Traveling to New Zealand questions

Queenstown is really nice but a touch expensive.
What kind of riding do you normally do?

Queenstown is one of, if not the most magical place on earth.

You need to be able to quote this whole video, if not they won't talk to you, they love it that much!

No.
We.
Don't.

HA!
QT is pretty much heaven on earth... The riding is awesome and it's just getting better and better. I'm not a climber but from what I've heard, there's some really good climbing around town that's really accessible. I've been here since mid February and I'm loving every minute of it. I suggest that you arrive here before the summer season so that you can sort out housing and employment before the busy season kicks off.
As for bike gear, the best thing to do would be to bring your own. Everything is really expensive here... I know that bringing your bike and gear over will be a big PITA, but if you already have a really good bike at home, you'll have to be prepared to most likely pay big money to get something similar.
If you have other questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Contact Dan at www.freeridenz.com, tell him Kevin from Holland sent ya.
Did a helibiking tour with them and some DH and trails around lake Wanaka and Queenstown.
Some of the highlights of my trip...

DaveW said:

No.
We.
Don't.

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Yes you do, bru.

I live in Dunedin, about a 3.5 hour (nice) drive from Queenstown and Wanaka. Be aware that the QT gondola's for biking are only open 29 September to 29 April. So not winter.

You can pay about $120 NZD/day to hire 2012-13 Giant Glory's with full gear, but while riding there earlier this year I met a couple of guys who moved to Queenstown from Canada and purchased late-2000's DH bikes for ~$400-500, and a season pass. They lived in a hostel right at the base of the gondolas, worked at a bar (or something) and spent the rest of the time riding. They seemed to love it and have since moved on to other parts of the country for more riding. At $120 a pop it wouldn't take long to spend more than the price of a bike that you could on-sell at the end of your trip..

Best place imo to buy bikes is here:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/sports/cycling/mountain-bikes/downhill

QTown is pricey, so consider Wanaka as well. I actually prefer it as a place to stay. It offers good riding too, but no gondola. Just out of town there's a lot of options for bouldering, free climbing and pretty much all rock climbing. Also consider a few trips to Dunedin and Christchurch. There's a shuttle running in Dunedin that takes you to the top of the National DH track every Sunday. It's about 5 runs for $10 from memory. Over summer it runs Wednesdays too.

Christchurch is another 4-5 hours drive but it also has some decent riding on offer. I've never been though so can't say much more than that. It's all on YouTube..

Good luck with the decision and regardless of when you visit, I know you'll have a blast.

@stinky6
You should probably come a little before the gondola opens for MTB. Maybe sometime in the end of August-early September. I highly suggest bringing a trail bike in addition to a DH bike if you can. There's so much quality non-DH trails in and around QT. I only have a DH bike and I really regret it not having a trail bike because I missed out on so much. The plus about a trail bike in QT is that you can still pedal up to the DH trails in the winter if you don't like pushing up. Also, a trail bike is a much more versatile tool if you decide to go do some riding outside of QT.


@ButtersNZ
If I'm guessing right about the two guys you're talking about, those guys are american lol. Were you in QT back in easter? Bernard?

ocelot said:

@ButtersNZ
If I'm guessing that right about the two guys you're talking about, those guys are american lol. Were you in QT back in easter? Bernard?

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Ahaha! Don't tell Billy and Alex please. Yeah that was me. Who's this?

gemini2k said:

Queenstown is one of, if not the most magical place on earth.

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Amen to that. I went to NZ for my honeymoon and can't wait to get back in the future.

ButtersNZ said:

Ahaha! Don't tell Billy and Alex please. Yeah that was me. Who's this?

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THE Canadian with the silver Turner DHR and orange POC helmet... haha
I was about to let you know that I was coming to Dunedin for a day or two. Due to car troubles, I have to cut my road trip short and just pass through... I'll be in CHCH this weekend to meet up with them though!

Dude! Look at the forecast. You HAVE to stop in Dunedin for a ride. It's prime. Can crash at my place if you can't find anywhere to stay. My number is still the same but having phone issues so best to get at me on here or FB

If that's of any help, I had a buyer for a DH frame a while ago and the shipping cost from Canada to Australia was extremely prohibitive (like almost a grand). I still can't really believe there was no way to get an afordable shipment, but I tried Fedex, Canada Post, Purolator...and it was ridiculously expensive with all of them.

Unless you have cheaper options to ship from the US to NZ, it would probably make more sense to bring your bike or buy one over there.

FlipSide said:

If that's of any help, I had a buyer for a DH frame a while ago and the shipping cost from Canada to Australia was extremely prohibitive (like almost a grand). I still can't really believe there was no way to get an afordable shipment, but I tried Fedex, Canada Post, Purolator...and it was ridiculously expensive with all of them.

Unless you have cheaper options to ship from the US to NZ, it would probably make more sense to bring your bike or buy one over there.

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To add to this, YouShop is a US -> NZ forwarding service that I've found to be pretty cheap for sending items. E.g. a 9.5" shock, spring and metal linkage plates were $28 NZD ($22 USD). UPS etc were like $100+ for some ridiculous reason.

If you can sort out an NZ address to receive your bike, you could potentially ship it with YouShop for a couple hundred bucks. http://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop/youshop-pricing#calculator

It's done on volumetric weight so if you really stripped the frame down you could get it for less. Max value they will handle is $2499 NZD though, so if you have a decent bike be prepared to say it's worth less, or find another way.

Look into Rotorua Redwoods forest (Whakarewarewa forest) - Central North Island, and Woodhill MTB park, Auckland (Upper North Island). About 4 hours apart I think.

I just came home after nearly 6 months in NZ. Words can't describe how ****ing awesome that place is.

I'd like to add that NZ's health care system is excellent. I had an infection in one of my finger tendons, NZ's ACC covered the surgery even though I already had travel insurance. How awesome is that?!

Unfortunately, I had to stay in Dunedin for a week after surgery... Fortunately for ButtersNZ, he got the chance to ride my bike because I definitely wasn't able to haha. I also got the chance to walk down most of Signal Hill's DH trails. The quality and variety of trails really impressed me. You must hit up Dunedin for some riding while you're down there!

Your bike has ruined my bike for me haha. Hope it's good to be home man. There's still a rental car in my drive way and that tank of fuel is tempting me every day..

So OP, did you end up going down under?!!