QUEENSTOWN – Bike the Bridges

Do you remember how I mentioned in my previous blog post that each member of the family got to pick an activity to do while we were in Queenstown?

Well I may have gotten to pick two – although once again I compromised.

You see, Issy isn’t a huge fan of cycling (even though when she was 10 she stood in a bike shop and pleaded with me to buy her this REALLY pretty (and expensive) bike – she even went as far as telling me she’d ride it ALL THE TIME Mum!).

Well – I’m pretty sure I can count on one hand the number of times that bike has been out of our garage. Let’s just say I bring up that bike every single time she asks me for something .. 😉

But I digress – we had a morning “to kill” so I booked the Bike the Bridges tour with Around the Basin which is a 15km one way cycle trip from Arrowtown to the Gibbston Valley which is one of the tours aimed at the family market.

We met our driver at the shop and he drove us out to Arrowtown where he gave us each a bike (they all had names – we had James, Thomas, Rihanna and Angel (that was mine)). Then after he checked we could actually ride – he let us loose – although thankfully he pointed in the general direction of Gibbston Valley as the boys intially wanted to head in the opposite direction. *sigh*

Before setting off, we went for a quick look around Arrowtown (and as it hasn’t changed in 100’s of years, it obviously looked the same as when James and I last went) we did however stop at the Remarkable Sweet Shop and the boys packed away some sugary treats for the ride ahead.

The ride out to Gibbston Valley was relatively easy riding – the boys rushed off ahead and Issy and I got up to quite a decent pace once she worked up the nerve not to dismount and walk down EVERY SINGLE hill.

I knew we’d catch up eventually – Elias tends to go full throttle then get so knackered (and grumpy) that he reverts to walking (while moaning a lot) and woe and behold that’s what happened.

Elias exclaimed that it was his Dad’s fault – they were both racing and missed the turn off. They didn’t realise their mistake until they hit a main road (our guide had said to us “if you ever come to a road – you’ve done something wrong) thankfully a quick phone call to Moi sorted out the dilemma and Issy and I waited for them to double back and meet up with us.

Discounting the fact that our boys got lost – I think the trail was super easy to follow and the surroundings were quite breathtaking! In fact, this activity was my favourite of all the things we’d done in Queenstown – so that’s high praise.

My only “feedback” is that this tour should finish at the Kawerau Bridge. The last section of the trail is perhaps the most boring and you have to cross a busy road to get to the Winery (the actual ending point) so unless you actually drink wine (which we do not) it seems like a pointless destination.

I saw that there were food and drinks available at the Kawerau Bridge and I for one would have happily wiled away the time waiting for our driver by watching people bungee jump off the bridge and I guarantee Elias would have been overjoyed to have been finished at that point.

Would I have wiled away my time actually bungee jumping?

That would be a firm NO!

Till next time