22/11– Moonlight track

Our six days in Queenstown gave Si Phong the chance for a bit of a lie in. Which of course gave me the option to get up at the crack of dawn to get stuck in to some quality bike time…oh yes!!!

Having chatted to the local bike shop, I decided on a 25 mile off road loop around Queenstown. This route took the road westwards out to the 7 mile bike park area, then headed north over a valley path along Lake Dispute and Moke Lake. The second half was along Moonlight track, which follows high along a steep gorge to Arthur’s point, from which a short road section takes you back to Queenstown.

Suffice to say that it was a great ride. The road section had some great views of Lake Wakatipu, I then jumped off on to some sweet singletrack at 7 Mile, though the big ride ahead meant I had to drag myself away after a bit of playtime to keep the miles ticking.

Below are Lake Dispute and Moke Lake. This was one of the best bits of the ride, with some good climbing and not another person in sight. Having been backpacking for the past 3 months, my bike fitness was a shadow of my Lands End 2 John’O Groats form, so I took things easy and even walked some of the steeper sections.

Things took a bit of a turn after the lakes, hitting a big flat plain where horses grazed among lemon (?) trees. The path that I was following slowly gained in height, while the plain narrowed in to a gully. It was not long before I was high up and looking down on to a steep river gorge…signalling the start of Moonlight track.

The guy from the bike shop had promised some tasty singletrack around here. However, you’d have to the bike skills and fitness of an XC world champ to be able to ride this section. The first third of Moonlight was a straightforward 4x4 track but it then narrowed in to very steep and rocky sheeptrack which was virtually unrideable.

I took the coward’s path. Crawling on all fours, pushing the bike along with my tongue, I began to realise why it was called the moonlight track. Because with a steep 100m drop on one side and more gnarl than you could shake a stick at, they’d probably still be looking for your dead body under the moonlight if you tried to cycle it.

The next six miles took about as long as the rest of the ride put together, as I pushed and carried the bike pretty much the whole way. At least I was not alone now as a number of walkers now joined the moonlight track from the Ben Lomond track.

After I reached Arthur’s point, I blasted the remainder of the loop back to Queenstown on tarmac. Great ride, despite the hike-a-bike antics of the last third.