christchurch & the west coast
Watch the full episode on Christchurch & the West Coast on SBS on Demand now.
A big road trip from Taupō to Christchurch and a ferry kicked off the week for Deetz, the crew and myself! Excitement was in the air as the South Island is a mountainous adventure land. Straight up in Christchurch we headed into the Port Hills to get the lay of the land. It’s full of singletrails in open rugged hills and perfect for our Giant Trance E-Bikes to power around the hills and take in the views of Christchurch and the surroundings. We loaded up again and headed to the Christchurch adventure park… a mountain bikers paradise!
The Adventure Park has a specifically designed lift to take riders and bikes to the top of the mountain, what a genius idea. We met up with Anna, a cross country champion and she took us on the beginner trails before allowing Deetz and I to let rip on the jump trails. It’s an impressive park and gets loads of wheels on it because it’s so close to town. While we were there it was also the location for the Giant Vandy Challenge! I was against Anna on the zipline that’s 1.2km long, the longest in the southern hemisphere! You’ll have to watch the show to see who won, but it was exciting as due to me being 40kg heavier an interesting handicap was put in place.
Food is a passion of mine and Christchurch has a selection to make your mouth water. I found this place called 5th Street and the crew there are making flavor sensations and serving it up with a rotating menu depending on the season. Mind blowing, tasty, high end food. From fine dining to trying new things, the next day Deetz and I went to the river Avon to learn how to paddle a Waka or canoe. It’s a big vessel and quite fascinating to see how the Māori people used to traverse the seas. After the Waka we jumped on e-bikes, met up with Stu and got a tour of his city and the magnificent street art. Christchurch is a really trendy place. To top off a big day we rode along the avon river from the heart of the city with local legend Anton, out to the New Brighton Pier. The red zone was fascinating with fruit trees in peoples old yards that have been left for nature to reclaim old suburbs. Hot Pools have just been put in place out at the beach in New Brighton. We timed the ending of our ride with sunset, so we could enjoy the ocean views while having a soak!
As always a train got Deetz overexcited and we arrived at the TranzAlpine train before first light! To be fair it was the most amazing train journey I’ve ever been on and the viewing carriage was really cool. The train takes you from Christchurch, through the Alps and arrives at Greymouth, the start of the wilderness trail, but we were in the car 30 minutes south to check out Hokitika. What a coollittletown.com it is! Katene the master pounamu carver was super chill and showed us the basics of carving jade stone, a practice very significant to the West Coast of New Zealand. His laugh was so pure and infectious which in itself made this a must do experience.
The next day we caught up with Scott and his daughter Alex so they could show us one of the best sections of the Wilderness trail. Scott was so chill that he was wearing jandals as his riding shoes. The trail was really special and perfect for groups and families to choose their own adventure. It’s over 100km for the full route, but it links up towns and is easy to do out and back rides.
We finished the ride at the treetop walk and got unique perspectives of the tree canopy on elevated platforms. Also with views of Aoraki Mount Cook and the location of our next adventure. Christchurch and the west coast was another week of new experiences and learning about the cultures in these Trail Towns! It’s so unique to be able to have so many adventures in so little time. Over half way on the NZ adventure and two big weeks to go!!!
