Woke up way to early – 5:30am. Not sure why as the hostel was quiet, but for some reason I was up. I watched The Big Lebowski and managed to doze back off to sleep around 7ish. I woke up at 8:30 and packed my bags. I then dropped it in the storage room and headed off to find a coffee.
At 10am I was first mountain biker on the gondola and up the hill! I knew that I wouldn’t get the full morning session in as I had to break down my bike and get to the airport by mid afternoon, but I was hoping to get in at least 10 runs.
I started the day by riding Hammy’s track twice… what a fun trail! It is so wide open that you really don’t have to worry about crashing. It is not technical, just fun! I did see one mountain biker run into a tree, wrecking the front wheel and dislocating his shoulder. Shitty for him it was only his 2nd run down and he came up from Christchurch for the weekend. If you didn’t know – Moon Man, Ken Ring predicted that another earthquake would hitting Christchurch around the 20th of May, so a lot of locals left Christchurch trying to avoid another major shake. There was never another quake, but I did meet quiet a few mountain bikers from Christchurch in Queenstown. To me he was just being a fear monger!
I did a circuit of tracks like earlier in the week. Vertigo, Hammy’s, Ants, Thingymajig, The Oringinal, Shit Sandwhich.. I was taking advantage of all the amazing downhill tracks before I had to pack up.
The end of my riding came too soon. By 2pm I had managed to get my 10 runs in and it was time to head back to Nomads and grab my backpack. I then headed to Fergberger for one last amazing feast! I love that place! I took my burger to the park across from the bus pick up ate it and then broke down my bike, changed out of my riding gear and repacked by backpack.
I was at the airport only a ½ hour before my flight, not a good idea when flying with a bike. In the end I made it on my flight and I was off back to Auckland after 5 days of glorious downhilling!
Even if you do not downhill mountain bike you should give it a go in Queenstown. It will cost you roughly $100 for a full suspension downhill rig, full protection gear and your lift ticket for half a day. Queenstown is the adventure capital of New Zealand, so while you are there bungee jumping, sky diving, canyon swinging you may as well huss down a hill on a bike! You never know you may just love it!
Last night it rained and blew and then rained some more. There is no way that with that amount of rain the trails would be any good today. That being, my mates decided that they would head off home rather wait around a day hoping for a bit of sun to dry out the tracks.
I got dropped in Queenstown where I was able to score accommodation at the Nomads Hostel. If you are looking for a hostel in Queenstown this has to be the top choice! The hostel has heaps of computers for use, a massive clean kitchen, amazing chill out couch area, movie theatre, sauna, dorm – double – and single rooms and much much more! This is the best hostel that I have stayed at! It’s new, clean and the staff is all super friendly! I was staying in one of their private rooms, which is more like a hotel than hostel. I had a huge bed, private washroom, sky tv and a sick balcony looking over church st and the mountains. It was pretty sweet coming from a tent and sleeping on the ground.. nice comfortable way to finish of this trip! They also have a no drinking after 9pm rule, so the boozehounds don’t disturb those who actually want to get some rest.
Since it was St Paddies Day Queenstown was busy! All of the bars were packed full and it was a see of green. I wasn’t really planning on getting to involved in the scene as I wanted to ride the next day and didn’t want to have to deal with a hang over. I got a six-pack and started to enjoy them from my balcony when I noticed a friend from Auckland. One text later I was at the bar and on an St Paddies Pub Crawl. Now I didn’t get to carried away, as I managed to party until 11:30 and then sneak off to the hostel for a good night rest. We hit up 4 different bars and ended at Revolver. I can see how people get stuck in Queenstown. Amazing, social party nightlife!
The forecast was looking good in the morning, so I was hoping to take advantage of that. My plan was to wake up, pack up gear and put it in luggage room and then head off to ride the morning session of downhill on the skyline.
The view from the top of the hill! It was amazing in the morning/avro, but by the evening the clouds rolled in and skies opened up...boo!
