Where would you like to pedal your mountain bike if you could go anywhere on planet earth? What new place do you want to go explore? Our decision came easy as we are always thinking about new places being the nomadic’s that we are. My wife and I sat down last year scheming on places that we’d like to travel. We each independently made a list of our top 5 places and NZ was at the top of both of our lists. Taking the leap to purchase plane tickets seemed surreal. After receiving booking confirmation our celebration proceeded followed by the planning – 3 weeks, 2 people, 2 bikes and full car camping gear.
As if we don’t have enough sunshine in Sedona, we decided to pack up just before our winter storm dumped 8 inches of snow to chase this endless summer thing. New Zealand seems to be a buzz amongst the mountain bike world ever since the Red Bull Rampage planned a stop in Rotorua, NZ. During our planing we were a bit overwhelmed by the depth of riding within the two islands that make up NZ. We decided to start our adventure on the south island in Queenstown and work our way north to Nelson before taking a ferry to the north island and Rotorua.
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We first rode in a cool little trail system called 7 mile. This was a nice way to shake our travel legs out and get warmed up for some big days ahead. The trails consisted mostly of fun short loops with some nice flow.
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Next we were lucky enough to jump on the back of a planned local ride high into the backcountry in “The Remarkables” mountain range. This was a serious adventure that we could not have found on our own. We encountered some long steep hike-a-bike sections for the first couple hours before we were rewarded with a sweet alpine ripping fast descent.
Our favorite riding around Queenstown was off the Coronet Peak Ski Field. Rude Rock, Skippers Pack Track and Zoot track tied together for one of our favorite loops of the trip.
Here’s a short video of this awesome trail: Rude Rock Video
Queenstown tuned out to be one of our favorites that we wished we spent more time exploring. Stay tuned, next in part 2 we’ll migrate up the east coast in search of more single track and little blue penguins!!![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
