Downhill diva

 
November 19th-22st

After spending 10 days together it feels strange that our intrepid group is splitting into hikers and bikers for two nights. We bikers wave a smug farewell to our hiker comrades at St Arnaud – the gateway to Nelson Lakes, where they will spend a couple of days trudging up and down yet more hills with heavy packs on their backs, and staying in very basic huts with no showers and the infamous long drop loos. The bikers travel on to the beautiful Marlborough Sound, where we will spend a day and a half cycling Queen Charlotte Track. Although the heavily wooded track is primarily for hikers, it is also a fantastic single track mountain bike route – one of the most famous in the world, and certainly one of the most beautiful. Winding through forested cliffs, to clearings along the ridge, it overlooks Marlborough Sounds – a complex coastline of drowned valleys that could well have been designed by Slartibartfast – and was used by Captain Cook and Maori traders for shelter and plentiful food.

We found ourselves staying at a boutique B&B, complete with outdoor Jacuzzi, which we definitely need to ease our aching limbs after a 30km off-road cycle on day two. Even better, our hostess Linda, a former baker, is a fantastic cook and while our hiking comrades are on rations – they have to carry anything they plan to cook on their trip – we eat like kings.

For expert mountain bikers, the track is not particularly technical. But I’m not an expert mountain biker, and have an irrational fear of narrow tracks, particularly hilly ones covered in tree roots, rocks and muddy puddles that loop round cliffs with sheer drops to the sea. I may not be an expert, but my friend Suzi is – so I remembered her advice and did the entire track looking at my front wheel rather than the view. And guess what, it was fun! Though I still managed to fall off in a gully and am now sporting the mother of all bruises on the inside of my knee, and a gash that should probably have been stitched on the back of my leg. Thankfully we had a doctor and a midwife on the trip to patch me up. Think I should stick to the road in future.

The following day I took it easy in the van as we drove through the Marlborough wine region, renowned for its sauvignon blancs. All the vineyards are planted in a dried up river valley, which apparently provides ideal conditions for them. Looking at the map is like reading the names on a wine list, so I guess it must be. We met up with the hikers at Forrest, one of the less well-known vineyards, and celebrated the end of our adventure with an afternoon of wine tasting.