Hi,

Together with a friend I’m planning to go to New Zealand for at least 3 weeks and we would like to bring our respective mountain bikes over there.

If anybody has been there, I would greatly appreciate advices regarding several things:

– is there a high risk of getting your bike stolen over there and what’s the safest way to keep it from thieves (garage? inside flat? locks?)?
– where are the best spots in your opinion?
– is it easy to move within the country with bikes (would you recommend train, bus, other)?

Thanks

There is always a risk though in New Zealand its albeit quite low.(dislaimer my reference might be off lived in Belgium, France Uk and other utter safe places like Mozambique, Brazil, south Africa and Angola in the last few years)

South island is the best, north is quite good though get the latest version of the kennett brothers book(ground effect used to ship it internationally)

Car or Camper van quite some of the good ride spots are a long way from train bus or other tokens of civilization. Did a 6-7 week mostly MTB trip around there couple of years ago. One off the better periods of my life. though can’t beat being a semi drunk student pretending to have pro potential on the African racing scene though

relatively safe for bikes, although i’d still lock em up if left unattended (in the pub etc)

not sure on spots, have traveled there, but not with bike

camper / van definitely the way to go. hire or assign a bit of time to buy & sell at the start & end of yer trip

http://www.vorb.org.nz/

This used to be a great site, not sure what it is like now but have a gander.

Much safer bike crime wise than the UK but it does happen.

For travelling around the country driving is by far the best option. Train is virtually non existent with only 3 major routes, don’t know about taking bikes.

Best spots for riding are Wellington and Rotorua on North Island and Nelson, Christchurch and Queenstown/Wanaka on the south.

Personally I’d say Wellington is the best of the lot but I may be biased as I’ve helped build a lot of the tracks here.

Had some riders from NZ last year. Rotorua and Wellington sounded good from what they said.

http://www.riderotorua.com/

Rode Queenstown bike park last year, wicked day out. My girlfriend and I were on a round the world trip so I hired a giant glory from a shop in town. Met another English guy at the bottom of the lift and rode all day with him. Highly recommended

Ok….going to be late for work now….got a bit sidetracked by this vid on the ride rotorua website!

Rotorua/Taupo riding expedition

Think I’m long overdue a trip home with bike in luggage 🙂

I’ll add the disclaimer that 3 weeks is not a very long time to see NZ. It takes ages to get anywhere, apart from the main cities the whole country is the equivalent of A roads and the speed limit is 100kph (62.5mph). Drive through some parts of the country in one of those Juicy spray painted most obvious hire campers that you can spot from the moon, and you might as well just hand your valuables over to the local crims straight away, don’t bother stopping.

You might be better focusing on either the north island or the south island. And take some hiking boots, the best stuff in terms of scenery is walking tracks. There is no “right to roam” in NZ some of the tracks only allow bikes at certain times of year and you have to book with Dept of Conservation. Apart from the obligatory cringeworthy writing and poor research (contains some non-facts !), there is quite a good article in July 2012 Dirt Magazine about riding the Heaphy track.

I’ve just got back from three weeks on the North Island with the bikes, having spent christmas with the inlaws.

Of the three bike parks we visited, Rotorua was by far the best, followed by Taupo then Pan Pac in Eskdale.

Security wise, I was never worried and they practically lived in the back of the hire car.

One word of advice: make sure the bikes and all of your kit is clean. I mean really clean. Both our bikes, packs, riding shoes (and hiking boots) were unpacked and assembled in customs and given the once over. The customs people were great about it, really friendly and helpful, but still. I had been forewarned, and the weekend spent making sure they both looked like new was well spent.

Thank you all for these useful comments.

some of the tracks only allow bikes at certain times of year and you have to book with Dept of Conservation

Good to know.

I think we’d go for the cheap van option, then I guess it is possible to move from one camping spot to the other for showers etc. I realize I need to carefully plan what will be our route as areas between towns seems to be big and deserted…

Go to Rotorua. Buses are easy and cheap, flights aren’t too bad. Queenstown is cool but your liver will learn to hate you there. Christchurch has a really cool vibe.

I was up in Hawkes Bay over new year, really wished I had a mountain bike it sounds like the local club there (I say local but it has 1000s of members) has got really organised with owning the trails etc.

You and your bike should be safe you wear this shirt in the Christchurch area.

P.S and I was most unimpressed with Naked Bus, cheap, yes. Safe ? The driver had two i-phones and checked them constantly while driving, veering across the centre line a couple of times. And yes I did complain to the company and go the standard “we take complaints seriously” BS reply. I wasn’t happy about leaving a bag of smelley hiking clothes in the hold of the bus, let alone a bike.

Went to NZ last Feb.

Didn’t take the bikes but hired over there and spent a day riding in Whakarewarewa (sp?) Forest near Rotorua, recommended, really nice trails and the hire place on site was really helpful

I think we would probably go there during winter, so if you have any good/bad experiences with temperatures/snow on trails etc. and hence recommendations, I would also appreciate.

@ sputnik : were can I get this shirt?