mountain biker. Morgs, a pretty latest arrival from the UK, performed a quieter foil to Jason’s endless banter however matched him in bike ability and had taught himself a surprising quantity of local information and history given his brief time in the country.

Squealing on the Edge

The second day saw us ride the exposed candy trails up at Craigieburn.

The sweetness commenced in the auto park the place Jason confirmed us timber blackened not through furnace however by using a lichen upon which tiny insects made a nectar. The long opening fire trail climb was once cherished by way of few besides Klaus, our town planning Dane, who relished something that went up and up. A lesson on how to cease and which way to fall on steep exposed traversing trails was nicely heeded as we picked our way alongside the narrow and aptly named Edge Trail that reduces through scree slopes and beech forest—thoughtful driving indeed.

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We’d long gone up, we’d gone throughout and now it was once time to go four hundred meters down on The Luge; a fast, rooty downhill that brought about smiles and, for Ayumi Kamiya, squeals. ‘Are you me, come here’ was once how this Japanese nutritionist had instructed me to pronounce her name. I requested her how she’d come to be on the tour, ‘I learn a little English from a New Zealand man in Japan. He told me to do an MTB tour right here to improve my English’. On any downhill run, you knew when Ayumi was once coming through the squealing—not from her brakes however from her mouth.

Along pressure that afternoon took us to the very cozy and spectacularly placed Ohau Lodge deep in the Southern Alps. Kaffir lime and kumara soup, panna cotta with poached rhubarb and different delights satisfied discerning mountain biker appetites. Generally, the lodging on the tour was once fundamental however comfortable, something that obviously keeps the value down which may appeal to many riders.

For the Europeans and Alison the American, most had located Haka Tours through googling mountain bike tours in New Zealand. Most had been on tightly scheduled two or three-week vacation trips barring for Nils who was on a whistle-stop world tour. For the 4 Aussies on the tour, all from Queensland, they’d booked on the tour to get a style of Kiwi riding, trusting in the tour company to feed them as an alternative than cooking up a tour themselves.

Whilst Jason took the ever-enthusiastic Swiss medical doctor Linda for a pre-breakfast ride up the Alps2Ocean trail, the relaxation of us stood on the veranda of the hotel and watched the daybreak across a lengthy cloud hanging low over Lake Ohau and light up the snowy summit of Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest.

Herbie Rides Again

Who remembers Herbie? Our 1/3 day took us into the dry, schist hills around Alexandra in Central Otago to experience some very herbal trails in Flat Rock Reserve. Thyme grew everywhere and its aroma accompanied our singletrack climb onto a plateau that was once dotted with wild rock tors and formations. We picked a route via and every so often over earlier than a long descent returned to the bus for the pressure onto Wanaka. I skipped the night time ride at the famed Deans Bank trails that evening.

Myself, Jason and Chai, a builder from the Sunshine Coast, woke to another best blue sky day and headed for an early trip on the right hand constructed Sticky Forest trails. Five to 10-minute climbs on such trails as the aptly named Chairlift have been followed by way of fast, fun, snaking descents. Up and down we went for an hour and a half, at instances squealing like Ayumi had taught us until we have been buggered.

Skyline & Skippers

And thence to Queenstown, that mad, hectic, adrenaline junkie’s paradise, fantastically placed on the part of Lake Wakatipu and no longer a long way from the far-off Fiordland region. In maintaining with the place, we drove straight to the Skyline Gondola. For decades this gondola had been taking vacationers excessive above town onto the flanks of Bob’s Peak. Then in 2011, it started out lifting mountain bikes to access a new community of flow and downhill tracks back to its base.

Now the normal vacationers alternate in the gondolas with mountain bike travelers looking for effortless get right of entry to gravity.

The up and down was once a real contrast to our morning in Sticky Forest and even more from our ride the day earlier than at Flat Rock.

Everyone, mainly these with dropper seatposts, grew to become downhill heroes on the long, fast, vastly bermed descents via the forest, selecting path grades to suit. With the Haka Lodge proper in the center of town, it was once an effortless stroll to dinner and a grand get together of Morgs’ 30th with the birthday track voiced in at least five languages.