Today we woke up to blue skies! We were planning on trying to ride a full day of downhill, but we woke up at 10am so that kind of put the end to that plan. On a previous trip to Queenstown Mark ended up doing 24 runs in one day, which is a course record and still stands. If you’ve ridden downhill you know how crazy 24 runs in one day is!
Since we woke up late we made a pretty big breakie – steak, eggs and mushrooms! I hadn’t showered the night before so I took advantage of the outdoor shower. Whenever I get a place of my own I think I would like to have an outdoor shower – so nice!
My mate’s house had a ping-pong table so our warm up of the day was an hour or so of ping-pong. I had a ping-pong table growing up and it is always a blast to bash a ball around. After that we cleaned our bikes and prepped for the afternoon of riding, aired out the tent and just chilled out.
The gondola runs in two timetables – morning runs is from10am to 3pm and the avro runs from 3pm to 7pm (8pm in the summer). At 2:45 we were sitting at the bottom of the gondola waiting to purchase our lift tickets when a group of professional riders rocked up. It was the Athertons from the UK. They are a family of riders who are hell fast and super talented. There are 2 brothers and a sister and I guess they are down in Queenstown warming up for the upcoming race season. I only saw them ride one section and was pretty blown away at the speed they ride. On a course that takes me 12 mins to get to the bottom they will ride it in 4min ahah. That is how stupid fast they go.
Today we rode the same tracks as yesterday, but tied in a couple news trails. The Original is blue track that bermed out, steep and fast. It has a couple good sets of jumps as well. Grundy was another new trail we rode today and I think it was the steepest of them all. Had lots of drops, some of which owned me. This was def the hardest day on the bike for me. I came off a handful of times! Another fun trail was Thingymajig. All of the tracks are pretty tight and off camber – there were def some holy shit moments, but if you just keep rolling it usually works out in your favour. There were sections/drops/jumps that were above my head, but like any good trail there is always a nana line so you don’t have to hit the big big stuff. Another nice feature of riding in Queenstown is that there is a bar at the top of the gondola. So mid way through the day we stopped for a beer.
We managed to get 14 runs in today. It was funny that on the first day after 8 runs I was beat to hell, but a day later I almost doubled that. I guess I knew the tracks a bit better and was feeling a bit more comfortable on the bike.
After riding we hit up Fergburger for a bite to eat. Fergburger is an institution in Queenstown. They make the best burgers Ive ever had and Im a burgeraholic! The place is always packed and I heard about it before I even came to NZ. So when you are in Queenstown you must visit Fergburger – you will not regret it.
By the evening the clouds had rolled in and the skies opened up. It rained hard. This was a little discouraging, as I knew the tracks would be shut down. Looks like tomorrow would be a rest day.
After a night of heavy rain I knew that it would be mid afternoon before we got on to the trails at the skyline. Up at 9 am there was plenty of time to make breakie and have a couple coffees. On the way to Queenstown my mate tire blew so we went to a local shop to get that fixed. We had a couple hours to kill as the afternoon riding starts at 3pm. See for the lift passes you can buy a morning, afternoon or all day pass. The morning was a washout since it rained so hard lastnight. From what we heard the only track that was open was Hammy’s and we wanted the black runs, so we decided to wait until later to go ride.
By 3pm the sun was out and there was a cool breaze drying the wet tracks. As we went up the gonola Mark kept telling me how much I was going to love these tracks. Steep, rooty, muddy, jumps, drops, northshore they had it all!
First track down we hit up Hammy’s. It’s a green track, so it is fairly easy and wide open. This is the trail that all the beginners and bike rental folk ride and it is heaps of fun. It’s flowy, with huge bermed corners, some wide open spots, cool north shore sections and a couple table tops for jumps. This is a great track to just let it all hang out!
Now that we were warmed up it was time to hit something a little more challenging. On too Vertigo which is a blue rated track that was steep, fast, had some drops and more challenging bits. Great track!!
After that we hit up Ants track which was pretty much all mud! It is rated a black track and it was a little more technical sketchy in spots. There were lots of roots and mud to deal with, plus the steepness of it made it extremely fun to ride.
