Ready for ADVENTURE - MTB meets Packrafting

Everyone loves a good adventure! That is why a lot of us ride bikes. You leave the city life behind, hit the trail and head for the hills. No matter the size of the hill, it’s always good to get to the top of it and have the good times of the down hill ahead! But instead of climbing back to the top of that hill, why not float down a river? Sounds like a good adventure to me!

With Covid flaring up all over the world, New Zealand included, it was prime time to plan an adventure. Our dreamer, Sam Roil, is always dreaming up adventures and never struggles to find some buddies to head out with him.

This time, the adventure involved ride/walking up and over Mt Te Iringa, in the Kaimanawa Forest park in the Central North Island of New Zealand and pack rafting down the Mohaka River which flows east to the Hawkes Bay.

Te Iringa trail is a hearty 17km from the road end to Oamaru Hut. Usually people will ride into here and either stay the night, or turn around and ride back out in a day. Not us. We wanted to keep going! Instead of turning around and heading back over Te Iringa, we wanted to float out on the Mohaka River - Bikes and all - which meanders its way 170km out to the Pacific Ocean. We planned a three day trip. One day riding and two days on the river getting off at the first available point where the road reaches the river.

Our journey would take us Over Te Iringa to Oamaru Hut on our Bikes for our first night out. Day two we would be on the river with our bikes broken down and changing our mode of transport to pack rafts. This day would take us nearly 30km down the Mohaka river through the Kaimanawa Forest Park and into the Kaweka Forest Park, past some natural hot springs to another hut called Te Puia Lodge for night two. From here is where the river actually had some rapids making the whitewater pretty interesting in a bid not to hit our over hanging bikes on rocks as we navigated the river to the first point that the road gets close to the river which is roughly 8km on the water. With two nights staying in the back country huts, some remote mountain biking, and a float out down the Mohaka River, preparation is key. Well that is what it looks like on paper, there was only one thing left, and that was to get amongst it!

At the trail head there was still a lot of gear shuffling going on. being a crew of experienced kayakers and experienced mountain bikers, none of us had ever joined the two activities together. As you can imagine, there was a lot of gear which equals a lot of weight.

The trail was not in very good nic for most of the climb so there was quite a lot of pushing and carrying. Atleast the packs were good seats at this point..

But once you are at the top, the feeling is good because it’s all downhill from there. It’s the down hill that we are after!

For those of you who haven’t been riding in New Zealand’s beech forest, it is like something else! The grip is on point, it’s fast, loose, and likened to skiing powder. This is what we came for. The ridge that you ride all of the way down into the Kaipo River is all fast, flowy beech forest! Love it!

There is no denying that riding with a 20kg+ pack on your back messes with your mojo a bit. Each of us were carrying sleeping gear, a packraft, paddle, dry suits (for the river), 3 days worth of food. Nothing more, nothing less.. But hey, it’s all about the adventure right?

Once we were back in the valley the riding mellowed out again and it was a cruise all of the way to Oamaru Hut.

The final part of the track is River Trail - for river trail, it was super fun and interesting riding.

We made it to the hut with enough light for those that needed it to do some quick maintenance, for an epic sunset and a wash in the freezing cold mountain stream to wash off the days hard work.

After a good nights sleep in this DoC hut, we awoke to some foggy weather in the valley. It definitely took a few coffees for some motivation before it was time to break down the bikes and figure out the rigging of the pack rafts.

The view from Oamaru Hut looking down the Mohaka River as it heads out of the Kaimanawa Forest Park.

Packed and ready for phase two.. The river trip. We were really happy at how easy it was strapping our bikes down. Sam was on a Taniwha and I had my Katipo, nothing extra hanging off the drop outs was definately a bonus as these were often in the water.

At this point we were all pretty stoked that we had packed the extra weight of the dry suits so that the hypothermia was kept at bay as we headed down this little mountain stream!

The pack rafts paddled pretty good. We were lucky enough to have these ones on loan from the South Island. We were all just hyper aware of knocking our bikes on rocks as we headed down stream. Here is @mrmikedawson lining up one of the bigger rapids of the trip!

By the time we reached Manatainoka Hotsprings, we were all pretty chilly so it was awesome to just have a break, warm up the feet, and enjoy where we were. The best thing about it is that we had the whole place to ourselves!

After a good 25-30km on the frigid mountain stream we were stoked to get to the hut for the night, Te Puia Lodge. Again, we had the whole place to ourselves!

The last morning and we were feeling pretty practiced at the whole process of loading up the boats. This final stretch of the river was going to be good and we knew it from the start. This is where the character of the Mohaka turns from a little mountain stream to a river. The rocks are bigger, there is more flow, and there is more gradient as it cuts its way through the Kaweka Mountain Range.

With only a couple of kilometres to go, we were moving pretty fast and manouvering the rafts like we’d done it before. The rapids were super fun, and we were figuing out just how capable our set ups were.

Before we knew it we were done! Back at the car, a successful mission seeing a new part of the country and adding two of our favorite activities together!

We were super impressed with how the Taniwha and Katipo suited the trip and they were two of the bikes that didn’t require any running maintenance on the trip and were in perfect working order as soon as the wheels were put back on. For more info on the bikes check out the buttons below!

We are super keen to hear about the adventures that your Zerode takes you on so make sure you tag us @ZerodeBikes so that we can keep track of what you are all up to out there all over the world!