Adventure Magazine February - March 2021

"The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin'." Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1964, a year of seeming new beginnings, and hope. The world was intrigued by space travel, which was growing fast; civil rights in America were under scrutiny as race riots gripped big cities across the US; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law; Boxer, Cassius Clay, became Muhammad Ali and the heavyweight champion of the world; then President Lyndon Johnson cast a dark shadow over the year by escalating the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. There was a lot going on. 2020 was our 1964, a year of change, not a…

In 2017, a age 22, Australian Remy Morton's incredible MTB career almost came to an abrupt end. Whilst riding in Belgium he miscalculated a 24m jump and landed on his chest. He woke up a month later with a broken neck, a complete set of broken ribs, sternum, shoulder, collarbone, hip, all broken or dislocated. The official count of his injuries tallied at 20 broken bones, two collapsed lungs and a pair of ruptured kidneys. The doctors said his injuries were consistent with someone who had fallen off a three-storey building. Like everything Remy does it was caught on film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR2BCOBrTrc Remy's accident happened in July 2017 and by December of that year he was back racing again. That sentence needs repeating: six months after a horror crash that almost killed…

2021 has started on a high for Kiwi adventure entrepreneur Robert Bruce, who proposed to his partner of two years Josefine Pettersson at the end of a 280km hike, earlier this month. Robert is the founder of Got To Get Out, an award winning social enterprise outdoors group that gets Kiwis active via organised adventures, to improve the mental and physical health of Kiwis. From the 1st to 10th January 2021 Bruce and Pettersson were on a multi-day hike from Cape Reinga to Waitangi following the Te Araroa Trail, when he surprised her - and the other hikers - by dropping to one knee on the final day. Bruce, who is thrilled she accepted his proposal, says "she can hike, mountain bike, drive a bus, and most of all is happy to…

In the heart of the Southern Alps of New Zealand lies one of the absolute transalpine classic trekking routes; the 3 Passes. It is revered by many as one of the great backcountry hikes the country has on offer. Its remoteness and reliance on perfect conditions means many a trip is sent back due to high water and wild weather. This January we set out to experience one of the classics. It was nothing out of the ordinary for this part of the country, but the visibility was minimal as we pulled off SH73. The windscreen wipers were raging against the barrelling rain as we stared out of the windscreen up the somewhat wet and stormy looking valley of the Waimakariri River. Barely able to make out our route in the…

"Anyone who has walked the Routeburn would know the absolute wonder of those places, usually only accessible by foot, yet here we were, hovering a few hundred feet above them and being able to share them with Steve from the air." I’m not a fan of helicopters. I have a real sense of vulnerability being miles up in the air surrounded only by a metal casing large enough to house the few inhabitants. However, what causes my fear is also the thing that makes helicopter rides so incredibly exciting. We left the base of The Helicoper Line at Queenstown airport and headed straight towards the West Coast. Our final destination was to be Milford Sound, however as they often say, it’s all about the journey. I have a couple of places in New…

Amongst all the off-road cycle trails in New Zealand none can offer the unique spectacle of the West Coast’s native forests, rivers, and lakes, bordered on one side by the Southern Alps and the Tasman Sea on the other. After spending five days on the Adventure South West Coast Cycling Tour, I am hooked on the hassle-free cycle touring that a guide can offer. There is so much to see and do in this beautiful part of New Zealand, and the expertise and experience of Adventure South made it easy to do plenty in five days. We completed the 133 km Wilderness Trail plus an extra 100km was added because, to quote our guide “we pick the best bits (of the trail) and add other great bits”. Apart from the cycling…