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Had we saved the high-quality till last? That's tough to say after a week that covered so a good deal top driving but my final day with the

crew was exceedingly special. We drove up to Coronet Peak ski motel and parked at the base station. Rain threatened on a very windy morning as we climbed and walked four hundred meters to the very pinnacle of the height on a steep access road. With staggering views all the way, we began to descend 1,100 vertical meters of singletrack.

Down the Coronet Trail to the base station and then past to pick out up the start of Rude Rock, possibly one of New Zealand’s most iconic trails. Rude Rock options its way down a slender ridge and Chai received air off a tabletop, solely to discover a wind gust blowing him sideways in mid-air and depositing him in the welcome embody of smooth tussock grass some meters off to the side.

We then peeled off Rude Rock onto ‘Pack, Track & Sack’ and on we descended to the head of Skippers Canyon. Then, as if our smiles weren’t large enough and constant into vicinity by the wind, we still had the 4km lengthy Zoot Track to do—an fantastic path that preferences its way down Skippers Canyon amongst the most outstanding rock architecture. We sooner or later popped out onto the Skippers Canyon Avenue just as Queenstown MTB Shuttles had been pulling up to lift us again to our bus. Even the uphill shuttle used to be impressive, traveling along the precipitous Skippers Canyon road which was built at some stage in the 1860s gold rush

Way to Go?

Yes, it’s rather convenient to move the ditch with your bike in the plane keep and sure New Zealand, extra than any country on earth, is set up to serve tourism on a plate, inclusive of so many MTB delights. Large numbers of Aussies go it alone; picking up an auto and planning their very own street trip—for many, learning the destination and the user is all part of the fun. But how properly is it to have it all laid on for you?

And the way Haka Tours bundles it up makes it brilliant cost for money; spots on the seven-day South Island Dirt Seeker tour go for $1,999.

Sure there’s always the hazard that the crew won’t be as true as ours was once, however, hey, it’s not often that a bunch of human beings with a common ardor doesn’t get on.

Despite having a network of their personal hotels in NZ and lengthy records in strolling iciness and summer adventure tours, Haka Tours is solely latest entrants to the MTB tour market—last summer was their 2d season. But they’ve discovered a lot in that time and offer a notable product to taste the trails in that mountain biker’s paradise that is New Zealand.

Going Uphill – Fast!

The South Island Dirt Seeker tour also offers opportunities and time for other add-on activities in a way only New Zealand can. Some went skydiving, others jet boating or throwing themselves off bridges. In preserving with my job, I stuck to the bike and took up an provide from Greg at Fat Tyre Adventures to go heli-biking in the Remarkables near Queenstown. Generally, my desire is to earn my turns and my beer but how could I say no?

Along with Auckland based rider Nigel, Tom from Sale in Victoria and Steffen from Germany, I met our information Leigh at Queenstown Airport. Leigh went deep into dialog with our pilot Scott as sturdy winds had been blowing up in the Remarkables. The decision was made to head up, but to a different vicinity than firstly planned.

After a protection briefing, bikes had been loaded onto the skids and up we went. I don’t think all people can fail to be impressed by way of a flight in a helicopter and its potential to land on any piece of reasonably flat land. We had been buffeted with the aid of the wind as Scott took us over a ridgeline over 1,500 meters above the airport altitude. He put the fowl down on a rocky, grey knoll that had a

historical 4wd trail snaking down the ridge. But after waiting a minute or two Scott determined it was too windy for us to get out and flew decrease down the ridge. Like MTB commandos we ran away from the helicopter and waited for our weapons to be delivered to us.

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Then he used to be away into the air and us away down the trail; a long, fast, rocky run deep in the mountains. We stopped in many instances to take it all in and to shoot photos. At one point, after forty minutes or so of descending, I stopped to do exactly that simply 200 meters from the place the helicopter was ready for us. I hadn’t realized that Tom had caught up to me and was proper on my tail. As I stopped Tom took evasive action, shedding the bike at a velocity to locate himself running, sprinting even, down the trail. He used to be almost at the helicopter before he used to be sufficient in manipulate to pull himself up. A fortunate escape even though we were inappropriate fingers as Leigh told us she had given up the certain rewards of being a doctor for the greater uncertain way of life of a mountain bike guide.

Back up we went again to land on Mount Rosa and every other glowing descent, this time all the way down to the Gibbston Valley to finish with a satisfactory Central Otago Pinot Noir the place we got here to a halt at Mount Rosa Wines—exhilarating!