Cycling the West Coast Wilderness Trail

Dave Ritchie from Cycle Journeys in Hokitika says business is booming despite the borders being closed.

The West Coast Wilderness Trail, had been a real gamechanger, he told Jesse Mulligan.

West Coast Wilderness Trail is 140km-long, part of of Ngā Haerenga, the great ride network.

“It runs 140km from Ross to Greymouth and runs through Hokitika,” he says.

The West Coast had become something of a cycling hotspot, he says.

“The West Coast has the Poparoa Trail, the new conservation shared use walk, which is also great ride.

It’s an amazing ride across the top of the Paparoa range in tribute to the Pike 29 and further north there’s the Heaphy and the Old Ghost Road, which are just phenomenal, world class mountain bike rides.”

The idea for the great rides network came out of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, he says.

“The idea was to build a bunch of easily accessible cycle trails that would allow future tourism to happen in the country.

“And they've been enormously successful, we see huge benefits to our town. And we know that other towns who have these cycle trails see the same benefits.

“Not only economically, but I think socially we see real benefits in the town.”

Hokitika has become a hub of the West Coast cycling scene, he says.

“You just see bikes everywhere on the backs of cars.

“It's just awesome. It's a great kind of visitation to have in the town, that people are coming here for more than just driving through, they’re staying here for a while.

“They get to know us, we get to know them. They're having a good time. We have a good time with them. It ties businesses together in a really cool way. And it ties the community together. It's fantastic.”

The lack of international tourists hasn’t affected business, he says.

“What we see is that international tourists are coming here often for just two weeks. And so, to take four or five days out of your two weeks into a cycle trial is not on the radar.

“Less than 5 percent of our business is international, the border being closed hasn't really affected us at all.

“In fact, if anything, it's helped us grow. We've seen more Kiwis riding on the cycle trails and coming here - actually our business has increased.”

It's the kind of tourism he enjoys, he says.

“It's easy to demonstrate manaakitanga to people who are coming and spending some time with you. It's a really nice feel in the town.

Electric bikes have been a game changer too, he says.

“Definitely the electric bike has transformed who and how they ride. More than half of our rentals are electric bikes, and it's great, what we see is that people can ride longer, obviously, they can ride longer during the day, but also longer into their lives.

“So, we've got people who are in their 80s, who are coming and riding the trail, and they have no problem knocking off 40k in a day. And it's so good to see.”