Paradise a 4-day cycle tour away

One of the first groups to take in the Paradise Trail four-day trip between Queenstown and...
One of the first groups to take in the Paradise Trail four-day trip between Queenstown and Glenorchy with Revolution Tours hits the road. Photo supplied.
Revolution Tours' first four-day round trips between Queenstown and Glenorchy have hit the road, taking on the newly connected Paradise Trail route by boat and bike.

The company was founded by husband and wife team Matt and Kate Belcher, who guided their first official biking group late last month and say they could not have got off to a better start.

"Things are going really well; we are happy with the way bookings are progressing and we have been blessed with the best summer for guiding," Mr Belcher said.

"It's been such beautiful weather and we couldn't ask for better." Taking a maximum of 14 people, including two guides, the tours depart Queenstown on TSS Earnslaw bound for Walter Peak Station.

Biking west to Mt Nicholas station, they then take a water taxi to Greenstone Rd, disembark and continue on to Kinloch to stay a night at the Kinloch Lodge.

On day two, the group moves on to Paradise Trust property, staying a night before a full day on one of the Routeburn, Earnslaw Burn or Lake Sylvan tracks and returning to Paradise Trust that evening.

The final day consists of biking to the Lower Dart Conservation Area, and returning to Glenorchy and, finally, Queenstown in a support vehicle.

Revolution Tours hopes to operate a maximum of 45 trips a year on the route and Mr Belcher said there were some "pretty strong" bookings until the end of the season in April and even into the next season, starting in October.

He said Revolution Tours' target market was predominantly the 45-plus age group - the same demographic as the Otago Central Rail Trail - and feedback received was promising.

"The first people we had said it exceeded their expectations and was better than the rail trail, so it seems to be going down really well."

The couple first completed the route five years ago, complete with Mr Belcher's marriage proposal to Kate, and had been working towards sharing it with visitors ever since.

It has so far attracted New Zealand and Australian visitors, but Mr Belcher says they have a group from Hong Kong booked, which he hoped would help spread "word of mouth".

He said the company's Glenorchy day trips - which follow the route of the four-day trip's final day to the start of the Dart-Rees track - had also been popular.

 

 

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