Episode One In The Can

After killing Christchurch the season 1 - International crew travelled south to Twizel near the base of New Zealand's tallest mountain - Mt. Cook. The tour is going better than planned with tonnes of amazing footage and riding, no injuries (besides the producer - dumb ass), and ahead of schedule hitting the road towards the places where all the pictures on the travel brochure's are taken and where they shot a lot of the Lord Of The Rings.The two campers are split 3 guys in each one since no one really felt like sharing a bed. Toni, Ambrose, and Randy are in one and Jarrett & Nathan travel with them. Shawn, Derek, and Darren are in the other and I drive it. Tama drives his ex-hearse (station wagon) towing the trailer with all the bikes. There was some confusion when leaving Twizel to head further south, Our camper ended up taking the main highway which was a skinny paved road with no shoulders and sharp corners with no guard rails... That was the good road. The hearse and the other camper went the “scenic route” over a mountain pass via a single lane gravel road. Needless to say we beat them to Naesby, a small (pop. 8 village in the mountains famous for its mountain biking and curling. Yes, Curling!
We were welcomed with open arms by the proprietors of the Royal Hotel.
We took a stroll down to the bike shop on the deserted main street to see if the owner, and our guide Kila was around. The door was wide open so we just walked right in and had a look around, since there was no one there we took off.
After a good look around the first day the naturally humble nature of Kiwi's was the reason for a pleasant surprise. The area surrounding all of the cross country trails in the area just outside of town was once the location of heavy gold mining activity. All of the erosion caused by the mining has left a natural freeride park. The riders returned with grins from ear to ear in anticipation of the days to come in the area not to mention a feast prepared by the kitchen at the Royal Hotel of the Fresh Salmon we picked up on the way.
Shawn found some nice lines in the small town but had a lotof fun watching the freeriders bust out.
Shawn loves the playgrounds in New ZealandNathan found a sweet gap from a narrow ridgeline into a steep seperate natural tranny that he had to hip into,
Randy sculpted a beautiful massive hip which took no time to finish,
Randy was boosting huge out of this hip
Darren found some features as well which had to do with a handplant, barspin to disaster, and wall ride.
Everyone was really happy with how the day went and the setting was surreal. Kila invited us to squat in his yard for the night where we had a BBQ and chilled until he got home (his door was wide open at his house too). I asked Kila about leaving the door open at the shop and he told me that he just leaves it open so that if anyone needs anything they can just help themselves... Interesting logic.
KilaWe had a great time in Naesby considering how sceptical we were when we saw the length of main street. Two days was all we had there because of some bad weather. We jammed before we got too wet and headed south some more to Alexandra. We heard the next day that Naesby recieved 3 cms of snow just after we left.


For more pictures of the tour go to:
Drop In NZ Photos

For day to day updates see:Vorb

To read a story written by Season 4 crew rider Shawn Denny go to Biketrials.ca

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