The Most EPIC New Zealand High Country Winter of Riding

Excellent! Man, those rocky valleys look murderously slow going.

Who is responsible for the huts? Park service? Very cool.

Hi RedDog

You are right, there is some very slow going up some of those valleys, but the views at the end are absolutely worth it

The huts we stay at are a mixture of private huts and DOC (Department of Conservation ) huts. Some good info on huts for New Zealand adventure riders can be found here: https://www.nzar.nz/accommodation/huts/

Cheers

yep that is pretty epic well done

This next mission was an overnight trip up into the High Country with the main objective to GPS log and photograph the final section of the Wilberforce River headwaters. In the last few months all the other sections in the Wilberforce Valley area have been ridden and GPS logged however this section is hands-down the most challenging. The views up in the headwaters were absolutely worth the effort of wrestling the bikes over the large rocks and across deep rivers; this is simply an amazing place to be.


Gentle gravel roads to kick off the trip.


With snow melt underway, the rivers were higher than they had been over the last couple of months.

The river crossings near the Unknown and Wilberforce junction were a bit of a challenge.

Once we were past the junction, some well formed 4X4 tracks made it an easy task to progress about 3 km up the valley.


Once the 4X4 tracks faded away, it was back to riding virgin riverbed or remnants of tracks that have been partly washed away from previous floods.

Damn!! The river crossings are making my feet cold! You guys are tough!
Keep it up.

As we progressed up the valley we reached the first of the rock screes. Fairly easy going at first.

We then reached one of the most challenging screes. This scree was very wide with many large rocks and boulders loosely packed from recent floods.

The further up we rode, the larger the rocks and the more challenging it became.


This river was almost a showstopper. We searched for quite some time to find a safe place to cross, even then it required three of us to ferry each bike across so we didn't get dragged downstream.

From this point we only had a short distance to go to reach the hut, but the rocks made it slow going

Finally we made it to the hut!




Later in the afternoon a group of 5 hikers arrived. Rather than pack into the hut like sardines, we decided to give them the hut and setup camp on the riverbed.


Firewood was scarce but we scrounged up enough for a nice warm fire.

Packing up the next morning and heading out.




To be fair it was easier heading down the valley than up the valley as we had already picked the best lines the day before. There were still some challenges to tackle however, this steep river bank with almost no run-up being one of them.


One of the last stops to look over the river as we picked our crossing spot before heading out of the valley.

I want to do that!!!!!!

The Photos are brilliant !What sort of camera are you using if you don't mind me asking?

The photos don't do it justice.
It is absolutely wow breathtaking place.
I've not been up these routes but have been to NZ three times.
My first trip was in 2003 on an R80GS with a carb return spring that was so
heavy that I taped a rope around throttle grip to get leverage. Later I would
stay for three months and ride from Stewart Island to Reinga in the north.
My avatar was taken high above Frenchmans cut. It is a beautiful place
with beautiful people. Bucket list it.

stunning photographs , amazing you were able to successfully ride that terrain . even in warm conditions I would never even dream of attempting rides like that BRAVO thx for posting

Man, that water crossings look cold!!
That for sure wouldn't be mine.
Outstanding what you are riding out there in the cold.
Thanks for taking the time to post it, fantastic pics.

ciao Gero