Today is our first day on the Alps to Ocean (A2O) cycle Track. A2O is one of New Zealand’s “Great Rides” and the longest cycling trail in the country, spanning some 320 kilometres from the foot of Mt Cook to the coast at Oamaru. Lisa and I have flown over from South Australia to Queenstown on NZ’s South Island to take our favourite type of holiday - active holidays! We’ll be joining a small cycling tour run by a Queenstown based company called Escape by Cycle (get the pun: Bycycle…!). They are a well regarded cycle touring company offering a posh tour with high end e-bikes, food, lodging and more included. All we have to do is provide the muscle! We’re picked up by our guides, Leyton and Shaun. They are both fantastic. We’re the first to be picked up for what we find will be a group of ten cyclists. We find out that the remaining eight are a group of Kiwi friends from the Auckland area. Today is more transport and less cycling. We chat and start to get to know the other cyclists as we head off towards Mt Cook which is a bit over 200 kms away. We stop for a picnic lunch in Twizel and then head off to the A2O start above the Mt Cook village; arriving around 2pm. We’re lucky; it’s a beautiful day and the large parking lot is absolutely packed with tourists, presumably walking up to see the rapidly receding Tasman Glacier. There are few cyclists about which is fantastic! The sheer mountains adjacent to us set the backdrop for the stunning scenery that awaits. Leyton and Shaun unload the bikes and make sure they are set up to our liking. I’m lucky, I have one of two green E-bikes (Merida Super 9) which is a new model added this year to their cycle fleet. I have a ride around the parking lot. It’s my first time on an Ebike but they are simple to use and the bike is a superb machine. After a safety briefing, we're off! The plan is to make a short 8 km ride across the rocky and grassy Mt Cook plain to the aérodrome where we'll take a helicopter across the Tasman River on what's known as NZ's shortest chopper flight. The aérodromeis busy with sightseeing planes taking off and buzzing with choppers flying in and out. It takes three chopper trips to get our e-bikes and the eleven of us across. Our bikes are loaded into a metal cage and the chopper pilot, in an impressive feat of precision flying has a 25 metre cable affixed to the bottom of his chopper and he flies perfectly centred above the basket until he hoists it far into the sky and flies off across the broad flood plain. Lisa and I are in the last flight. The flight only lasts four minutes- I told you it was short! - but the ride is exhilarating! I've spent considerable time in choppers but this is Lisa's first flight and she loves it. After sharing g pictures with our family, our daughter texts back "since when is a helicopter involved in a cycling activity?" My reply was "when your parents are spending your inheritance!" 😉😀 By the time we're ferried across the river, it's nearly 4pm and we still have another 25 kms to travel! It's quite a bumpy and dusty trail but we get the hang of things and learn to avoid the deep gravel that threatens to throw our bikes into an uncontrolled power slide. The scenery is just stunning and the weather perfect. It's everything I had hoped for in this trip. We're done by 6 pm, load the bikes and head to our accommodation in Tekapo. The lodging is quite nice and we have a quick shower and he's off to a restaurant for a very tasty meal. Day one is complete. The next days get progressively harder but it's been a fine day. I fall asleep tired and happy! Carl / Pilgrim

Mountain Biking

I didn’t shut the tracker off during the chopper flight - it’s where our speed gets to over 100 kph!

Alps To Ocean, A2O, New Zealand, South Island

Mackenzie District, Canterbury, New Zealand

time : Feb 27, 2025 2:07 PM

duration : 3h 48m 41s

distance : 37.7 km

total_ascent : 72 m

highest_point : 770 m

avg_speed : 13.5 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

Today is our first day on the Alps to Ocean (A2O) cycle Track. A2O is one of New Zealand’s “Great Rides” and the longest cycling trail in the country, spanning some 320 kilometres from the foot of Mt Cook to the coast at Oamaru. Lisa and I have flown over from South Australia to Queenstown on NZ’s South Island to take our favourite type of holiday - active holidays! We’ll be joining a small cycling tour run by a Queenstown based company called Escape by Cycle (get the pun: Bycycle…!). They are a well regarded cycle touring company offering a posh tour with high end e-bikes, food, lodging and more included. All we have to do is provide the muscle! We’re picked up by our guides, Leyton and Shaun. They are both fantastic. We’re the first to be picked up for what we find will be a group of ten cyclists. We find out that the remaining eight are a group of Kiwi friends from the Auckland area. Today is more transport and less cycling. We chat and start to get to know the other cyclists as we head off towards Mt Cook which is a bit over 200 kms away. We stop for a picnic lunch in Twizel and then head off to the A2O start above the Mt Cook village; arriving around 2pm. We’re lucky; it’s a beautiful day and the large parking lot is absolutely packed with tourists, presumably walking up to see the rapidly receding Tasman Glacier. There are few cyclists about which is fantastic! The sheer mountains adjacent to us set the backdrop for the stunning scenery that awaits. Leyton and Shaun unload the bikes and make sure they are set up to our liking. I’m lucky, I have one of two green E-bikes (Merida Super 9) which is a new model added this year to their cycle fleet. I have a ride around the parking lot. It’s my first time on an Ebike but they are simple to use and the bike is a superb machine. After a safety briefing, we're off! The plan is to make a short 8 km ride across the rocky and grassy Mt Cook plain to the aérodrome where we'll take a helicopter across the Tasman River on what's known as NZ's shortest chopper flight. The aérodromeis busy with sightseeing planes taking off and buzzing with choppers flying in and out. It takes three chopper trips to get our e-bikes and the eleven of us across. Our bikes are loaded into a metal cage and the chopper pilot, in an impressive feat of precision flying has a 25 metre cable affixed to the bottom of his chopper and he flies perfectly centred above the basket until he hoists it far into the sky and flies off across the broad flood plain. Lisa and I are in the last flight. The flight only lasts four minutes- I told you it was short! - but the ride is exhilarating! I've spent considerable time in choppers but this is Lisa's first flight and she loves it. After sharing g pictures with our family, our daughter texts back "since when is a helicopter involved in a cycling activity?" My reply was "when your parents are spending your inheritance!" 😉😀 By the time we're ferried across the river, it's nearly 4pm and we still have another 25 kms to travel! It's quite a bumpy and dusty trail but we get the hang of things and learn to avoid the deep gravel that threatens to throw our bikes into an uncontrolled power slide. The scenery is just stunning and the weather perfect. It's everything I had hoped for in this trip. We're done by 6 pm, load the bikes and head to our accommodation in Tekapo. The lodging is quite nice and we have a quick shower and he's off to a restaurant for a very tasty meal. Day one is complete. The next days get progressively harder but it's been a fine day. I fall asleep tired and happy! Carl / Pilgrim