Then there was Rock Garden, which had some good drops plus of course a rock garden section to cruise through. Another great trail that is rated black.
We would usually tie a bunch of different trails together as we bombed down. Start on Hammy’s, hit up Vertigo, on to Rock Garden and then back on to Vertigo. There were so many ways to tie the trails together that no run was the same. We would just ride one section of one track and then tack it together with another. So much fun!
Im pretty sure we rode another couple tracks but I cant remember which ones. I was just concentrating on staying on the bike and trying to keep up with Mark! After 8 runs my forearms were burning and my hands were cramping. This was definitely some of the best downhill Ive ridden in New Zealand. Some of the tracks had some serious breaking bumps making the arm pump massive. It was like doing 200 pushups while riding down the hills.. intense!
After riding we headed down town to grab a bite to eat. We settled on Indian and then headed off to a mates place for a catch up. By 10pm I was beat and we were back home. I pushed off to bed as the plan was for a full day of downhilling the next day. I wasn’t sure how my body was going to handle that, has a half-day owned me. Day one on the gondola was epic!
The All Black Air New Zealand plane that took me to Queenstown. Air NZ has painted there new planes all black in support of the All Blacks for the Rugby World Cup this September.
The night before my flight I was as excited as a kid at Christmas! I knew I had to be up super early to catch my flight, but still had a hell of time falling asleep. Morning came really early – 4:45 am! That gave me enough time to have some breakfast and get to the airport in time to check my bike and bags. I usually try and get the early flight so I can get the most out of the day and early morning flights are cheaper than the rest!
I had no problems at the airport. Checked bag and bike without any issues – I love Air NZ. While waiting for the flight to board I overheard that Jet Star cancelled their flight to Queenstown (this is why I don’t fly with them – unreliable!), which meant they shifted on to the Air NZ flight.
When we started to board I noticed that we got to fly on a 2 week old Air New Zealand – All Blacks plane. All this meant was that the plane was painted all black with a cool fern on the side (looked bad-ass) and that you could use your phone to make calls and text as well as surf the internet during the flight. I didn’t bother making any calls/texts or surf the net as it was a little pricey and it was too damn early to call anyone!
Once in Queenstown I collected my gear and took the bus into town. I was able to store my bags at Nomads, so I headed there to drop my bike and gear. I had sometime to kill so I wandered around Queenstown, checked out some local shops and read magazines in Whitcurls.
My home for the next week in Queenstown. I am one lucky dude!
By mid-day my mate rocked into town from Dunedin. We met up, hit up the grocery store for some food supplies and then headed to his mates place where we would camp on his front lawn for the week.
I knew that we would be camping, but I figured it would be a DOC site. The house we were staying at was 20 mins outside of the town and had an amazing view of the mountains and a sweet outdoor shower! After tossing the tents up and having a bite to eat we headed to 7 mile to do some riding.
7 mile is a mountain bike park/walk track where you can enter from either Wilson Bay or Glenorchy Rd. There are about 14 tracks to keep you busy. It is primarily made up of single track and blue graded trails. It was a great way for us to start our week of riding with some smooth trails to get us ready for the onslaught of downhill to come! The tracks we managed to ride were Kachoong, which was a downward flowing track with some jumps and smooth berms that guide you down the hill. Excellent track I highly recommend. We ended up riding this track 4 times that avro! We also hit up Grin & Holler and Gravitron, which were also a lot of fun to ride. There was a wooden structures skills area to test yourself too! This was just a taste of what was to come for the week… already happy as hell!
Unfortunately I didnt pack my camera on this ride, so I missed out on some stellar photos, but it just means I have to go back and ride again ehehe.
After riding for 4 hours we headed back to the lake for a short swim and then retired back to the house for dinner and beers. There was a ping-pong table in the basement, so after dinner we had a bit of fun bashing the ball around for a while. Tired from an early morning and mid day ride it was time for bed. I tucked into my tent with rain falling quite heavily. I fell asleep easily thinking of the downhill to be had the next day.
