Sounds to Sounds - Bikepacking on New Zealand's wild South Island

Sounds to Sounds is a 1500 km bikepacking route from Queen Charlotte Sound to Milford Sound on the south island of New Zealand. When combining it with the tour Aotaroa one could circumnavigate the south island mostly off-road, on back roads or on little frequented main roads. Because I originally intended to do a loop of the south island I skipped the first part of the original route and started directly in Picton. Boats can take you and your bike to the original starting point Queen Charlotte Sound. I also skipped a few more 'loops' and (unnecessary) 'detours' around Christchurch. This area is very flat and basically just pretty boring farmland. There is an alternative that skips Christchurch all together. I talked to other riders who did this and they highly recommended it.What are the highlights?- Molesworth Cattle Station: 200km of gravel through a fantastic and solitary landscape
- Omarama Saddle: steep 900m of altitude and on the descent 30 (cold) river crossings
- Old Nevis Road: Highest point on the entire route and also some nasty river crossings
- Milford Sound: Epic finale When to go?March or April! The Queen Charlotte Track opens for bikes in March, in the summer season it is only accessible on foot. March is probably optimal as there are less tourists in New Zealand but the weather can still be very nice. I did the whole trip in April and I was very lucky with the weather. Only problem is that there is less daylight and once the sun goes down or stays behind one of the various mountains in the afternoon it gets cold very quickly. One other thing to keep in mind is that the Molesworth Cattle Station closes the roads for the public in early April (in 2023 around Easter, 7th of April).What about the gear?I had a carbon gravel bike with 38mm in the back and 40mm in the front. Would be wider tires better? Oh yes, absolutely but I cant fit anything else in there. Some people may also consider using a mountain bike but then again there are also long stretches on sealed roads or on very well maintained unsealed roads.
Other than that I brought all the usual camping gear to be self sufficient. Is the route possible without camping and only depending on cabins, hotel/motel rooms or hostels? Yes possible with a little bit of preplanning.Food wise I expected it to be worse. There are small supermarkets (FourSquare) in almost every town and often along the way some cafés or small general stores. The longest stretch is probably from Blenheim to Hanmers Springs (200km, 180 of it is gravel and 3.500m of elevation). It took me personally three days as it was first heavy raining and then even snowing.More information and the possibility to buy a (quite useful) guidebook for the route:
touraotearoa.nz/p/sound-to-sound.html