Queenstown and Arrowtown

 Queenstown to Arrowtown via Coronet Race: 31.1 miles, 3465’ climbing, in the clouds

Gibbston Valley: 23 miles, 1713’ climbing

Arrowtown to Queenstown, soggy version: 17.5, 1070’ climbing

Lodging: Blue Peaks Motels, Queenstown tiny home in the Hampshire Holiday Park, Arrowtown

Having finished the TA brevet, we decided to do some shorter rides around Queenstown for a more relaxing experience on the local cycling trails which are largely separate from traffic. 

First we rode to Arrowtown via Arthur’s Point. Once we got out of town we were on a separated bike path. We detoured up towards the Coronet Loop with rain threatening. Our gpx route wasn’t accurate, and we chatted with a visiting Aussie about the local paths. We climbed up steep switchbacks to the Coronet Race, an old flume trail where water was carried to mines back in the day. We were up in the clouds with some drop offs, very glad it wasn’t actually raining since the narrow trails looked like they could be slippery. After a long traverse, we descended through a creekside canyon to the Arrowtown trails. Our tiny house in the holiday park was cute and comfortable, and we made it without getting rained on.

The next day, under threatening clouds, we rode up the Gibbston Valley, a popular route for wine tasting tours via e-bike. Several miles up the trails, we crossed a long swing bridge. A few miles later was a large bridge with a bungy jumping setup in the middle. We watched a couple of people jump towards the beautiful blue-green river below: one who screamed and one who was calm. Continuing up the valley, we saw rafters below on the river which had beautiful pools and cliffs, very inviting on a warm day. Finally we stopped for lunch and went for a wine tasting at Peregrine winery, known for their Pinot noirs, and we chose a bottle to take back to our holiday park. Apparently the Otago region has more Pinot noirs compared to the more productive Marlborough region which produces a lot of Sauvignon blanc. Trivia: all wine bottles in New Zealand have twist off caps. 

On day 3 we packed up early in the rain to head back to Queenstown. Every hotel in NZ seems to have an electric kettle and tea and coffee fixings, including fresh milk if you like, but we got good coffees at a kiosk by the holiday park entrance. It rained all day. We attempted to return to Queenstownnvia a route we hadn’t fully followed already, but closures forced us back onto the TA route. It was a short but damp ride, the last of our explorations around Queenstown on this trip.

We located a couple bike boxes at a bike shop, not plentiful at the end of the season, and carried them back to our hotel where we washed off our bikes. This is the end of our trip. We packed up bikes and are headed for home. We will post some reflections next week about reflections on the TA and our time here.

Three days on Stewart Island (Rakiura)

 Lodging: Kowhai Guest Lodge

After completing the TA we decided to take a few days off of our bikes to visit Stewart Island, just south off the coast of South Island. Lodging there books up in advance, and we couldn’t plan dates far ahead due to the uncertain nature of bike travel, so we were excited to find a room in a guest house where you book a bedroom and share the kitchen and living areas with other guests. In the end we were the only ones staying, so we had the place to ourselves including a deck with views of the town harbor. Only a few hundred people live here, so it’s small and peaceful. We could have brought our bikes and used them to explore, but we wanted time off and left them at our hotel in Bluff.

Just after our ferry docked, there was an 7.4 richter earthquake ~100km away, and we all got tsunami warnings on our cell phones. No tsunami materialized. Our hosts, Peter and Iris, showed us around our guest house which was only ~0.3 miles from the ferry dock, shops, and restaurants and had a beautiful garden. Peter and Iris pretty much treated us like family friends rather than lodgers during our stay — very generous with their knowledge of plants, birds, wildlife, and local history.

The next day after arrival Peter took us on a private tour of nearby Ulva island, an island unique in that it has no predators. As a ranger in the late sixties, Peter was part of removing predators and restoring natural habitat on the island. New Zealand had no mammals except a couple bats. All mammals were introduced, and many wreaked havoc with bird populations. Native birds aren’t fearful of people since they evolved with no predators which makes them extra vulnerable to predation, but it’s great for bird watching.

Peter is a colorful character with an interesting background as sailor and also served as a Ranger of Ulva island for a year when he was younger.  He was super knowledgeable about all of Stewart Island and its surrounding islands.  We saw a sea lion resting on the beach meters away as well as a number of local birds including the saddleback, tui (which make strange sounds — whirring, clicking, and R2D2 sounds), kaka, parakeets, yellow heads, fantails, Stewart island pigeons, and others…  The robin is particularly curious and approaches you to dine on the insects you stir up. We learned about the many ways that the population of invasive pests such as rats and possums are controlled and about many of the plants, native and otherwise.  It was a great tour.

At our guest house, every evening a kaka flew in for apple slices. The kakas large parrots are similar in size to the keas we saw in Fox Glacier. Iris and Peter left apples to feed them (no cores or seeds). The bird would eat the fruit except the peel. It felt strange to feed the wild parrots here when there were explicit signs not to feed the others in Fox Glacier, but Peter and Iris assured us it was fine to do. The kaka visited us multiple times in our evenings there.

The next day Peter came by and invited us to their home for coffee and a visit.  They were both so nice and welcoming, and their house was lovely with views of both the town harbor and their expansive garden.  After our coffee we went on a hike up Fern Gully and around Ryan’s Track.  It rained for a bit of the walk but later cleared.

In the evening we headed out for a kiwi sighting on a tour we had booked before heading to Stewart island.  Kiwi are usually only active at night, so we headed out at dusk.  We took a boat to surrounding islands seeing several albatrosses, fauveau shags, fur seals, sea lions. We spotted a rare yellow eyed penguin on Bench Island, then we split into two groups to silently creep through the rain forest in search of kiwis. The stars and Milky Way were bright above us with distant sounds of crashing waves.  We spotted one kiwi in the forest, apparently dining on worms, pecking its long beak into the forest floor. Later we also saw a juvenile on the beach, easier to see its large oval body and dinosaur-ish feet.

After coffee on our last morning, we took the hour long, bumpy ferry ride across the swells back to Bluff. We walked to our last hotel where we had stashed our bikes, packed up, and rode the ~22 miles back to the town of Invercargill. It was a bit windy and open, all on cycle trails but partly near the noisy road. It felt good to be back on the bikes but at an easy pace. Tomorrow we will transfer to Queenstown with Catch-a-Bus-South for a little more exploration.