As an optional fourth day add-on to the Around The Mountains Trail ‘package’, we took to our bikes again today, this time beginning our adventure in Arrowtown, an historical gold-mining town 20km north-east of Queenstown.
The plan for the day was straight-forward enough: after the 30 minute drive to Arrowtown, cycle down the Arrow river to the nearby Gibbston wine valley and visit some of the wineries that are dotted along an 8km stretch of the Gibbston Highway. After a glass or three of wine, inebriated riders can take advantage of a late afternoon shuttle service back from Gibbston to Queenstown.
The only problem with this plan was a misunderstanding over distances. We had thought it was a 40km ride from Arrowtown to Gibbston, when in fact it is only 12km. Even if you visit the very last winery on the highway, the journey is still only 20km. So the plan was revised: I would remain tea-total for the day so I could bike back to Arrowtown after lunch, and Kit would decide once we reached Gibbston whether he would be joining me, or instead opt for a more relaxing afternoon with a glass or two of wine.
For our Around The Mountains Trail adventure we were kitted out with very basic 21-gear town bikes, but today we were upgraded to 27-gear mountain bikes, complete with suspension and disc brakes. It took a few moments to get used to the far less upright seating position, but these bikes were certainly better equipped for steep hills, of which we encountered several.
Arrowtown is an attractive little town with heaps of gold-mining era charm, either preserved or at least convincingly recreated. Not surprisingly, it is very popular tourist attraction in its own right, and by the time we arrived, had already begun to fill up. The view down the high street would have made a great photo had it not been lined with cars and a few coachloads of Chinese tourists!
The ride to Gibbston follows the Arrow river. At Arrowtown, the river is quite narrow and unassuming, with the cycle way doubling-up as a tow path. A few kilometres down-river, it widens, running through an increasingly deep gorge.
On two occasions, the cycle way crosses from one bank to another across a narrow suspension bridge. “Don’t look down” was playing on both of our minds as we cycled tentatively across… and yes, the more you worried about the bridge wobbling, the more it wobbled!
Before setting off, our driver had mentioned that we would be crossing Bungee Bridge – the most popular location in the Queenstown area for bungee jumping. I half-joked that I might sign up for a jump, but by the time we had cycled over that second suspension bridge, that thought (however small) had completely evaporated!
Although there were plenty of (mostly very brief) uphill sections, we were clearly dropping as we made progress towards Gibbston and both Kit and I commented that we’d need to leave extra time for the return trip.
When we finally reached Bungee Bridge, 10km down the trail, we paused to watch a couple of jumps. It’s a well-oiled operation, with the next three jumpers all at various stages of readiness as the next jumper takes centre stage. Both jumpers we watched leant backwards off the pedestal rather than jumping head first. I would guess the operator prefers this, as it reduces the chance of someone’s fear getting the better of them and thus slowing the whole operation down. After all, the more people jump, the more money they’re making, and at $150 a go, this must be a very lucrative business!
After a few bounces, jumpers are lowered to a dinghy below.
After passing Bungee Bridge, the landscape opens up, and we got some great views down into the river gorge.
Gibbston is tiny in comparison to the Hunter Valley where we enjoyed wine tasting in Australia. With just eight wineries in total, all within easy cycling distance of each other, it is not uncommon for visitors to pay a visit to all of the wineries in a single afternoon. Our strategy was to start at the winery furthest from Arrowtown, and decide once we got there what our plan would be for the rest of the afternoon.
As it happens, this meant a visit to the Mount Rosa winery, and we timed our arrival perfectly, as their only customers at the time were just leaving. We had a long chat with the owner, finding out about her past life as a teacher, getting her advice on other wine regions of New Zealand that we knew we would be visiting over the coming days, and gossiping about the Around The Mountains Trail controversies which we’d learned about over recent days. We ate some local cheese and especially enjoyed Mount Rosa’s rosé and Sauvignon Blanc wines.
After 150km of cycling over the past four days, Kit had had enough, so opted not to join me for the cycle back. Perhaps a wise choice, because the wind had picked up over lunch, and the ride back, into the wind and mostly up-hill, was quite a battle. Being on a high-spec bike certainly helped though, and I had the advantage of now having some familiarity with the trail. Putting my foot down, I got back in 1:20, including a brief stop to photograph some goats who must have been on the other side of their enclosure when we’d passed by earlier in the day.
As it turned out, I needn’t have hurried back. Kit and the two American honeymooners who made up our tour group for the day were due to be picked up from the Gibbston Tavern mid-afternoon and then collect me from Arrowtown 20 minutes later. I had begun to worry that something must have gone wrong by the time they finally arrived, half an hour late, not having considered the possibility that the American couple might have bought a bottle or more of wine at every one of the eight Gibbston wineries! A free delivery service is provided by the tour operator, and hence our driver had been required to make eight additional stop-offs to gather up all of the day’s spoils!
