Dun Mountain Cycle Trail: Nelson, NZ

Nelson, New Zealand is the best small city on earth. Upon arrival, I wanted to quit my job and move there immediately. It happens to align perfectly with the things I love: food, drinks and mountain bikes. Everything in the compact CBD is within walking distance. In fact, everything you could ever need is between Rutherford St and Collingwood St. A square 100 metres of brewpubs and restaurants and bars and a selection of quaint cafes thrown in for morning brunches. It’s not just the sheer number of establishments, it’s the quality.

Here are my two recommendations if you are overwhelmed by the abundance of options:

The Free House – Go where the hipsters go. Serving an ever-changing selection of New Zealand craft beers. And it’s a renovated old church: A+ for atmosphere.

The Indian Café – Conveniently located directly across the road from the Free House. Get the banquet. Best Indian of the trip. And Ross Taylor (NZ cricket fame) says it’s good, so it must be.

The rolling green hills outside Nelson

Now that you’re well-and-truly carbed up, to the important stuff, The Dun Mountain Cycle Trail. We awoke in our riverside Airbnb lethargic and a little under-the-weather. The night before The Free House had eloquently extolled to us the virtues of New Zealand craft beer. Worst of all I drew the blinds to overcast and damp conditions. Clouds hung low over the hills surrounding the city and the forecast was ominous. With the odds so heavily stacked against us, over breakfast we debated whether we should even attempt the ride.

We walked downtown, a 5-minute stroll, and hired bikes at Bike Hire Nelson Trail Journeys. You can find these guys right beside the Nelson i-SITE Visitor Information Centre.

The guy renting out the bikes was enthusiastic but with our fitness capabilities unknown and due to the menacing weather conditions he was hesitant to suggest we embark on the four-to-five-hour Dun Mountain trail. The bikes were standard, hard-tail, well-worn, hire-bike fare. Despite hand-jarring on the rough Dun Mountain descent they got the job done.

After talking to the rental bike guy we realised we were unprepared for 4 hours of riding. I was relying purely on liquid barley from the evening before and a litre of water. On the ride out of town we wisely stocked up with snacks and Powerade and headed out to the trailhead. The start of the trail is well signposted and easy to find. The trail meanders up the side of lush green hills. And it keeps meandering up for 18km. Strava categorised the climb as HC. Whilst never ridiculously steep it goes on and on and on. The saving grace is the changing scenery as you climb from sea level to sub-alpine zones. The lush green hills turn to rainforest and near the pinnacle the forest thins to low-lying alpine scrub and rock.

The fluro green hire bike at Coppermine Saddle

The peak of the climb is Coppermine Saddle at 878m above sea level. The great thing about this ride is that it’s all downhill or flat from here. The top section of the descent is rough gravel and rock, a dually would be nice here. It is fast with decent switchbacks and again, damn fine scenery.
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The Dun Mountain Trail Strava profile

As always, the downhill is over sooner than expected. From here the track flattens out and eventually turns into a cruise down the road back to the Nelson CBD. Ah the Nelson CBD. All up it took us about four hours to complete the loop. The rain held off. It was a great day on the bike, made even greater by post-ride New Zealand beverages, densely hopped, bursting with citrus and melon, in the new Fat Chop capital of the world.