The Queen Charlotte Track along the Queen Charlotte sound, part of the Marlborough Sounds is one of the great walks of New Zealand so we decided to Mountain bike it. Until the 1st of March only 2/3 of the track are open to bikes much to the disappointment of a couple of walkers we passed who must have been members of the anti bike league. The total track is 71km but as we didn't want to wait until tomorrow to start riding we caught a water taxi to Punga Cove and set off from there, about 24km to Portage where we stayed the night.
When the guy in the bike shop asked us how much mountain biking we had done our description of bike rides around Richmond Park didn't seem to arise any concern. He was getting his $100 and he did show us the profile of the trail so when we had to walk the first hour up hill and then hold on for dear life on the downhills we checked the map. The recommendation was that this most of the trail should only be attempted by advanced bikers uh oh. I probably would have paid more attention to the profile on the map if it had not been for one of the guidebooks describing the track as flat, what!!
On route a Weka nearly sent us flying as it darted across the path, it came back to make sure we weren'ty giving away any food.
About 4 hours later we arrived in Portage with legs full of lactic acid, a few beers later all this was forgotten until I tried to stand up, ooooh sore. The views though were pretty amazing so well worth it, only another 20km to go tomorrow.
Highlights: Paying to push a mountain bike up a hill
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