Rather than stay with the masses in Welly and spend hundreds on a hangover, Josh and I trekked north to Vegas to see in the New Year with some sweet singletrack. We loaded the Starship Laser to the gills and left early-ish Sunday morning, full of caffiene and anticipation.
Mt. Ruapehu still has a lot of snow on it for January.
Mt. Ngaruahoe looked like it was erupting, but it was just a cloud positioned perfectly. I imagined what it would've been like to witness it forming, spewing lava out of the ground all those hundreds of years ago. Josh summised that we would've been dead if were were this close.
First stop Taupo, and the Craters of the Moon trails.
Fun, but less fun each time I ride them. But a good pre-cursor to the riding ahead.
Our first day in Vegas, we met up with Welly mate Karl (not Carl) and put together a good loop of some of the best on offer. Karl is great to ride with, we are all roughly the same fitness and ability levels, and he's a good laugh to boot.
We were having way too much fun to stop and take many photos. This is on Exit trail, nearing the end of day one.
Josh on the drop on Tickler. We hit up Billy T on the first day, and then our first taste of Split Enz, a new trail which had us in raptures with it's long, fast, smooth, bermed traction-fest.
Karl drops in on Tickler, day 2. We checked out another new trail, Tuhoto Ariki, which was awesome, all techy roots and twisty and a hoot, followed again by Split Enz, a great combination.
A good way to relax after a hard day's riding. Blue Lake. On New Years Eve we took it pretty easy, not wanting to ruin ourselves for riding the next day, so we hung out with our Welly friends at their campsite.
Josh looks on in disgust at some guys who are too lazy to ride uphill, and too stupid to ride any other trail except the same one over and over.
Karl on the drop on Old Chevy, yet another new trail that has popped up this year. The amount of quality trails in the forest is amazing, just a pity the town is un-livable. But a great place for riding, I'll be back up there in April for the NZ singlespeed titles, though I'm thinking leave the SS at home and just enjoy the trails without having to race them.
Mt. Ruapehu still has a lot of snow on it for January.
Mt. Ngaruahoe looked like it was erupting, but it was just a cloud positioned perfectly. I imagined what it would've been like to witness it forming, spewing lava out of the ground all those hundreds of years ago. Josh summised that we would've been dead if were were this close.
First stop Taupo, and the Craters of the Moon trails. 
Fun, but less fun each time I ride them. But a good pre-cursor to the riding ahead.
Our first day in Vegas, we met up with Welly mate Karl (not Carl) and put together a good loop of some of the best on offer. Karl is great to ride with, we are all roughly the same fitness and ability levels, and he's a good laugh to boot.
We were having way too much fun to stop and take many photos. This is on Exit trail, nearing the end of day one.
Josh on the drop on Tickler. We hit up Billy T on the first day, and then our first taste of Split Enz, a new trail which had us in raptures with it's long, fast, smooth, bermed traction-fest.
Karl drops in on Tickler, day 2. We checked out another new trail, Tuhoto Ariki, which was awesome, all techy roots and twisty and a hoot, followed again by Split Enz, a great combination.
A good way to relax after a hard day's riding. Blue Lake. On New Years Eve we took it pretty easy, not wanting to ruin ourselves for riding the next day, so we hung out with our Welly friends at their campsite.
Josh looks on in disgust at some guys who are too lazy to ride uphill, and too stupid to ride any other trail except the same one over and over.
Karl on the drop on Old Chevy, yet another new trail that has popped up this year. The amount of quality trails in the forest is amazing, just a pity the town is un-livable. But a great place for riding, I'll be back up there in April for the NZ singlespeed titles, though I'm thinking leave the SS at home and just enjoy the trails without having to race them.
4 comments:
Happy New Year!!
Looks like you picked a great way to celebrate.
Great Pictures.
Hit that mad line -over and over
Huck that drop -over and over
Don,t blow a poofa valve climbing -over and over
No energy to climb hills as I threw one into the missus before the ride -over and over
Yeah , some people have got it all wrong
Knew you'd like that one Keeds...
like re-runs of Drop In on Fox, over and over...
You can't be talking about backing out of the SS nationals this early in the piece, surely. Man up already.
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