Northwest Nelson Grand Tour

This active, fully guided, private three day trip starts with easy cycling along The Great Taste Trail, before meeting our 74ft yacht to spend a night in the Abel Tasman National Park. Simply Wild have been running guided mountain biking and cycling trips in Nelson since 2006. Tasman’s Great Taste Trail is part of The New Zealand Cycle Trail Network, offering easy, family friendly touring through a variety of landscapes.

Easy to ride, with a gradient similar to the Otago Central Rail Trail, the Great Taste Trail caters for a wide range of cyclists and walkers for either day or multi-day rides. When complete, the whole trail will cover a distance of about 175km and run from Nelson Airport, to Richmond, out to Tapawera, along the Motueka River Valley to Riwaka, and then back to Richmond through Motueka and Mapua.

The Nelson region contains two of New Zealand’s Nine Great Walks, The Abel Tasman Track, and the Heaphy Track in Kahurangi National Park.

The Abel Tasman National Park is New Zealand’s only coastal National Park, and its golden sandy beaches and clear turquoise water make it one of the most popular. The sheltered bays are ideal for cruising, sailing and sea kayaking. On land, the Abel Tasman Coast Track follows the coastline through lush native bush, over limestone cliffs and along golden sandy beaches.

Kahurangi National Park is the second largest National Park in New Zealand. It is Kahurangi’s heart of wilderness, centred on the Tasman Mountains, that symbolises the special character of this national park. Some 570km of incredible tramping tracks span 452,000ha (1 Million acres) from Golden Bay in the north, south to Murchison and Tapawera, and to the West Coast of the South Island. Kahurangi is the home of the largest remaining population of Great Spotted Kiwi. Within this north-west corner of the South Island lie some of our oldest rocks, most spectacular marble and karst land forms and the most intact remnants of the peneplain landscapes that featured in New Zealand around 60 million years ago.

The Heaphy Track traverses from Golden Bay in the east to Karamea in the west, over craggy ranges, alpine meadows, valleys of tropical native palms, and ruggedly beautiful coastline. A plane or helicopter provides with you a bird’s eye view of this incredible landscape which includes remote sites filmed for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.

Day One
We collect you from your overnight accommodation in Nelson, or the airport and show you the City. Nelson was voted one of the top three “most charming small towns in the world” by TripAdvisor.com. You’ll also visit the World of Wearable Art and Collectable Car Museum. The museum provides interest for everyone, with international and local entries from Nelson’s famous World of Wearable Art Show on display, and an eclectic collection of over 100 cars ranging from vintage to the current day.

Because your trip is Private, we discuss with you which sections of the Great Taste Trail you’d like to ride. We generally suggest riding three sections, each of around 10 kilometres which provide quite different coastal or rural landscapes to ride through. We aim to arrive at Kaiteriteri beach, on the edge of Abel Tasman National Park around late afternoon and meet our 74ft yacht, Sabatayn.

From Kaiteriteri it’s a 1 hour sail or motor to Anchorage Bay in the Park. Anchorage is a sheltered bay with a wide sweep of golden sand beach. On arrival you can swim or enjoy a walk on the beach before drinks and dinner on the yacht, prepared by our chef. Enjoy gently rocking to sleep in your comfortable cabin in the middle of the Park.

Day Two
After breakfast you’ll leave the yacht and explore the famous Abel Tasman coastline in sea kayaks, one of the best sea kayak destinations in the world. You’ll enjoy paddling along the rocky coastline, with it’s golden beaches, tranquil inlets and native bush for around 2 hours to Bark Bay, near the middle of the Park. We’ll provide lunch, then you have the opportunity to hike through to Awaroa on the Abel Tasman track, where you’ll spend the night at Awaroa Lodge. We send your baggage on from the yacht by water taxi. The hike from Bark Bay to Awaroa is around 3 – 4 hours.

Day Three
We fly by helicopter across Golden Bay to Farewell Spit on the northwestern tip of the South Island, and land on a farm to begin your 2 1/2 hour horse trek.  Old Man Mountain, is one of the best, if not the best horse trek in New Zealand, with stunning views of the 26 kilometre Farewell Spit.

After lunch we fly down the spectacular western coastline of Golden Bay to the famous Heaphy Track, one of New Zealand’s Great Walks. This part of the track features stunning subtropical forest and the often wild and remote coastline of Kahurangi National Park. After dropping us near the track the helicopter waits for our call to collect us, and returns through the mountainous centre of the Park back to Nelson and your ongoing travel or accommodation. We walk for around 3 hours on the track.

Guide, private vehicle, entry to the WOW Museum, cycling, all meals, yacht, sea kayaking, guided walking, Awaroa Lodge, water taxi luggage transfer, helicopter scenic flight, horse trek.

It does not include alcohol at Awaroa Lodge.