It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience - albeit physically demanding and technically challenging at times for our 70 year old bodies. Our guides Ken and Elder were always on hand to assist, provide professional advice and local knowledge while ensuring our safety at all times. Their excellent culinary skills were an unexpected surprise. Overall we recommend the tour operator to future cyclists to experience the A2O trail.
Too much driving and less time to experience especially before we reached Qtown. Heli-hike didn’t go ahead due to weather and guide told us out of 44 times he has done this tour help-hike only went ahead 6 times. It shouldn’t have been promoted without this disclaimer that it is very rare Occassion it will go ahead. I paid extra premium on my travel insurance to cover for help-hike. If I was aware it rarely goes ahead I might have reconsidered buying this add-on.
This trip is one of the best we have experienced with Exodus. The varied walking, landscape and experiences on the trip make it an amazing adventure. Beware though there are many long distances to cover (we did over 3500 Km in the 19 days), but Ian and Sonya made it very interesting with their local knowledge and frequent rest stops at interesting places. The highlight of the walking was of course the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which on the day we did it was truly spectacular with the Emerald lake just like the Guide books. The Abel Tasman Coastal walk again like the guide book pictures. The Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain walk was tough but well worth it for the views. Other experiences met all our expectations – Sailing on Tasman sea, Jet boat on River Motukituki where at times we were in 5 inches of water, Helicopter to Fox Glacier (paid locally) and overnight on Milford Sound in Fiordland. Christchurch was sad to see but it is good to that they are beginning to get the city rebuilt. It is important to note that a few walks and experiences can be affected by weather. Although it was summer we dodged Storm Fehi – Tongariro was closed the day after we walked it, Windy Wellington was stormy Wellington, roads near Fox Glacier were closed due to landslides and they had had no electricity for 3 days before we arrived. However we managed all the planned itinerary except walking to Fox Glacier due to landslide. All in all an AWESOME trip