Bikepacking

Jimmy Ashby and Chad Freak ride 1100km from Perth to Laverton WA, and then 1350km on the remote and rugged Anne Beadell Highway across the Great Victorian Desert to Coober Pedy SA.

Deane Parker & Dylan Gerschwitz capture the grandeur, emotion and hurt of the Kopiko Aotearoa.

Ground Effect Revolutionary Ollie Whalley blasted 1319 backcountry kilometres down the spine of Aotearoa's South Island to complete the Tour Te Waipounamu in a daunting five and a half days. He shares the highs, lows and a few insights for the uninitiated from the world of extreme bikepacking.

Along with 50 other masochists, Olley Whalley prepares for the Tour Te Waipounamu - a 1319 km and 22,810 vertical metre backcountry traverse of Aotearoa's South Island from Cape Farewell to Slope Point.

Deane and Rose belt out a two day bikepacking adventure right on Christchurch’s back doorstep - skirting around the extinct volcano that forms Lyttelton Harbour on the Banks Peninsula.

Once you immerse yourself in the Australian Outback and truly experience its beauty, you’ll find yourself constantly daydreaming about returning and scheming as to how to venture deeper and further into its vast emptiness.

Fifteen blokes on tour; varying interpretations of gravel-appropriate bikes; endless ruminations on tyre width; progress measured in pubs and pints; and cols marked with a wee dram. What could possibly go wrong?

Deane Parker and his gang of usual suspects packraft the upper reaches of the Whanganui River to the Bridge to Nowhere, mountain bike the Matemateonga Track to the Whangamomona Pub, and hitch a ride (almost) back to their starting point on golf carts converted into railway jiggers.

Pedalling north out of Adelaide after lockdown, Jimmy Ashby reflects that the best way to know you’re on a deep and remote adventure is when you’re 200km+ from the closest town and one of the few cars you see all day pulls over just to tell you you’re crazy.

Sasha Smith recounts an entrancing six days of great food and better company, cycling around the Catlins at the bottom of the South Island. 

During an idle Wednesday night, whisky in hand, a plan was hatched to hold a non-event cycle tour. Invite no one, don’t race but don’t take it easy and above all else, stop for beer.

The South Island's West Coast has rapidly established itself as New Zealand’s premier destination for multi-day mountain biking and bikepacking. The region boasts the Heaphy Track, Old Ghost Road, the new Paparoa Track and the slightly more cruisy West Coast Wilderness Trail.