[sicwombat]

Hey, I'm leaving for a family holiday to Queenstown N.Z end of this month. Planning on doing at least one 'Guided' mountain bike tour. Wondering if there is anywhere in Queenstown that I can hire a bike for a while and do some local trails myself. (It will be a good chance to get away from my in laws for a while) We will be hiring a car, so i may be able to travel abit to get to a trail, although I dont want to tie up the car for too long, as my wife, kids and inlaws will be stuck at the hotel. Any advice from locals or Aussies that have been there would be great.

Thanks.

 

[ozlongboarder]

Its Queenstown....... the gravity junkies paradise. I was there last September(I think). I did not ride but there were a few outfits running MTB tours, the pics in the brochures looked good so I think you will be ok if you go on one of those rides.

Try vorb for more specific info.

http://www.vorb.org.nz/

 

[Toady]

A mate and I did a ride from the Queenstown Gondola with "Vertigo"bikes in 2006-Giant AC bikes which were useful for the excellent purpose-built downhill track .Tim was the owner I think, and a very good rider to boot!Ask him to show you how he takes some of the jumps .Half a day ,good price ,thouroughly recommended.:thumbsup:

 

[marcus_dukakis]

There's three or four places to hire bikes - we got Jamis XLTs for about $60 a day - there are also Specialized SX Trails and Giant Reigns for hire .... a new hire/tour operator was opening there at the end of last year too, so there should be even more hire options.

Go for a ride out to Seven Mile - ride the new trail called "Ooze" - short but the most fun trail I've ridden in ages. There are lots of short little sections there that are all good fun. A few small (less than 3 foot) drops to be had, some good jumps etc as well. Some skinnys were being built when we were there in November last year.

 

[sicwombat]

Hey, thanks for the info. Flying out on Saturday, cant wait. Looking forward to the riding. Just hope i can get some 'free' time from the family. Ill try to take a few photos and write up a ride report.

Cheers

 

[marcus_dukakis]

No worries - Queenstown has loads of local trails and the tour operators have all got pretty good reputations. We didn't take any helibiking trips, but they're supposed to be good. Only one operator (the new shop I mentioned) does the Skipper's Canyon ride via 4WD which (from all reports) is s'posed to be great fun.

See:
http://www.gravityaction.com/BikeCombos.php