New Zealand has been in the MTB press of late and there's good reason for it. New Zealand is a Mountain biker's paradise. Landscapes so diverse in terrain and mountain bike trails the same. Mountain biking hot spots from Auckland to now world famous Queenstown, Rotorua, Taupo, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch the list goes on. So much trail goodness in between to satisfy every Downhill, Enduro, Cross Country and back country mountain biker.
The New Zealand Government and DOC the (Department of Conservation) now also see how great mountain biking is with more new trails be opened for Mountain bikers as we speak. Local support in trail building is coming from Trail Fund NZ helping fund the local trail networks and building of more sustainable trails. It's not just the now that is great riding in New Zealand, but the future of mountain biking in NZ is in great shape.
The guys at JustMTB took me along to document their test tour to see how everything falls in to place and to session some epic trails!
To start off our trip we hopped on a water taxi for a brisk trip across the beautifully blue Queen Charlotte Sound, it dropped us off ready to hit the trail.
We were a long way away from anything close to a city and it felt great.
The track had some amazing scenes and some even more amazing riding, here Dorian gets his way around the banking.
Next up on the trip was Old Ghost Road, an old Gold Miners road revived into a Mountain Bikers dream, we unloaded the van and got to it.
At points we were climbing scree trail with a 300M drop to the side, it's not for the faint-hearted.
After 4 hours of climbing and 1000+ Metres we made it to Lyell Saddle Hut, a perfect stopping point before we began climbing the rest of the way to the top.
The graphic they chose for the Rockfall sign really tells a story about the trail, luckily that section was quite short.
A few hours of climbing later and we had made it to the top. Here Aaron picks his line down the perfectly sculpted ridgeline.
After conquering the mountain Aaron was too stoked to have made it to the top he began to offer his bike to the trail gods.
The view from the top was incredible, with single track dotting the mountainous backgrounds.
After five hours of climbing we were ready for the descent, an hour plus of fast paced and exciting downhill was ahead of us, from open wide trails to single track lines through the trees Old Ghost Road has everything.
The craftsmanship of the trail is absolutely second to none, carving trail into steep native bush takes a good amount time and effort and they made it all worth it for views like this.
Up next we took a trip to the Flockhill Boulders near Craigeburn Forest Park, here Dorian scopes out our line choices for the fastest way there.
The Boulder field was like a natural freeride park, so many options to pop off rocks, rail wallrides and send it from boulder to boulder.
The amount of lines was endless with some crazy high speed descending to go with it too.
Cutting in your own line whilst you ride can get wild at times in these unridden outbacks, but it leads to some epic moments.
Next up we made it over the the home of New Zealand Enduro Craigeburn Forest Park, world famous for its amazing trails formed from walking trails to masterpieces of singletrack. Here Dorian rails the snow capped lines.
The amount of hours that have gone into these trails have all been worth it for the feeling of flying through the mountains.
The Craigeburn hero dirt was the best I've ever ridden making for perfect riding conditions, here Dorian makes easy work of the trails natural features.
The selection of trails was incredible, everything from wide and loamy to rooty and steep.
We then made the trip over to NZ's most well know trail centre Queenstown, at first light we made the trip up to Fernhill Loop.
The clouds rolled in as we made our way down only to open up to bright Sunshine a few minutes later in typical New Zealand weather fashion.
Making the trip to the out back and less ridden of Queenstowns trails is definitely worth it, here Dorian races his shadow to the end of the trail.
It would'nt be a Queenstown visit without a quick rip down the Skyline trails to finish the tour, the Gondola up was definitely a relief after all the previous climbing.
We finished our tour after having completed 10 days of solid riding and over 300KMs of quality trail to return home to show off what you can get up to on a JustMTB tour.
So whether you're a World Cup Pro or you just love to ride, New Zealand has it all. Mountain Bike events litter the calendar, with amazing races in stunning locations through out the country. There's good reason New Zealand mountain bikers are on the rise to World Cup podiums.