This week I am off to Queenstown to ride the gondola and shred some downhill! Pretty stoked to get down south and on the bike. I was in Queenstown last year for work, but it was only a day and I didn’t have anytime to ride or play! I haven’t ridden in Queenstown yet, but from what Ive heard from my mates, it is the place to be! This is the first year in while they’ve had the gondola running taking riders to the top of Bob’s Peak! STOKED! Ive got the bike in check – new break pads, fresh bleeds, new tires – should be good to go! I have no idea where I will be staying. I do know Ill be camping, which could be a bit cool as they had some snow on the ground in Wanaka last week. Brr. I know it didn’t stick around, but it could be chilly in a tent.
My mates from down south spent a week riding in Queenstown about a month ago and have raved about it. They managed to get 27 runs down in a day and want to break the record on this trip. 27 runs is CRAZY! I have no idea how I will hold up, but Ill give it a go! I believe we will be hitting a couple other spots while in Queenstown. Im hoping to get up Cornet Peak and maybe over to the Sticky Forest for some single track riding as well. Im sure whatever is in the cards will be gnarly, sketchy and heaps of fun as that is how these trips usually go.
I recently scored a FREE HD video camera from Tourism New Zealand, so I could capture some of the things I get up to while in NZ. I will be posting them on their website new interactive site! I did take some footage at a rugby game a couple weeks back and recently I took it out to Woodhill Bike Park and took a little video of a short track called ‘The Lightening’. It’s a short, flowy, fun track that isn’t too technical, but is a lot of fun to ride. I never realized how much work went into shooting a film. I was filming all by myself so it was pretty much ride a section, move the camera, ride another section and so on. It is more work than I thought. I guess if I had someone to work with it would be easier, but I don’t have that luxury. So here is my first edit from that shoot.
What is going on with the world? Japan has just been hit by an 8.9 earthquake. It was only 2 days ago that the teams from all over the world that had come to NZ to help in the Christchurch earthquake was on their way home. Now, they must be heading to Japan to assist with their search and rescue. I know that there is a team from NZ heading over now to help.
Watching the video of the tsunami is just larger than life! To see a boat caught in a whirlpool and then to disappear is something straight out of the movies. Entire towns/cities have been swept away in a wave of dark water. Overnight there has been an explosion at one of the nuclear plants, but the government is saying that no radiation has been leaked. I find that hard to believe, though I hope it is true. This is all so un-fuck’n-believable!
I believe they are saying the death toll will be in the 1000’s. Even though Japan is one of the most prepared countries for earthquakes, you cant not have casualties in a quake of this size. Luckily their buildings have strict building codes that allow them to sway and withstand earthquakes.. pretty unreal! If it wasn’t for their foresight/planning the death toll would have been much larger.
There were tsunami warnings everywhere: Canada, US, South America, Australia and here in NZ. I was planning on heading to the beach this weekend, but everyone has been told to stay off the water, don’t go sight seeing and stay away from beaches. Ive read that in the US 5 people have been swept away by large waves while trying to take photos – seriously!! Is a photo of a wave that important to you? They had to postpone the national surf championships because of the warnings. I saw a photo of a guy in the US jumping off some rocks to boogie board – WTF?
Ive never really gave much thought into having an emergency kit: water, canned food, medical supplies, matches ect. I guess I didn’t ever think I would really need one. But with the way world has been going lately it may just be time to put something together. YIKES!
This past weekend it rained, so woodhill was prime! Ive been given the green light from my phyiso to start to hit some jumps again. Here is a short video I made of me riding at Woodhill on a track called Iron Horse. Pretty easy track with xx-xxx jumps, so it’s a great place to start doing some jumps again. This is a pretty typical track in Woodhill – short downs, wooden structures, pine forst, sand based so good in the rain!
Check out this cool event run down south by two brothers – The Frew Farm Jam! The Frew brothers are two wheeled junkies who own a sheep and cattle farm north of Winton and host an annual FMX, MX, BMX & MTB event like no other. They transform part of their property into a couple insane jump lines and MX race course. It looks like a pretty insane event! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend this year, but it is definitely on the calendar for 2012.
