I’ve always thought of heli-biking as being the domain of the downhill devils, those who want to barrel down something large and inaccessible without the chore of first grinding their way to the top. But in New Zealand (of course in New Zealand!), heli-biking can be an option for more sedate cycle tourers as well. In the heart of the Southern Alps throughout summer, helicopters buzz about the country’s highest mountain, Aoraki/Mt Cook, like swarms of bees. It’s here also that the longest of New Zealand’s 23 listed Great Rides, the 301-kilometre Alps 2 Ocean, begins its journey towards Oamaru on the distant east coast.
In the shadow of Aoraki
Though the trail begins beside Mt Cook Village, its course is broken after just a few kilometres by the unbridged Tasman River. The only way across the waterway is by helicopter, a conundrum that sees most cyclists begin the ride across the river on the eastern shore of Lake Pukaki, or on a spur trail at nearby Tekapo. It might sound like a flaw in the system, but if you’re the cyclist in the helicopter, it can seem a mighty fine flaw, dishing up bonus aerial views of New Zealand’s tallest peaks and the glaciers that scrape around them. But first the mountain weather has to oblige.
Alpine conditions don’t respect plans, even on a bike. The morning I set out riding on Alps 2 Ocean, a severe gale warning has been issued around Aoraki/Mt Cook, and a westerly wind catapults through the valleys. All helicopters have been grounded for the simple reason that they’d blow about like dandelion spores.
I’m cycling in a group with local company Adventure South, meaning we have a support van, so we set out riding from Mt Cook Village anyway. The plan is to cycle to Mt Cook Airport, where the helicopters now sit like rocks, and then make the two-hour drive around the lake to begin pedalling again on the river’s opposite bank.
To call the wind this morning a ‘severe gale’ is probably to understate things. Dust clouds plume like smoke from a bushfire as each gust muscles its way through the Hooker Valley. We are the literal riders on the storm – it’s the strongest wind in which I’ve ever cycled. One moment I’m pedalling on the trail, the next I’ve been blown three metres off it. I look behind me and the group has toppled like skittles. We’re in the van long before we reach the airport.
The worst of the storm blows through in the night, and by the next morning Lake Pukaki is the blue of lake dreams, even under dark skies. The long and narrow lake, so reminiscent of a fiord, is our new starting line as we set out riding from near its northern end.
As I pedal the dirt road alongside the lake’s eastern edge, Aoraki/Mt Cook sits somewhere over my shoulder. Through the pine trees that line the road, Lake Pukaki intermittently comes into view, its glacial waters so bright and blue it’s as though somebody has spray-painted the lake into the valley.
Directly across the lake, the main road glints with cars, but on this corrugated road to nowhere, I’m passed by just two vehicles in an hour. The road doubles as Alps 2 Ocean’s route for 40km before coming to the top of the lake and its famously reflective view of Aoraki/Mt Cook, though this morning the mountains are still shrouded in cloud.
From the lake edge, Alps 2 Ocean sets off across the Pukaki Flats, which are as level as the name promises. Here, the trail intersects with Te Araroa, the 3000km-long hiking route between New Zealand’s northern and southern tips. It’s a mighty task you might expect few to attempt, but even in the 11km to Twizel, I pass half a dozen hikers carrying months of their lives on their backs. It’s like cycling through the film set of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild.
Build it and they will come
Twizel is about as practical as New Zealand towns get. It was built in the late 1960s to house workers constructing hydroelectricity dams and canals through the Waitaki Valley, and those canals now suitably guide the next leg of the ride. The canals are as reliable as rail trails for flat, easy riding, and between Twizel and Lake Ohau it’s almost like European towpath cycling, but with the addition of salmon pens dotting the canals. Beside the pens, anglers cast in fishing lines, trying their luck in hope of escapees.
The canals end at Lake Ohau, another blue doormat on the step of the Southern Alps, which are now slowly untangling themselves from cloud. The lake provides the treat of singletrack pressed tight against the water, with the trail heading far up the shores to end an 80km cycling day at Lake Ohau Lodge.
Such is the ever-growing popularity of Alps 2 Ocean that bikes stand outside almost every room at the lodge. When I first cycled Alps 2 Ocean shortly after its opening in 2012, I had lunch here alone with the lodge owners. Seven years on, the place resembles a cycling festival.
It’s not the only change that the last seven years have brought to the trail. In its infancy, Alps 2 Ocean spent long stretches on busy roads, including Highway 83 through the Waitaki Valley. Today, just a small section of the ride remains on Highway 83, with work underway to remove even this from the journey.
