A View of Wanaka

3 hours of lunch and day planning in Queenstown and we were on a bus for Wanaka, about an hour up the road. If I could compare Wanaka for you, it's like a Squamish to Queenstowns Whistler. 

The Town of Wanaka is on Wanaka Lake.  The hills and the surrounding area often reminded me of Kamloops. But best of all: no rain here yet. According to the locals, the South Island had a dodgy summer - cool, windy and rainy. But the kids all went back to school so I guess the sun decided to come out. I'd say the average temperature has been around 25 degrees C since we got here.

This is why you leave Vancouver in the Winter. It Summer somewhere.

 We puttered around on our first afternoon here. Monday would be the Really Big ticket item on our trip.

 We got picked up in front of Racers Edge on Ardmore St.  in town. Perryn(from Nelson on the South Island) and her friend Jo (Josephine? from Edinburgh) would be our guides for the trip. Usually Perryn runs the show on her own, but intel from Nic suggests Perryn had a crash a few days before and asked Joe for an assist in showing us around. Actually, this would also be Jo's first time on the adventure as well.

They drove us out to the airport. Efficiently our bikes got loaded onto the Helecopter. A short jump over to pick up Perryn, who had to shuttle the Jeep for evac and we were on our way up the hill. The Helicopter ride was really cool. I can see why so many people want to learn how to fly them.

 Nic at the top, shortly before the Heli leaves us on our own.

 We would ride by rocky outcroppings like these often.

 I think its safe to say that the pictures do a better job of telling the story than I can. The ride was made up of 5 in all. Perry and Jo, Me and Nic and Johan from Sweden.

Jo had a really good eye for photograhy. She asked for my Camera so she could get this one of me and Nic in the distance.

 The ride itself was not overly difficult. If you are looking for a day long epic with lots of technical features, this may not be the ride for you.

 Instead what you get is a are awesome - no, stunning views of Mt. Pisa and the surrounding area. Perryn did a GREAT job of stopping us and giving us the story of each section of trail. If there was an area that might trip us up, she let us know so we could take care.

 Make no mistake though, there are many places on this trail where your speed can get away from you. I can imagine how often Perryn needs to swap out brake pads on her fleet of Giant Trances.

We really lucked out with the weather. Even Perryn was happy with the temperature and visibility. February seems to be prime time to do this ride.

 The ride goes in 3 stages. We start on a rocky Moon like setting, then in the middle we get what reminded me of Grand Junction and Fruita. In the end we ride through  a farmers heard of sheep and cows and grazing greenery.

Very happy with the ride and our guides. If the ride was more technical that it was I don't think I could have last for 3+ hours. It was nice to relax, shut of the brain and get some warm sun and views.

As long as your not looking to shred, shralp, or rip it up getting some epic shots of yourself riding crazy $h!t, then I would highly recommend Wanaka Max Vert.