Biking the Queen Charlotte Track

Once again, sorry for not posting more often but life in NZ has been rather busy.  Since our trip back to Canada in August, I have traveled to Romania, Vienna and Perth. In November, Ted was in Gisborne for 3 weeks doing fieldwork and then went to a conference in Auckland.  But, we have also managed a few adventures together; a hike in the Tararuas and a bike trip through the Marlborough Sounds.  Not to mention regular working, biking, and gardening at our home; things grow really fast here!

We mountain biked the Queen Charlotte Track in November with a friend from work.  The track is a 71 km trail (track in kiwi speak) that goes along a ridge in the Marlborough Sounds, just across the Cook Straight from Wellington.  To get there we took a Ferry from Wellington to Picton, and then a water taxi to Resolution Bay.  From Resolution Bay we biked ~ 68km to Anikiwa, where the water taxi picked us up to go back to Picton.  We did the trip over two days, 45 km on the Saturday, and then a lighter day on the Sunday.  And the water taxi transported all of our gear so we didn't have to ride with it, choice!  We managed to pick a perfect weekend for weather and didn't get a single flat tire.  Although, Ted finished the ride with only 2 of 4 bolts in his crank! 

Below are some photos...

View of Picton in the Marlborough Sounds from the Ferry, a beautiful part of the world.

It was definitely good that we had a water taxi to transport our gear, it would not have been nice to ride with that pack.

Bikes on the water taxi, ready to leave Picton.

We saw a pod of ~50 dolphins on the way to Resolution Bay. Our boat drove right over to them and a few of them were right beside the boat jumping away. Amazing!

Resolution Bay cabins, we stayed here before starting the ride.

Our lunch stop on Saturday.

One of the many fantastic view points along the ridge.

This is not a Kiwi, it is a Weka, a rather tame bird that appeared out of the bush whenever we stopped. These birds look pretty similar to Kiwi's, but have a much shorter beak.

Another nice view.

 

Almost done, 6 km of downhill left!