Funny how a change in the weather and the other side of the hills can give such a different riding experience. I've just been out on the Eastern side of the Port Hills to ride from Evans Pass to Godley Head and back. Absolute genius. Spot on, perfect, loving it 
.
Quick stop on the way out there at current top bike shop, Bike HQ (lots of Yeti in there...sweeeet! All I could afford were some of their lock-on grips tho!), then headed out to Sumner (lovely coastal village with big cliffs all around) and up Evans Pass road. Unloaded trusty Mildred and straight out on the trail. Oh, must recommend Classic New Zealand Mountain Bike Rides, NZ's riding bible - great stuff, tells it like it is. Right, so within a few minutes of climbing dusty, rocky singletrack, the scenery opened up to become absolutely stunning! Cliff-edged beaches down below, the mouth of the River Avon, Christchurch, then the snow-capped mountains in the distance. This would be the one ride I chose not to take my camera with me then...will defo be back to take piccies. Awesome weather, perfect for riding, very high UV though so ended up with burnt wrists somehow!
So this whole ride is singletrack, nothing else. And 99% rideable! How much was I loving it. Every time I turned a corner there was another amazing view. Oh, hello, what's this ahead? Instead of just building flat board-walk they'd made it more interesting by making it humped/ridged/whoop-whoop...sweeet. After avoiding the fully-laden sheep I made it out to Godley Head, crossed over the track and back on another before rejoining the one I'd ridden on the way out. Must've been loving it a bit too much cos yet again, go for a little bit of air without checking the landing (which was narrow with rutts either side). Next thing I know I'm off the front of the bike head first down the drop on the right. Nice soft landing in the grass, lucky I missed the rocks that were v. close to my tete. Picked up some nice scratches down arms and legs again and have done something to my ankle.
Without a doubt am gonna be back on this one soon - there's a couple of alternative endings to explore. Either go down to Taylor's Mistake and back to Sumner or the Captain Thomas track, both of which looked incredible!
Back home in time for a barbie and a bottle of Framingham Dry Riesling (don't get many dry Rieslings over here, but this is great).
P.S. for those of you thinking "why's he out riding on a Tuesday?", He had to work Sunday thanks to the *** weather again! Contrary to popular opinion, this Sloth is working a little too much at the moment.