December 30, 1993 to January 14, 1994
South Island, New Zealand 1994
Queenstown to Kaikura
The cycling portion of this complicated trip was 874 miles (1398 km) in 16 days, from Queenstown to Kaikoura.
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This was my farthest bike tour from home. I used frequent flier miles to fly business class from Chicago to Auckland. The boxed bike flew for free and a spacious seat was much appreciated on the 15 hour Los Angeles to Auckland flight. I bought flights to Christchurch and Queenstown, so I never had to bike in big city traffic.
The trip started with a 4 day hike on the Milford Track, booked months in advance. The Milford Track is an A to B hike, so I stored the bike in Queenstown. This tour had far more complex logistics than any other bike tour.
To get to the trailhead I took a steamship across lake Wakatipo, then a bus to Te Anau, mostly on dirt roads including some stream crossings. Then the hiker bus (30 hikers per day) to a remote dock on Lake Te Anau. Then a park ferry to the dock/trailhead at the roadless north end of Lake Te Anau.
The Milford Track ends at a sea level dock in Milford Sound where hikers take a park ferry to the busy Milford Sound park village. I took the tourist ferry excursion through the fjords of Milford sound. Then I flew in a small plane across the Southern Alps to Queenstown to begin the bike tour.
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The original cycling plan was to do a loop starting and finishing in Queenstown. But during the tour I decided to detour to the north coast of the South Island. As a result I had to take buses 500 miles from Kaikoura to Queenstown. My tours are planned in detail and I usually stick with the plan. This was the most I have ever deviated from the plan.
The west coast of New Zealand's south island is one of the rainiest places on earth, but the hiking part of this tour had freakishly warm and sunny weather. I had great views of the high mountains during the hike and on the flights. One downside was that the waterfalls in Milford Sound were less impressive than usual because of the dry weather.
The weather was relentlessly wet when I biked the west coast. Rain most of the time. Backpacker accommodations made the experience tolerable. I pedaled the entire length of the Southern Alps but never saw them. The clouds were always very low, obstructing the view. I pedaled to the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, but in both cases I could only see the bottom mile of the glacier before it disappeared into the clouds. After 10 days of relentless rain I appreciated that the north coast of the south island was significantly warmer and sunnier than the west coast. The landscape was almost like a desert on the last day of the tour in the Marlborough plain.
Near the end of the bike tour I hired a boat to take me up the coast and I did a long day hike back to the starting point on the Abel Tasman track. A total of 32 miles of hiking during this tour, mostly on the Milford and Abel Tasman tracks.
I took a lot of photos but don't have a single picture of me or the bike on the road.
I remember this tour fondly and would like to do another bike tour in New Zealand some day. The next tour would probably include hot springs as well.
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