Month: December 2025
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Day 15 – Tekapo, Glacier Flight & Mt Cook
Today is Wednesday 17th December and I started out with a walk around Tekapo to see the few sights here, such as the Church of the Good Shepherd, which was situated right on the bank of Lake Tekapo. An inspiring location facing the mountainous national park, looking out of the turquoise colored lake – the
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Day 14 – Windy Ride to Lake Pukaki and Loop Return to Tekapo
Today is Tuesday 16th December, and I am now in a small lake side town called Lake Tekapo. There is not much here other than a few restaurants, souvenir shops, one grocery store, and a dark sky experience center. The lake is the main attraction and there are some hikes in the area, plus a
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Day 12 – Visit to Milford Sound
Today is Sunday 14th December, and its another rest day off the bike, substituting an 8 hour round-trip drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound. The first 3 hours of the drive were NZ stunning scenery, but the last hour defies description. Even the photos from the trusty iPhone just don’t do this area justice. Towering
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Day 11 – Arrowtown Loop
Today is Saturday 13th December, and the routing is going to take in some of my favorites plus add some new trails that I haven’t explored yet. Initially the route is the same as a few of the days, but deviates in attempting an Advanced trail and doing the Countryside trail in reverse, over to
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Day 10 – Gibbston & Famous Bungie Bridge
Today is Friday 12th December, and I wanted to see the lemmings throwing themselves from a perfectly good bridge, and paying over NZ$400 for the privilege 🙂 This famous bungie bridge, which is heralded as the first commercial bungie jump location in the world, is on the way to Gibbston, a wine producing area, especially
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Day 9 – Rest Day
Today is Thursday and the body is due for a rest day, so I drove into Queenstown for the first time and enjoyed waking around for a day. The first stop was a 2 hour walk in the city’s botanical gardens, free admission to this gem but you will have to hunt for a parking
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Day 8 – Lake Dunstan Trail (out & back)
Today is Wednesday and time for the 2nd gravel ride in Queenstown. Today I jumped in the car and commuted to Cromwell about 56 km away and takes nearly an hour on highway 6. The trail links Cromwell and Clyde townships following the edge of Lake Dunstan. Based on the Great Rides app most tourists
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Day 7 – Arrowtown
Today is my first ride in the Queenstown area, it’s Tuesday and I decided to string a few of the trail sections together to form a longer ride. There is a good iPhone app called Great Rides NZ that allows you to take the content offline in case there is no cell service out on
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Day 6 – Drive to Queenstown
Today is Monday, December 8th and it’s time to go for one last walk in Christchurch’s magnificent Hagley Park before the 6 hour drive to Queenstown. On the walk I saw these ducklings and the attentive parents and had to snap a few baby pictures :-). Click on the pictures to open the full size
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Day 5 – Lyttelton and Governers Bay Loop
Today is Sunday, and I went for another ride over the mountains but this time I descended the other side to checkout the small towns on the bay. Before I left the hotel parking lot I saw a rugged looking camper built on a Toyota chassis. I guess the occupants needed a real bed and
