Just Giver! Mike's Adventures in New Zealand

My flight for Dunedin was at 6:30 am, so I was up at 4am to have breakfast and make sure thatI had enough time to get to the airport and check my bike and bag. It was all going pretty smoothly until I arrived at the check out counter where the Air New Zealand employee told me that I had to have a box to transport my bike. Earlier in the week I checked with Air New Zealand and was told that as long as it is a domestic flight you do not have to have your bike in a box as Air New Zealand would have bags you could use – just removed your peddles and turn your handle bars. It actually does state this on their website. I told the Air New Zealand employee this but she was sure that wasn’t possible. She then said that there was a green bag I could use and told me to go ask another employee about it. I shuffled along to another counter where I was informed that the green bags were for baby seats and not bikes…argh! I asked for another bag and he ran in the back and came out with 2 clear Air New Zealand bags. Perfect! I broke down the bike, taped the bag shut and said a prayer that my bike would make it to my destination!

Watch the bike bro!

When I was boarding the flight I saw them loading my bike.. the great thing about not using a bike box it that the bike gets put in last rather than first and this means other bags are not piled on top of it! I would think that the employees would rather handle the bike this way, as it is easier to pick up as you can just grab the frame.  My seat on the flight was in-between to rather large ladies who needed seat belt extensions to do their seat belts up. So no arm rests for Mike. Lovely. Unfortunately I have no photos of this, though it would have been quite funny to see this tiny little guy between to big ladies. You will have to use your imagination!

My flight took me from Auckland to Christchurch to Dunedin. I arrived in Dunedin at 10:30 am to blue skies! Sweet. I picked up my bag, built up my bike and picked up my rental from Rent-A-Dent. I had a 2010 Suzuki Sidekick. The seats folded down so it made sliding the bike in rather easy – I only had to take off one wheel.

Home for the next 4 days

I headed off into Dunedin to grab some food and beer – the essentials. After that I was off to Waitati to my mates house. I gave him a call once in Waitati as I wasn’t quite sure where the turn off was and I was greeted with, “Mikey, you fuck’n Aucklander!” (If you don’t know, the rest of NZ really doesn’t like Auckland and that feeling runs deep in the south island. It is the same as how the rest of Canada hates Toronto.) 10 minutes later I was at Marks place unloading my gear. My accommodation for the next 4 nights would be a 1968 camper – sweet! I sorted my stuff and we then loaded our bikes on to his car and headed off to ride. I rode this track before and it is pretty crazy, so I knew what to expect; steep, technical downhill. Before hitting his tracks we stopped by some new tracks he had been working on to pick up some tools and a wheel barrel. This trail has been around ages. It was flowing single track with lots of jumps and even a creek jump. It was pretty dilapidated, but Mark has been breathing new life into it. It was amazing to see these trails as no one rides them and even most locals don’t know about them – fuck ya! After walking the track and talking about a few new lines we headed for the Marks other trail.

The cozy camper.

The other track were just as I remember, steep and fast with lots of roots and rocks, tight corners, drops and a few new jumps. He had built a track up to ride, but a rogue cow had tramped through a week or two ago ruining all his hard work, which meant we were once again pushing our bikes up. We rode it twice and then had a beer break. After that it was time for some work so we cut down a branch that was a headhunter after a jump. Once that was taken care of we rode the track a couple more times and it was then time for a feed.

Chilling at the bottom of Marks Track. I made it down alive!

Once back home we had big feed and then headed in to Dunedin to meet up with some of the group we would ride with the next day. We had a couple of beers, discussed the next days plan and then headed home. I was beat from being up so earlier and falling asleep was no problem.

Overall a pretty sweet day! I got in 5 hours of riding on some secret NZ tracks. I didn’t manage to stay on the bike the entire time – couple spills but I have come to expect that when riding with Mark. Riding this track compared to Rotorua is completely different. These tracks are like goat tracks, steep, narrow, and way less manicured. It definitely pushes your riding ability. Riding with Mark is always good – he’s fast as, so you got to lay off the breaks to keep up. Great start to an epic trip.