Guides Low Down On Recent Multi Day Trip

Disillusioned by traffic, pollution, bad weather and overpopulation I like to grab my bike and hit the wilderness..Mountain biking is special - it offers an opportunity to pedal away from your familiar world, to go somewhere new, to face new challenges. It takes you to those 'lose yourself and find yourself again' places. It brings new people into your life. It helps you appreciate where you have been, and to make good decisions about where you’re headed. Riding bikes brings on a good headspace.RIDING BIKES IS FUN!

A road trip around New Zealand with like-minded bike enthusiasts, riding downhill bikes all day everyday, sounds mint eh? Well it was.

Dan Mcmullan and myself are head guides for Freeride NZ. We did a 21 day trip across NZ recently and i thought i would fill you in with what happened!

We got up at 8am most mornings, fuelled up with caffeine, toast and every cereal imaginable while watching south park episodes on the laptop. Quick bike check, then load our days gear n bikes aboard the limo. Hit the destination ride button on the auto pilot and wait in anticipation till we arrive at the start of an epic trail. We would ride hard all day stopping only to refill with subway for lunch. Then we would come back, have a few cold beers and reminisce events of the days riding.

One of my favourite trails from the trip was the Remarkables DH trail situated just north of Queenstown. The trail starts off just as narrow dusty flowy single track that just got better the further you went along it. Huge round rocky stony berms that were filled with the finest dust which exploded when you hit them. The next turn would be a flat turn that you could ride sat down, leg off, moto styles! There were rock gardens and jumps dotted from top to bottom. One jump was built up from a car engine with the carburettors as the lip! A giant fade away hip jump shot you up and away to give you max speed on landing to a tight left hand rock step down shooting you onto a tight pumpy single track next to the access road giving you a good chance to race the shuttle van back down for a 200 meters. The bottom section was a clearing of grass and sheep poo to a cheese wedge style booster which the van is waiting an amping ya to get back up to have another go.

Being based in Wanaka which means renewal of the soul, for the first five days was great! The town itself has a cool selection of bars and cafes. The weather was amazing while we were stopped over in Wanaka giving us 360° view of mountains and a crisp blue lake...breathtaking!

Waking up everyday with a huge smile on my face after a really good dream featuring my girl cat and drew barrymore, but that’s another story for a different kind of site…ok, so where was I??? Right.. waking up every day with a huge smile on my face knowing that its going to be another epic day on our bikes shredding up trail after trail.

So much to say but in a nutshell….
Countless blue sky days and phenomenal rides in the stunning N.Z country side made for a never to forget road trip!

Sighning off…

Glenno