A little change of program: off our feet and onto some mountain bikes.
The target: to cycle the whole Queen Charlotte Track, a well known hiking track at the very north of the south island that opens up for mountain bikers in March every year.
The details don’t sound that scary for experienced bikers. A three day tour with about 25km distance and 900m positive elevation a day. But then we were there to enjoy our time and the scenery and in the end it was quite challenging nonetheless.
The track starts off at Skipcove Bay, which is where James Cook first set foot on New Zealand’s land and where the first contact with the Maori people took place. It then follows a windy path up and down the cost line of the beautiful Marlborough Sounds until it reaches Anakiwa or the nearby Picton which should be well known to anybody taking the ferry between the north and the south island.
During the nights we stayed as usual on camp sites. Now one might ask how on earth would we transport all our equipment on the bikes? Luckily we didn’t have to. We used the water taxis, a well coordinated system of small ferries that bring you to the starting point and take your luggage from one camp site to the next, making it altogether a very relaxed experience (if there wasn’t all the uphill).
I think the photos will easily tell the rest of the story. We enjoyed it very much!
