Hi
Myself and 5 others are planning on Cycling from December 27th till the 16th Jan parts of the South Island. We have the lonely planet book and can see a number of possibilities, however would like to ask some other people who either live there or have ridden the South Island them selves.
I will outline the firmed up plans thus far. We are flying into Christchurch on the 25th and plan to leave there on the 27th to commence our ride. On the 16th of January we need to fly to Auckland from somewhere? At this stage we are planning on getting a hire car to load all of our gear into (and one bike) and take turns driving this vehicle. There are various reason for this.
Places of interest are: The Glaciers, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Marlborough Region (wines). We would also like to include some activities like white water rafting, bungee jumping (I know these are available at Queenstown, but I have also been told that Queenstown is not the cheapest place to do these things for it is a major tourist area).
We intend to stay mostly either in back packers or camping grounds so from what I have read this should not be to much of an issue where ever we go (hopefully anyway).
Looking at the Lonely planet guide for riding NZ it basically suggest going from south to north if riding the west coast. Is there a main reason for this in peoples opinion? Just makes getting from Christchurch to Queenstown an expensive and possibly a time consuming exercise. Anyway without saying to much more I am very interested in peoples thoughts on places to see and possible routes (or part routes). Also any other information that people may fell is of interested for someone planning this.
I appreciate all replies. Thanks in Advance
Dan.
Myself and 5 others are planning on Cycling from December 27th till the 16th Jan parts of the South Island. We have the lonely planet book and can see a number of possibilities, however would like to ask some other people who either live there or have ridden the South Island them selves.
I will outline the firmed up plans thus far. We are flying into Christchurch on the 25th and plan to leave there on the 27th to commence our ride. On the 16th of January we need to fly to Auckland from somewhere? At this stage we are planning on getting a hire car to load all of our gear into (and one bike) and take turns driving this vehicle. There are various reason for this.
Places of interest are: The Glaciers, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Marlborough Region (wines). We would also like to include some activities like white water rafting, bungee jumping (I know these are available at Queenstown, but I have also been told that Queenstown is not the cheapest place to do these things for it is a major tourist area).
We intend to stay mostly either in back packers or camping grounds so from what I have read this should not be to much of an issue where ever we go (hopefully anyway).
Looking at the Lonely planet guide for riding NZ it basically suggest going from south to north if riding the west coast. Is there a main reason for this in peoples opinion? Just makes getting from Christchurch to Queenstown an expensive and possibly a time consuming exercise. Anyway without saying to much more I am very interested in peoples thoughts on places to see and possible routes (or part routes). Also any other information that people may fell is of interested for someone planning this.
I appreciate all replies. Thanks in Advance
Dan.