[Sara]

Hi there. Myself and a couple of friends are looking at doing a bit of mt biking on D’Urville Isl. Has anyone had any experince there? Any bits of useful info appreciated eg accomodation, riding etc. As would be any suggestions on getting to French Pass from Picton…we’d rather not have to take a car over from Wgtn. Thanks very much

Sara

[Harry]

A group of us in the club did a five-day cycle-touring trip to the Sounds and D’Urville Island a couple of years ago. On the first night we got a shuttle van from Picton through to Pelorous Bridge, where we camped. The next day we cycled out to French Pass and stayed in the little DoC campground there. This is a really awesome ride out along the spine of the peninsula with great views out on both sides. We got a boat across to D’Urville the next morning and spend the rest of that day and the following day exploring the island. On the fourth day we got a boat from D’Urville across to Titirangi Bay, out at the end of the peninsula between Pelorous and Queen Charlotte Sounds, and cycled back to Portage, which is a nice ride except that it’s a huge grunt up out of Titirangi Bay (something like 800 vertical metres in total, I think from memory, with the first 500 vertical metres climbing steeply out of the bay). On the final day we cycled south from Portage, then cut onto the southern end of the Queen Charlotte Track through to Anakiwa and back to Picton.

The boat operator we used was Sea Safaris, based at French Pass (see http://www.seasafaris.co.nz/about.html). They seem to be the main transport link to the island – but I think they charge by the boat-load, so if there are only two or three of you it could be quite expensive (there were eight of us). On the island we stayed in the D’Urville Island Community Hall, which is located beside the road in the middle of nowhere, pretty much in the dead centre of the island at about 500 metres above sea level. This has bunks and mattresses, a kitchen, and a shower – plus a table tennis table and an ancient gramophone with a stack of even more ancient LPs! Danny from Sea Safaris arranged the use of the hall for us and from memory I think it cost us about 8 or 10 dollars each per night.

Most of the central part of the island is native bush or scrub, with some farmland up the northern end and in some of the bays and harbours. The public roads mainly follow the ridgelines up at about 500 metres above sea level, so as soon as you come ashore at the south-eastern end of the island you have a 500 metre uphill climb before the roads flatten out a bit. On the first morning on the island we went up to the Community Hall and dropped off our gear and then in the afternoon we did a ride out along the road to the north-west corner of the island where you emerge out of the bush onto the farmland with views out over the bays and islands of Port Hardy. The next day some of us did a trip along another road out to the south-west corner of the island, where we dropped down to a bay and along the beach, followed by a 500 metre climb back up another road at the other end of the bay. This is a nice round trip – it crosses private farmland but Danny from Sea Safaris arranged permission for us. Some of the others did a trip down a bush track from the middle of the island to a bay about halfway along the eastern side, where there is some kind of accommodation resort and cafe. There is also a road leading up to the north-east end of the island.

I doubt there is any kind of organized transport service out to French Pass (unless maybe there is some kind of water taxi service on Pelorous Sound), so your options are to cycle out, or take your own car, or hire a car from Picton, or arrange a van or shuttle to take you out. On Queen Charlotte Sound there is a water taxi service between Picton and some of the bays on the Queen Charlotte Track.

There is a small store at French Pass selling ice creams and some basic groceries.

I hope this is helpful. D’Urville is a great place to visit – have a good trip!

– Harry

[Sara]

Thanks very much for that, great help!

Sara

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