Like most New Zealand is on your bucket list of places to visit, don't just visit.. come and ride!
www.justmtb.co.nz is your discovery ticket to New Zealand.
And you can view the full image gallery here:
JustMTB Tour Gallery
Taupo on the other hand was fantastic - some trails are way more natural and I liked the scenery better
You gotta go to the South Island for some real mountain biking - Nelson and Queenstown are the s**t! Don't waste your money on Rotorua it's not worth it.
I'm well traveled when it comes to mtb and Whistler and Queenstown are easily the most friendly place for mtbiking. Yet you won't find the best DH tracks in Whistler or Queenstown nor some epic gnarly, rocky, loose and natural trails there. It's just a matter of preference.
Therefore I do think France is the cycling paradise by a long margin. Bike parks are not the best but the terrain is
I ride Taupo regualry too and many places in the region this is your opinion and thats great, if its balanced and you truly experienced Rotoruas riding which from what you said is obvious you havent, now I regualry tell my freinds that Central Otago / Craigieburn is best for me, so I am not biased, maybe you are a Gondala person.
This coming summer we will have our Gondala bike park opening, run by the same company in Queenstown opening up for easy lazy action. Expectations will be high first year but Rome is not built in a day.
I meet as many mtb tourists in Qtown who havent ridden crap all outside of the bikepark and same goes for here, do that and you will get bored very quickly, maybe you should have got a guided trip?
Experience it for yourself people make up your own mind!
If I can give you one peace of advice when coming all this way, dont be a sheep and follow the flock!
Get a guided experience get shown real trails as well as those easy access trails by a Gondala or shuttle bus, this way you might get to the real trails and get good stuff.
Its the first thing I look up on an overseas trip, similar guides that ride like I want to, and take me too the best places no muss no fuss.
Btw awesome article some great trails above, again barley scratching the surface of what where the great trails are.
Ive hung out with WC riders and World Champions who feel our Taniwha track is WC level, same with certain tracks in QTown really sounds like you definitely did not ride the best of ? even the non locals only stuff.
Otown, does come down to what you may like, I hear this allot these days as well, I know riders who only ride man made stuff and thats not MTB to me even though I like it too, they dont play unless they only ride those trails, I search out gold, thats technical and back country natural, but enjoy playing on good stuff, Taupo is all man made, especially since the rebuild after the forest got decimated a few years back, but they have done a great job.
France may well have the most amazing terrain easily accessible, I myself like to take the old school approach of secret trails, but I do not share your attitude about not giving a F and regarding private property, that is short sighted dis-respectful gives mtb bikers a bad name is not bad ass or cool, its dumb and will come back and bite you in the arse sooner or later, Im all for covert stuff, but what happens in the field stays in the field, respect that and maybe you can enjoy it while it lasts, leave that attitude back where you come from as well as those stinky dirte cigarettes, bikers don't smoke, litter and screw up land access by being disrespectful, especially in another country, its a privilege to travel to live or let alone ride in another country, not a right!
I hope you bring the right attitude if you come back again, happy trails.
Thing is you have to ride somewhere else to appreciate what you have at home. What you call DH tracks we call that an enduro track in Europe -the level of sarcasm is too damn high
I was just pointing the fact that no place is better than others. I guess Shaun Palmer had a bad influence on me. Yes we don't give a f**k about riding on a private property since nothing has been done on it for ages -centuries sometimes lol. Chur bro, to respect the trails is better than don't giving a single damn but I'm no angel. But I fixed the messed I've done on the trails in NZ, I followed the rules like everyone else
And just to point out, NZ is the only place where I've seen so many smokers amongst the cyclists. I've found it funny -I don't smoke- tough.
Next time just say you have one of the best trails in the world, not the best
we are living on the south island, 3,5 hours away from q-town (timaru) the rides are sooo bloody awesome !! quennstown during summer is the place to be !!! never met so nice people like kiwis... trust me, it's worth the lomg trip to come down !!