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ElShalimo - MemberAn afternoon blasting around the Rotorua Redwoods will help you
You can ride around giant redwood trees and gawp at bubbling mud-pools
The cafe at Okere Falls is amazing.
doesn't half pong there though 🙂
I've only lived in the Alps a year now but can say it fits my lifestyle a lot better and the good weather makes all the difference. I'm from the Lake District but its just over cast / windy and wet most of the year - when its not its almost unmatched in beauty and certainly the prettiest place in the UK.. but to live there and want to be out on your bike / bbqing / climbing - its just a bit too wet most days.
Most of our guides head south to NZ for our winter. Jamie in particular does the 6 month bounce between whistler and queenstown and works for vertigo bikes. Look him up for a tour.
Seb Kemp ex bbb guide and now roaming reporter did a multi issue e.feature on north and south island riding on nsmb if you can find it.
From what i understand, NZ is no BC, but a great 2nd best when the snow covers our trails.
You must be missing something i guess?
(I don't know nz geography so maybe that's your challenge?)
Plumber, squamish i amazing, but if you didn't find reason to revisit whistler, fernie or nelson then you must have ridden the wrong trails. 😉
[url= http://www.nsmb.com/4368-world-affairs-part-viii ]Part of it...Sebs NZ[/url]
Spent several years in Chamonix, missed the Surrey Hills.
To make an outstanding local riding area requires several ingredients: geography (obviously, and hilly forests are perfect IMO), proximity so no travelling time to ride, legal access to enough to be worthwhile, and enough community for the trail network to develop and evolve. It's a rarer combination than one would think.
Pomona - nice one cheers.
AdeC - yeah I did... Do we know each other?
fatboyjon - nice. Lantern Pike and the Goyt were my favourite evening rides.
Plumber, squamish i amazing, but if you didn't find reason to revisit whistler, fernie or nelson then you must have ridden the wrong trails.
Thought the same.
Nice one BearBack - thanks.
sambob - how was it? I used to ride (and sometimes run) up from the Grouse over Ollerset. There isn't a bad trail up there.
I'm a New Zealander living in the UK and I love it here. Access across farm land always amazes me. If you walk across private land in NZ you are likely to be confronted by an angry farmer with a gun!
I second that!!
I'm an Aussie living in the UK and I think you guys are incredibly lucky with your extensive and quality bridleway network.
Despite the size of Aus, there is very little riding in comparison, and most beautiful mountains are either on private land or in national park with forbidden access to mtb's.
I think its wrong that you can own a mountain and forbid access to people but that is the case back home, whereas I bet every single mountain in Britain has a ROW going to it.
British mountain bikers live in mtb paradise and should appreciate it for what it is.
It was awful, should never be ridden by anyone ever again, definitely
not worth the climb...
😉
I'm an Aussie living in the UK and I think you guys are incredibly lucky with your extensive and quality bridleway network.
Despite the size of Aus, there is very little riding in comparison, and most beautiful mountains are either on private land or in national park with forbidden access to mtb's
I'm a Brit living in Oz, and I can't speak for the mountains - not many of them around here - it's all too blinkin flat 🙁 , but I've gotta say the Ozzies have a good attitude to coastline access.
Many other places I've lived/visited in Europe (tho' not the UK - before anyone jumps to its defence!),Asia , and the US, allow rich individuals or hotels/golf courses to effectively, if not legally 'own' some of the best coastline and prevent the rest of us access to it. Here in Perth, there's lots of public parks/open access along the coast, and anyone with a picnic blanket and a portable BBQ can have the prime spot on the beach, and the big houses with their swimming pools have to take second best!
hugor - MemberI'm a New Zealander living in the UK and I love it here. Access across farm land always amazes me. If you walk across private land in NZ you are likely to be confronted by an angry farmer with a gun!
I second that!!
I'm an Aussie living in the UK and I think you guys are incredibly lucky with your extensive and quality bridleway network.
Despite the size of Aus, there is very little riding in comparison, and most beautiful mountains are either on private land or in national park with forbidden access to mtb's.
I think its wrong that you can own a mountain and forbid access to people but that is the case back home, whereas I bet every single mountain in Britain has a ROW going to it.
British mountain bikers live in mtb paradise and should appreciate it for what it is.
+1
NZ is the one country that really made me appreciate the UK for what we have.