Alps 2 Ocean - Day 1: Mt. Cook (Tasman Point) to Bottom of Lake Pukaki

Thursday, 20 November

In Queenstown, we packed up early and made our way to the bus station where we caught an 8:30am bus for Twizel. 

Once in Twizel, Richard from Kiwi Style Bike Tours, met us at the bus stop with a shiny blue bike for my dad and some panniers. We re-organized and geared up to begin our 5 day bike ride through the Alps 2 Ocean trail - one of New Zealand's new government-initiated cycle trails meant to draw in tourists to enjoy the beauty of places off-the-beaten-path and simultaneously boost the local economies of small old towns across the country as people cycle through. I think it's a brilliant idea, and their success with the older Central Otago Rail Trail  has already shown that the idea and effort is paying off.

The Alps 2 Ocean (hereby called A2O) trail starts at Mt. Cook in the NZ Alps with a helicopter ride across to east side of Lake Pukaki. 

Richard drove us up along the west side of the lake to the Mt. Cook airport, and from there we took a short 3 or 4 minute helicopter ride with our bikes and gear to the other side. 

First he dropped us off, then picked up this cage to go back for the bikes.

The bikes have arrived.

Prepping the bike for his first ride of the trip!

The whole trail from where we started cycling at Tasman Point to where we ended at Oamaru is 300km. Our first day we cycled about 55km from this point to the southern end of Lake Pukaki (the gorgeous turquoise blue lake you see in the pics). An absolutely incredible ride. What views!

Since we traveled all morning we had a late start on the bikes - we got going by 3pm. It was hard not to stop every 5 minutes to take another picture... really, my eyes just couldn't get enough of the mountains behind that lake!

Thankfully the (strong!) wind was on our backs for most of the way, so for the first 45km we were speeding right along. It was the last 10km that was a challenge for our new cyclist because as we rounded the lake we had to ride into the wind.

By 7:30...almost 8... we found a campsite by the lake, found the most sheltered spot from the wind and set up tent. I cooked dinner (boiled veggies, cous cous and canned meat...yum) which, because we were tired and hungry, tasted wonderful (although it did take a long time to cook for two with my tiny camp stove!).

Dad did very well on his first day on the bike. Very proud and also pleased he loved the day! :)