The South Island, and Queenstown area in particular, is billed as ‘The Adventure Capital of the World’ and now with the gondola open it really is for mountain bikers too. Bungee jumping, base jumping, Jet–boating, canyoneering, white river kayaking, and Heli–drop anything, it really does have it all. In true Queenstown fashion and local tradition, Christmas day was to be forever immortalized with a crew of 30 riders (most speaking the Queen’s English) of all shapes and sizes, piss pots, full–faces and XC lids, even Santa was along in full kit for the ride. We met up in the full dark before 5am and rode/pushed up towards the highest nearby forbidden peak. A smaller group pushed up further from the saddle, bikes on backs for the last few hundred vertical feet to the summit. We were rewarded with a stunning sunrise and warmed with Welsh lad Jamie’s freshly brewed hot tea courtesy of his JetBoiler, that he lugged up with him. These boys are dialled. With euphoria only experienced after standing on top of the world we begun the hour–long descent, screeching and hollering the whole way down, not a pedal stroke needed to the shore of Lake Wakatipu. Merry fucking Christmas. Hell yeah #4.

Sad to leave such a special place after making so many new friends, we pushed back North via the wild and rugged west coast where massive waterfalls and rivers emptied themselves into an angry ocean. We somehow drove straight into, yet miraculously avoided being washed away by, the region’s worst flooding in 108 years. Asphalt floating off the road surface in front of us, bridges washing away behind us, and landslides to the sides of us, what a ‘summer’ holiday we were having! You really do feel connected to the land here. We just made it through the forever happy and hippy Golden bay and reached roads–end on the far North West corner of the North Island, Whiriraki Beach. Stranded. Road closures all around us for the next couple of days at least, stranded in paradise with good surf and sweet cliff–side coastal single track made it time well spent with nowhere to go. As always the unplanned and unexpected events while travelling often turn into lifelong memories you will cherish.

If you want to be guaranteed better weather for your visit, plan a trip during February, but anytime from October thru April can be rewarding, the beauty of New Zealand is in experiencing all the seasons without the extremes. In other words perfect, which is also a word to describe the last few days of the trip.

Tired and beaten down after so many back–to–back days riding and wild freedom camping, we rolled into Nelson and called another local, Simon Banister, also recommended by Caleb. You never know what to expect on a ride with a complete stranger and it can sometimes be awkward, but there was none of this with big hand saw toting Simon who took us on two unforgettable rides. A warm up ride up the steep hills of Nelson and down Peaking Ridge, with a few stops doing some trail maintenance and tree clearing from the previous few days storm with Santa Cruz distributor Mike Stylie, who luckily for us replenished our slowly shrinking derailleur hanger supply. Post ride, sitting in the local brewery, we were discussing our ride trip thus far, saying all we hadn’t done yet was the quintessential NZ Heli–Drop ride, without a blink he pulled out his phone made one call and said ‘it’s on’. Just like that, New Years eve day, no advance notice, no forms, no waivers and no big fee, 40 quid and it was just another days riding for an eleven strong crew, from hard–tails to downhill bikes it was, “no worries mate!” We may have taken the easy way up but the ride from the top of Starvel Mountain behind Nelson was the toughest, steepest, endless technical riding I’ve ever done on any bike, having a hard time keeping Simon and local shredder Derek Winwood within site, if I wasn’t following them I wouldn’t have believed half the stuff was rideable, well probably half the stuff wasn’t rideable, but I lucked out most of the way down until I jammed my finger dislocating it badly, luckily the only comfortable position for it was wrapped around the bars so on we continued, after a few too many river crossings we spun out on a lower Downieville–esque river side cliff trail ending with the day with a big bridge jump to cool off with some well earned beers and a New Years eve truly worth celebrating now. Fuck yeah # 5 or is it six, I lose count.

Next day we hooked up with Kelly McGarry and Kieran Bennett for some shooting and riding on the local club’s DH trails. Kieran had been digging all week on the soon to be raced Nelson National DH track. Natural, steep, with good flow seems to be the character of all New Zealand’s trails, be it DH or XC, Kelly found some wild loose chutes to drop and got equally styley on the DH track, good to see all–round ripping riding skills from someone you usually only associate with massive drops gaps and flips. Good onya!

Another few rides in and around the beautiful Queen Charlotte Sounds area was a good wind down to the end of our South Island stay, back across the ferry Auckland bound, but no New Zealand trip would be complete without a Wyn Masters encounter. After sitting down with Doddzy for a look at and chat about his Zerode DH gearbox bike (more in next issue) we bumped into Wyn and within 10 minutes we banged out a few street and skatepark shots. Wyn has to be the hardest working blue collar mountain bike shredder out there, without a doubt. A couple of hours later we were flying out to Western Australia for the next adventure, this time, however, we will not be waiting another four years before a return visit, that is as certain, as New Zealand is 100% pure. Lately I had become far too caught up in work to remember who I was, so caught up in life that I had forgotten to live. Thank you New Zealand for bringing me home again. Kia Ora!

Basic facts:

Camper Van Rental: $69-$100 NZ per day for 2–3 people depending on the season.

Bikes to bring: 5–6 incher do–it–all. Seat dropper, chain-guide a plus. If you are going to be based in the Queenstown area solely, maybe decide on a Dirt Jumper or DH