A2O - An Awesome Ride!

Thanks to the awesome organising ability of Melody Guo, I found myself shivering at Mount Cook Village one brisk morning in mid-April, contemplating a 301 km ride from the middle of New Zealand's south island to its eastern coast at the seaside town of Oamaru.  Myself, Melody and 4 other Bike Northers intended to ride the iconic Alps to Ocean route in the following sections:-

Day 1 – Mount Cook to Twizel

Day 2 – Twizel to Lake Ohau

Day 3 – Lake Ohau to Oatamata

Day 4 – Oatamata to Duntroon

Day 5 – Duntroon to Oamaru

You could also do the ride in 7 days by breaking days 1 and 3 into 2 separate stages but as we were using mountain e-bikes, we had no problem with a couple of days that were slightly longer.

We had decided on the self guided tour with a company called Cycle Journeys. The service they provided us was the hire of mountain E bikes and transport of hire car with our main luggage. They also provided us with sufficient panniers so that we were able to carry enough clothing for those days we were on our own, being the nights at Lake Ohau, Otematata and Duntroon. But the usual service is they deliver your luggage to each night's accommodation and you travel light. One of the many advantages of having an E bike is it allows you to carry extra luggage without feeling it.

The Alps to Ocean Trail is unlike any I have done before.  The scenery is simply awesome – each day is different to the last.  It also has a wide variety of terrain. On that first day from Mount Cook to Twizel, the terrain varied from huge white pebbles to dirt paths to rocky ground to a corrugated road. The Great Rides app is very good in letting you know what kind of terrain you will have each day, even giving to the percentages. See www.greatridesapp.com