A really great little course taking in some fine port hills single tracks.
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Snowboarding at Mount Cheeseman on a very windy day. Lots of powder but very very flat light made it a slightly frustrating day.
Castle Hill covered in a thick layer of the white stuff
The dominant foreground peak, as seen from Kaikoura. The views are excellent and generally not too inhibited by vegetation.
A beautiful and easy ride, on gravel and 4wd tracks, that leads to the awesome Hurunui Hut. The amazing scenery more than makes up for the possible blandness of the track.
At the end of Lake Sumner Road there is a DOC campsite next to Lake Taylor. Park and start from here. A reasonably fun 4WD track leads around the lake before turning into more of a gravel road as you climb up to the col beyond the lake and then descend down to Loch Katrina. From Loch Katrina the track becomes a proper 4WD track as heads towards Lake Sumner. It continues mainly across grassy, muddy fields all the way to the wire bridge. At this point the track becomes singletrack and enters the trees, it’s a lot more difficult to ride, with some pushing being necessary. But it is only about 1km to the Hurunui hut from here. Return the same way.
If you carry on for another 5kms beyond the hut you will come to some hot springs. But the track is very difficult to ride so it might be worth leaving bikes at the hut and walking.
Quartzopolis mine
The Big River road goes from Soldiers road to the Big River ghost town. It is an interesting 4wd track, with the odd decent hill, and is great in both directions. What this route lacks in views, it makes up for with historic sites and good terrain.
You can start this ride in Reefton/Quartzopolis if you like but this adds a whole load of road and gravel to an otherwise interesting 4wd track. The track proper starts at the top of Soldiers Road which turns left off highway 7 about 1km outside the town. There is a carpark at the Alborns Mine walk about 7kms up Soldiers Road. The 4wd track turns off Soldiers road by a big Goldfields sign about 200m up the road.
The track is fairly easy as it gently rises for about 7kms passing numerous mines and the site of the Merryjigs pub. The track is in the trees the whole way so is fairly shaded. A fast, slightly loose descent is followed by a long climb up to some thinner vegetation then a nice windy descent along the valley to Big River. There are 2 river crossings before you reach what remains of the settlement. The awesome Big River hut can be seen high above the ghost town on the right. There are lots of signs, ruins, and mines to explore if you have a bit of time.
The return trip is more fun than the approach, the descents feel longer and the climbs don’t feel too bad.
You can extend the ride all the way to the old ghost town of Waiuta by following the singletrack from below the Big River hut. This track has had some work on it as of 2013 but a lot of it remains very challenging. We’ve found it wet, slippy and generally not pleasant the two times we’ve been on it and so haven’t got much further than half way from the big river hut.
Although this route involves some pushing/carrying the singletrack descent to the Waitahu River makes it very worthwhile.
