All of our rides had great scenery, but we saved the most scenic ride for last. Even the name of this trail, “Alps 2 Ocean”, has you at hello before you ever commence the ride. Once again, we only did a portion of the ride – but if you were so inclined you could ride all 360km of this trail starting at the Aoraki/Mount Cook village and riding all the way to Oamaru on the Pacific Ocean. Doing the end-to-end trail requires a short but exciting helicopter hop across the Tasman River (which we didn’t do).
Since we were staying in Twizel, we rented bikes from Lakeland Explorer and followed a local trail until we connected to the Alps 2 Ocean trail in the middle of an expansive pasture with mountain views off in the distance. We were mostly by ourselves with an occasional cyclist or walker appearing in the distance.
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| Perfect picnic spot! |
And then we arrived at Lake Pukaki with its turquois-blue waters juxtaposed against the snow-capped Aoraki Mount Cook on this blue-sky day. We followed the trail around Lake Pukaki bathed in the delight of the lupine flowers and awe-inspiring, stunning lake and mountain views. It wasn’t hard to pick the perfect picnic spot.
We followed the trail to the end. Continuing on would have required riding a stretch on the road, which was less scenic and populated with enough fast-moving vehicles that we decided to turn around. We had considered adding on some additional kilometers and taking a different route back along the canal, but fatigue was setting in (I later realized I was coming down with a cold) so we returned via the same route to Twizel to complete a 25 mile ride. We walked around the town, with me enjoying fresh fruit ice cream and Mike enjoying a bakery pastry as our reward for our cycling adventure.
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