The most notable new section begins at Lake Ohau Lodge, where the nervous tension around the breakfast tables is palpable because Lake Ohau marks the start of Alps 2 Ocean’s toughest climb. The lake sits 540 metres above sea level, so by rights the way to the coast should be all downhill, but for the next six kilometres the trail creeps up the slopes, rolling through patches of beech forest interspersed with views of Aoraki/Mt Cook, which is now just a distant summit peeping above the Ben Ohau Range across the lake.
Te Araroa hikers continue to filter along the trail, and one American couple tells me they’ve been on the trail for four months, with ‘just’ 500km left to walk. And here I’ve been worrying about the effort of a 300m climb. The trail is like a dusty razor cut across the slopes, always climbing but never too steep. In the early morning, mist rises like steam from the lake, and it feels a little like riding around the rim of a cauldron.
If the 300m climb is a chore, the 500m descent is a delight. The trail is rocky and loose, lumpy and bumpy, uncoiling at first through a series of switchbacks and then straightening and flattening out through the grasslands. At the base of the hill, the trail turns upstream, detouring to the dilapidated doors of the 1920 Quailburn shearing shed, where once 80,000 sheep a year were given haircuts. The only flocks here now are the cyclists who gather to regroup and refresh at the end of Alps 2 Ocean’s most exhilarating section.
For most cyclists, including us, this is a short day, with just a 25km roll into Omarama remaining beyond the shearing shed. In Omarama, gliders cut silently across the sky – the town is one of the world’s premier gliding sites – and outdoor hot tubs provide a chance to soothe tired cycling muscles. It’s here that Alps 2 Ocean finally straightens and heads towards the coast; Omarama is just 30km from Twizel and yet we’ve cycled more than 80km to get here since leaving that town.
Through the valley, the ocean calls
From Omarama, the Waitaki Valley steps down towards the coast in a series of dams and lakes. The prevailing winds for the journey through the valley are westerlies – ergo, tailwinds – though this day they’re being contrary and blow hard in our faces. It will be a day of dams and damns.
Along the shores of Lake Benmore, the trail all but overhangs the water, with a low fence standing between a cycle and a swim. Back on the main highway as the ride crosses a saddle between Benmore and Aviemore lakes, a work van motors past, advertising something or other, with the phrase ‘Why suffer?’ scrawled like mockery across its rear doors as the wind anchors me into a long, slow grind.
Alps 2 Ocean’s best of stages and worst of stages begins across Aviemore Dam at the end of Lake Aviemore. Here, the ride swings back onto Highway 83, which is narrow with a steady torrent of traffic hurtling past. But a few kilometres along, it turns off onto Alps 2 Ocean’s newest section of purpose-built trail. The ride curls up a small hill and soon I’m cruising atop a line of cliffs, peering down onto the road and river, creating a delightful sense of removal.
We stop in Kurow on our final night before setting out again through a morning as still as a painting. The coast is calling, though it still feels light years away. As the valley opens up, it becomes a rural ride with a couple of rock stars thrown in – Maori rock art on a cliff at Takiroa, and the limestone outcrops that form the Elephant Rocks shortly after the ride turns out of the Waitaki Valley.
Even when I think we’re leaving the Elephant Rocks, we’re not really. Though the trail climbs on, it dips intermittently into narrow limestone gorges eroded into a fantasy of shapes still reminiscent of the knuckle-like Elephant Rocks. As the trail weaves through the folds in the land, transforming a hilly landscape into a flat ride, lake dreams have turned to ocean dreams, but first there’s one long climb to come.
Sure enough, as I crest that final ascent, the Pacific Ocean rises into view across a patchwork of farmland. It’s still 30km away, but it feels so close. A tailwind blows and a long, free-flowing descent awaits. I’m off to the seaside.
FACT FILE
For most cycling tour operators in New Zealand, Alps 2 Ocean has become the big-ticket ride, surpassing even the Otago Central Rail Trail. Bike hire and pack transfer services are plentiful, as are guided rides that dispense with the need to sort out accommodation, transport and the like. Adventure South is one of the few companies to offer an end-to-end ride on the Alps 2 Ocean, including an unforgettable helicopter transfer over the Tasman River. These fully supported trips run from October through April and cost from NZ$4295. Optional supplements include bike rental (NZ$210) and e-bike rental (NZ$600).
One of the key benefits of a guided tour like this is the flexibility it offers – experienced guides provide alternative transport options and can even reverse the route if needed, ensuring the adventure continues no matter the circumstances.
See Adventure South for info on Alps 2 Ocean and all its other cycling trips.
See Trail Journeys for self-guided Alps to Ocean cycling options.
See Ngā Haerenga Great Rides of New Zealand for more info on the 23 Great Rides of New Zealand.