Bikepacking the Nydia Track - Aotearoa New Zealand
A bikebacking short film by aeroe
Recently, aeroe Digital Content Manager, Pete, and his good friend Jay, took on the Nydia Track. One of New Zealands most technical and beautiful overnight bike packing adventures, really putting their gear to the test!
New Zealand is lucky to be the home to so many incredible multi-day mountain bike rides, through high alpine terrain, bush clad valleys, and jaw dropping coastal areas such as the Nydia Track.
Pete has done many of the New Zealand classics such as the Old Ghost Road and the Paparoa Track, but has had the Nydia Track on his list for quite some time. The Nydia Track is lesser known to bike packers in New Zealand, mostly due to it's technical riding since it's predominately a walking track that mountain bikers have been allowed to ride.
The Nydia Track
The Nydia Track is situated on the Northern tip of the South Island of New Zealand, in an area called 'the Marlborough Sounds'. WIth no shortage high terrain, native bush, and great hut network, it is an adventure heaven!
The Nydia Track is 27 kilometres, however, this is deceptive due to the technicality of the riding and is rather slow going at times, especially on the climbs with an element of 'hike-a-biking' in places! For the most part, the trail is graded at grade 4, however there are a fair few sections of good honest grade 5 descents to keep you on your toes.
With over 1200 metres of climbing, you really get your moneys worth with great views, and awesome long descents! Filled with rocky roll downs, drops, off camber roots, and the odd section of flow trail, it's pretty hard to beat!
The icing on the cake is there is a brilliant lodge at the half waypoint in Nydia Bay, which is exactly what the body needs when you've spent a good day in the hills. The lodge sleeps up to 50 people, has access to power, gas cookers, pots, pans, the works! It's a great place to get a good crew together and make a trip out of it!
Gear break down
"Both Jay and I chose to run with an 8 litre dry bag on our handlebar cradles, and a 12 litre dry bag mounted on the top of the rear rack rotated 90 degrees.
We rotated our rear cradle so we had full use of our dropper posts, which on a track like this, is in frequent use!
We were stoked with the rigidity of both the rear rack and and front cradle, we were throwing everything the trail and to offer at it. With heavy hits, big rooty sections, everything held in place, and didn't slip an inch!
With this set up, we were able to to comfortably take all the gear we needed for two days, without feeling like our bikes were too heavy. We had our sleeping bags, food for two, warm clothes, rain jackets, head torch, bike 'fix it' kit, camera gear including a drone, and a few more bits and pieces.
We also had our fair share of rain meaning there was mud and water coming from all directions. Having dry bags that are water tight and durable to being brushed up on rocks and branches is very important when you're in this kind of environment. As soon as you get a hole in your bag, it's not going to be a fun night ahead..."
- Pete Mitchell
The Nydia Track Short Film by aeroe
Click the photo below to check out an aeroe short film of Pete and Jay's Nydia Track bikepacking adventure! If you're not tempted to put the Nydia Track on your bucket list after watching this, we're not sure what will!
For other epic bike packing adventures, check out our YouTube channel for more great content!
- The aeroe team