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The Marlborough region
at the top of NZ's South Island is a mecca for mountain biking - covering
the full gambit from "ego" singletrack to impossibly steep fire trails.
You could get lost there for a fortnight and still find new bits to explore.
In this first hit of a two part tale, I'll yarn about a couple of the
Marlborough Sounds' outer islands. In the second part we'll get down 'n'
dirty on some tasty singletrack.
D'Urville
Island looking towards Cape Stephens
 For
over a decade our beloved Margaret
Thatcher advocated short sharp shock therapy for the masses. Being declared
mtb masochists, four of us picked up the baton and ventured to Arapawa
Island, sandwiched between the Queen Charlotte Sound and the head of the
Tory Channel (birth place of the eponymous party). The hills there are
short, sharp and a bit of a shock. The Island has a big reputation for
its goats, bad weather and strange occurrences. Well how do you get there?
Swimming with your bike is out of the question, so we hitched a boat ride
with the kind people at Dolphin Watch. They off-loaded us at Te Aroha
Bay where we were greeted by our hosts - Mary and Roy. Bikes and gear
were hauled to our cabin hidden amongst the manuka in this cool valley
at the base of Mt Narawhia. Tons of space for tents. There's no electricity
but gas for cooking and candles for lighting, plus the obligatory outside
loo and shower.
Arapawa Island is
a mixture of open farm land, scrub, exotic forest and DOC reserve.
It
is spectacularly steep and gnarly, with views to match. We headed up
the steep, loose and rutted track on the south ridge of Narawhia to
inspect
the secret "UFO landing site" (another government cover-up). No flight
due today. Then more of the same along the tops into the DOC reserve
-
quite a grovel. The North Island is within spitting distance - Cape
Terawhiti being a mere 20kms away, as the moa flys.
The
following day we headed west around Otanerau Bay on a rough farm track
then up and over the back bone of the island to Okukari Bay. Some interesting
sites with WWII gun emplacements complete with "secret squirrel" tunnel
and the old whaling station in Whekenui Bay. DOC have done a grand
job
restoring this tasty morsel of NZ history. Further around in Te Awaiti
Bay are relics of NZ's first shore whaling station of 1827. So much
history,
so little time. A huge lunch and then Pete went and busted his rear
derailleur. We quickly converted his bike to a trendy single speed
and continued up
to the Arapawa summit before traversing back to Te Aroha Bay in the
mist. There are other tracks which head north to Otonga Point and south
to Umuwheke
Bay. All are on private land and require permission but Mary and Roy
are happy to help - just bemused that anyone would want to mountain
bike there.
 We
then relocated to D'Urville Island - a cool place inundated with native
bush, thanks mainly to the absence of opossums. It's a just a short hop
from French Pass on the water taxi. The skipper (come mail man, come tourist
guide) fixed us up with some accommodation in Kapowai Bay and gave us
the contact details for the local farmers. From Kapowai at the south end
of the island we headed north on the main drag - a little used shingle
road which climbs to around 600m then bobs along the tops for about 40km.
Around three quarters of the island is DOC reserve so you are cruising
through beautiful native bush most of the time. Shortly after Mt Ears
you pop out of the native scrub to discover a relatively barren section
- not unlike Nelson's ultramafic zone. Weird. Continuing on to the sharp
end through undulating farm land we eventually made Cape Stephens. What
a spot, with awesome views of the Bishops Cauldron, the Sisters, Hells
Gate, Stephens Island and of course Stephens Passage. So much to absorb
and we still had to return to the blunt end. We staggered into our little
house well after dark.
The next day it was
an easy jaunt to the west coast, some different bush, great views and
a well deserved rest. Our final day took us towards Wells Peak and Owhata.
Good fortune saw us stumble upon a local farmer who suggested an alternative
route. We scored a rip roaring ride down to Bullock Bay and back around
the coast to Owhata and home. Then back to the mainland to dream up our
next excursion.
Next issue - the
Queen Charlotte walkway with a few variations for the terminally insane.
And
by the way ... if the fashion brigade can declare grey as the "new black",
then the Queen Charlotte must be the "new Heaphy"!
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