Mountain biking and other such nonsense

Last weekend, I went on a mountain biking trip with the MTBclub to Wanaka and Queenstown. Before I go into any detail, it was one of the most fun trips I have ever been on! To begin with, we left at 8am Saturday morning (which really meant around 10 when everyone was drug out of bed) and drove 3 hours to Wanaka. The road was a 'main road' but was only 2 lanes that wound through the central Otago countryside. The whole area is very dry, with odd rock features and large, rolling hills. The alps could be seen in the distance as we got closer to Wanaka, which is nestled in a little valley next to Laka Wanaka- a huge lake surrounded by mountains. Absolutely gorgeous.

We jumped right on our bikes, there were about 10 people from Uni and one we met there, and rode for a good 4 hours. The trails were relatively short but there were so many, we just went up and down. There were huge jumps that had been built, but were being demolished in an attempt to keep people safer. Several of the tracks were for "racing," and were built with 2 single tracks running side-by-side with inside and outside berms. What a blast! There was even a section called the "toilet bowl" which is a super steep hairpin turn into a rolling drop- it's actually safer at that point not to hit the brakes and just ride it out. That night, we grabbed some dinner and then reeked havoc around town- playing on the playgrounds by the lake and throwing soccer balls at each other at the skatepark.

The next morning we drove another hour to Qweenstown, which is also a town in a valley with a huge lake surrounded by mountains. Queenstown really reminded me of Jackson Hole- kind of touristy with lots of expensive shops and outdoor places. The most common attractions are bungy jumping, water sports, biking and sky diving. We drove to a place called "7 mile" which has many man-made obstacles along the tracks there. After a brutal climb up, we picked one of 3 tracks (we would do all that day) and headed down. Most of the tracks were aimed at downhill/freeriders so there wasn't much climbing besides that first uphill. There were lots of super steep rock-drops, and even a few skinnies (narrow bridges made with logs, about 6-12in wide)! I was having a really great day, bombing hills, taking jumps and riding the skinnies- no major crashes :) After a good 3 hours, we all lay out on the beach for a while.

On the way home, we stopped in Alexandra (about 2 hours from Dunedin) to have tea at one of the kid's houses. His mom made us scones and hot cross buns, what a treat. Overall, it was a fantastic weekend! I can't wait to get back out there for another ride, although I'm definitely still feeling my legs.

This weekend, I'm taking a Phundamentals MTB skills clinic, so I hope to learn a little bit more about the steep terrain down here, which I'm not too comfortable with yet. Only 4 days of classes this week, 3 next week. Another week of class, then Uni Games April14-17 and spring break the following week. Natalie, and a couple other girls are planning on hiring a car to roadtrip all over the south island for break, hitting up the glaciers and the west coast. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. Hope all is well in the states!