Autmn on the Great Taste Trail

Autumn, the season of mellow fruitfulness, has been almost unbelievably beautiful here this year. The warm, calm days are going on and on, providing us with tip top cycling weather. The hop harvest is long gone and the grapevines are starting to drop their leaves and hunker down for the winter. The warm afternoon light makes for some great photo opportunities.

This one was taken alongside the Great Taste Trail in the Waimea Estates vineyard. The trail runs through the vines here and the vineyard cafe www.cafeinthevineyard.co.nz  is always humming. Their seafood chowder is not to be missed, and this recommendation comes from a long-time chowder fan! 

The apple season is in full swing and the sweet smell of apples is hanging in the air along the Great Taste Trail. It's not surprising cider-making is undergoing something of a revival here, with the easy availability of apple juice. Moutere cider makers Alex and Caroline Peckham grow their own apples for their cider, using tree-ripened heritage cider apples www.peckhams.co.nz   When cycling on the Great Taste Trail, you can sample Peckhams cider in Mapua at the Golden Bear Brewery. McCashins award-winning Rochdale cider is also available on the trail at their funky brewery/cafe, just across the paddock from The Gentle Cycling Company. 

At this roadside orchard stall, visitors are encouraged to taste before they choose. Not only are all the apples and pears lined up on their plates, but their lineage is outlined too for those interested in the origins of the fruit. Supermarkets, eat your heart out!! This artistic still life arrangement is classic Nelson. Simply beautiful.

Great Taste Trail Maps

Needing information about Nelsons' Great Taste Trail? We now have detailed, up-to-date maps showing the sections of the trail that are open for cycling. Our maps include all the things to stop for along the way - wineries, craft breweries, cafes, galleries - the things that make cycling even better! We provide maps free to our Gentle Cyclists, but if you are bringing your own bike we can post you one for a small charge. So if you are coming to Nelson and need a detailed map of the Great Taste Trail, just get in touch. We can also help you with your route planning (keeping away from busy roads) for the area between Nelson and Motueka, where there are nice options for gentle rides from half a day to three days.

Follow this link for a simplified map of the Great Taste Trail

http://www.gentlecycling.co.nz/GreatTasteTrailMap.pdf

 

Our cyclists' maps

Here is an example of one of our cyclists' maps. We mark our maps with routes to our recommended destinations, showing tasty things to visit along the way. So you can follow our route, or take a detour, safe in the knowledge that you won't get lost! And our maps fold into the map holders hanging off the handlebars of our bikes. This map shows the routes from our base, near Nelson airport, to Brightwater, a lovely village to the south of Nelson. The best route to Brightwater is on the new off-road Great Taste Trail, which is a cycleway very close to our base. This section of the Great Taste Trail is almost complete now, with 15km of trail to Brightwater completed. The final link is a bridge which will take cyclists over a river and into the back of the village, avoiding the state highway. The bridge is scheduled to open in April 2012. In the meantime, cyclists who want to ride the trail to Brightwater but don't want to cycle on the 1km on a state highway can always take advantage of our cyclists' shuttle.

This route is a great day ride or could be the first day of a multi-day ride. For a multi-day ride, the route from Brightwater to connect with the Great Taste Trail at Rabbit Island is very pretty and includes a 7 km grassy riverbank cycleway, and no state highway riding. Contact us for advice and maps.

Cycling around this area is full of tastes and treats, gardens and shady trees. It's perfect gentle cycling country.

Follow this link for a map showing the Great Taste Trail and environs
http://www.gentlecycling.co.nz/GreatTasteTrailMap.pdf

Nelsons' Great Taste Trail

Cycling in Nelson just got even better with the official opening of the first section of the 175km Great Taste Trail.  This section of the Great Taste Trail is at Rabbit Island Reserve (20 kms from Nelson airport). The connecting section, to link with Richmond (on the outskirts of Nelson city) is due for completion in October 2012. Follow this link to our map
http://www.gentlecycling.co.nz/GreatTasteTrailMap.pdf

This section Rabbit Island section of the Great Taste Trail starts at the causeway entrance to the island and travels 1.5km to the beachfront, then 5 kms along a sandy trail to the most western end of the island where it links with a new ferry service which takes cyclists and walkers across a narrow channel to the scenic coastal village of Mapua.

