New Zealand: South Island Explorer

Fifteen nights on the South Island alone, at a more unhurried pace than the operator’s two-island trip, out of Christchurch and back. Bikes are rented.

Christchurch starts it, then a fortnight of South Island riding built around the named passes. Arthur’s Pass crosses the Southern Alps through beech forest and scree on a road that includes a viaduct built into a slip-prone hillside. The Haast Pass is the other crossing, the lowest of the three, running through rainforest to the west coast. The Crown Range Road is the highest sealed road in the country and drops into Queenstown in a sequence of switchbacks.

Between them the route takes in glaciers, beaches, rainforest and hot springs, with whale spotting on the Kaikoura coast, where no sighting can be promised but the odds are better than in most places because the continental shelf drops away so close inshore.

An optional 4×4 tour visits Lord of the Rings locations, including the sites used for Isengard, Lothlorien and the Misty Mountains, which in most cases are simply pieces of New Zealand that needed no alteration at all. The route returns to Christchurch at the end. The price is quoted per rider. Fifteen nights for one island means short days and time to stop, which on roads this good is the better arrangement: the twin island trip covers more ground, and this one covers it slowly. The South Island is where most of the scenery people associate with New Zealand actually is, so a rider with only a fortnight to spare loses very little by leaving the north out.