Once at Mapua, the redeveloped wharf area includes galleries, fish and chips, smoked fish, a cool garden shop and more. In the township, don't miss the Naked Bun for European style pastries and great coffee.

For a fabulous day ride, add the ferry option to our Classic Beach and Wine Ride and we will pick you and your bikes up from Mapua at the end of the day and return you to Nelson. This would be a brilliant day of wineries, history, a swim, ferry ride and some retail therapy and coffee culture at the end. Follow this link for more information http://www.gentlecycling.co.nz/classic.html#BeachWine

For a multi-day ride option, cycle to Brightwater on day one, then cycle to link to the Rabbit Island Great Taste Trail on day two (on gorgeous quiet roads and a 7 km riverband cycleway).
For more information on the Rabbit Island to Mapua Ferry go to http://www.mapuawharf.co.nz/home/flat-bottom-fairy/ 

For more information on the Great Taste Trail as relating to the National Cycleway Project go to www.nzcycletrail.com

Australian political leaders come cycling

Taking a gentle cycle ride was the chosen way for a group of visiting Australian political leaders to experience a bit of Nelson this week.  Slipping reflective vests over their office attire, they took to their bikes with enthusiasm, breathing in some crisp winter Nelson air as they cycled.  The group were on a week-long political exchange designed to help them understand more about New Zealand's culture and political system. While in Nelson they also learnt more about our two Great Rides, being developed as part of the NZ Cycle Trails project  http://www.nzcycletrail.com/nelsontasman-trails

Read the full article here http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/news/5278139/Australian-visitors-keen-on-green-Nelson

Lets go foraging

Wildling roadside apples - this tree must have escaped from the orchard over the fence!

This autumn harvest consists of feijoas, chestnuts and mushrooms, all harvested in the heart of Nelson city. Our council is actively planting fruit trees for community use, so it's been feijoa crumble, feijoa pie, feijoa sorbet and just feijoas eaten with a teaspoon au naturelle all April. The chestnuts were roasted - just cut in half, oiled and salted and roasted until the skins came off easily. And the mushrooms? There are actually two types here; common field mushrooms, little ones all snowy white on top and baby pink underneath and birch bolettes, the big ones with fat, meaty stalks. The bolettes are pretty easy to identify, due partly to the fact that they grow under birches (no surprise there) and that the underside consists not of gills like field mushrooms, but by a texture that looks more like closed-cell foam. Having eaten field mushrooms with confidence since I was knee-high to a grasshopper it was a little un-nerving the first time we cooked these, having identified them confidently thanks to Andrew Crowes book - A Field Guide to the Native Edible Plants of NZ, published by Penguin. Having had them a few times now we are confident that they too are a safe and delicious addition to our cycling foraging adventures.

 

 

 

 

It's hop harvesting time

March is the month of the hop harvest in Nelson, when the fields that were curtained in green lose their flavour-laden curtain - until next year. At Kentishman Hops in Upper Moutere, the hop harvest rekindles images from my past, when tractors were smaller and closer to the ground and farmers still wore straw hats (yeah!)

The harvesting process here is very low-tech. A wooden-handled slasher-type blade allows the guy on the back of the trailer to cut the string in one clean cut, and soon the trailer is loaded with vines. 

In the processing shed, the serenity of the fields gives way to rotating drums and clanking conveyers, as the flowers and leaves are separated forever, with the hop flowers eventually finding their way into the peace and quiet of the drying kiln where the smell is amazing.

 

It's only the flowers that make it down the chute to cascade gently onto the drying floor. Spreading the hops evenly on the mesh floor is essential to effective drying.Hops can be rejected by the processors if the drying is not within the critical range, so great care must be taken to get it right.

It's an intensive time for farmer Guy Coddington, managing the harvest and monitoring the kiln boiler day and night while the drying is in process. Guys' kiln is a functional iron affair, with a coal boiler doing all the hard work.

This group of gentle cyclists were lucky to be in the garden at harvest time so got the full hoppy experience, topped off with the beer at the end. 
Pretty damned good! 

Read Victoria Clark's Gentle Cycling article in the NZ Herald 
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10704879