Bike The Wineries (3/4 Day) - Ride Through Queenstown Vineyards
Description
From Arrow Junction to the Gibbston Valley, this ¾-day self-guided adventure blends scenic trails with world-class wine. Start with a shuttle from Queenstown to Arrow Junction (7 km beyond Arrowtown), where you’ll be set up with a quality bike, trail map, and all the tips for a seamless ride. Wind your way 6 km (4 miles) through dramatic river gorges, crossing the Edgar Swing Bridge and passing the iconic Kawarau Bungy Bridge, before rolling into Gibbston - the heart of Central Otago’s wine country. Take your pick of 6+ wineries, a gin tasting room, and a local tavern along the way, with time to enjoy multiple stops depending on your pace. The full ride covers around 17 km (11 miles) of undulating, scenic trail, finishing at a winery of your choice, where our shuttle will meet you for the return to Queenstown. With Queenstown’s most experienced bike tour operator, you’ll enjoy expert support, local knowledge, and a ride that’s as memorable as the wine.
Tour Options
Itinerary
This ride starts at our bike-hub at Arrow Junction. From here, it's 6 km (4 miles) along a bike trail to the start of the Gibbston Valley Trail.
Ride across the historic Kawarau Bridge, home of the world's first commercial bungy jumping operation. Be entertained watching bungy jumpers and zip-liners doing their thing!
Explore the scenic wine region of Gibbston Valley at your leisure with 7 wineries, a brewery and tavern to bike between. Enjoy the freedom of spending as long as you desire at wineries of your choice, tasting world-class food and wine as you go. Some of the Valley's wineries are listed below.
Largest winery in the Gibbston region offering wine tastings and a full restaurant.
Cellar door, wine tastings and restaurant
Built in Wangaloa in 1894, this old church was relocated to Gibbston in the early 2000’s. Today instead of hymns and sermons it serves up local wines and good vibes. You will be collected from The Church at 4:30 pm for the return shuttle back to Queenstown.
A lovely setting with great hospitality and delicious wine tastings
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
- A maximum of 8 people per booking
- Minimum drinking age is 18 years - recommended to bring ID
Reviews(29)
Fantastic experience using the E-bikes. Would have been much more difficult without the extra power so a good suggestion from other reviewers. The scenery was stunning riding along the gorge. Map was simple to follow and we got 3 vineyards in, all with different experiences (all positive). It’s worth bearing in mind that as of 2025/26 rule changes you do now pay at the cellar door for your tastings which varies between $15 $30 dollars, but you get between 3 and 5 tastings with lots of information about the vineyards so well worth it.
Thanks for the great review! We’re glad you enjoyed the e-bikes, the gorge scenery, and the vineyard experiences along the way. We also appreciate you mentioning the updated tasting fees for future riders. Hope to see you again sometime!
Fun way of touring the wineries! The first leg (from the farm to the first winery) was a bit challenging for someone not used to riding a bike (some steep areas or tight corners) but then flattened out and very easy after that. A really enjoyable day.
Thanks for the five stars. It's great to hear you had an enjoyable day out with us. The trail is graded 2-3 (Beginner-Intermediate), so there are some corners of grade 3 in the Arrow River Bridges Trail. The Gibbston Wine Trail is a more gentle ride. We always recommend riders ride within their abilities. Hope to see you next time. Cheers, The Around The Basin Team
The driver and bike does are great but the receptionist were kind of rude. They're not helpful if you have any questions aside from locating the site.
We’re glad you enjoyed the driver and bike team. We’re sorry the reception interaction didn’t meet expectations. Our staff did spend time assisting with rain concerns and cancellation options, clearly explained departure times at check-in, and provided ride information to read while waiting. No further questions were raised at the time, but we’re always happy to help if something isn’t clear. We appreciate the feedback.
Really great day out and would highly recommend! Nice to be able to choose which wineries to go to and a lovely cycle route- definitely recommend e-bikes as imagine quite intense cycling without and then less time for wine tasting!
Thanks for the review. Glad you enjoyed the route and the freedom to choose your wineries. E-bikes do make it easier to save time for tasting. Cheers!
Picked up & taken to bike track service, extremely helpful staff, great bikes and wineries. Most memorable of NZ experiences.
Around the basin. Very rude. Just got off the bus back in Queenstown and omg I didn’t know people could be so rude. Got on the bus at 3:52, 7 mins earlier than scheduled. We left in a rush to pick other people up from different wineries so we insisted to ask if we could quickly go in and get a bottle of wine at the time cause we had no hands to hold the bottles while riding the bikes, we got to the winery at 3:56 and we still were not required to be on the bus yet but as we insisted to ask to buy a bottle of wine and whilst waiting for the people to finish there wine tasting and board the bus we were immediately shut down and said if we leave the bus we would be left at the winery. We unfortunately did not get our bottle of wine. We then waited another 5mins for everyone to board the bus. Then on our way home the other groups on the bus were dropped to there apartments while we were not asked or instructed to provide our address so we could get dropped to our hotel.
Hi 763fletcherw, Thanks for your feedback, and we're sorry to hear the experience didn’t meet your expectations. From our side, we did find your group to be quite rude, especially during the pre-ride briefing where there was a lot of talking over our driver. This made it difficult to clearly communicate important safety and ride information. We picked you up slightly earlier than expected as your group was further down the valley, and we needed to stay on schedule for the rest of our customers too. Once we arrived at The Church, it only took around five minutes to get everyone on board, which is actually quite efficient. We understand you may have wanted more time to get wine, but we do operate on a tight return schedule. Fortunately, many of the wines from that region are available at local stores in Queenstown if you wanted to take some home. As for the drop-off, we didn’t drop anyone at their accommodation — we simply pulled into a bus stop on the main road when asked, as it happened to be along our return route. Our team doesn't normally offer accommodation drop-offs, which is why this wasn’t offered to others. We do hope you enjoyed the ride itself — the trails through Gibbston are some of our favourites — and that the rest of your time in Queenstown was memorable.
We were able to move our reservation up a day due to predicted rain. The e-bike upgrade was very reasonable also and we were able to make the 60k loop to Arrowtown and back during the day ride. Manager of shop was very pleasant and accommodating before and after our ride. Strongly recommend.
Big shout out to our Welsh bike guide (very friendly and knowledgeable) who took us out to our pick up point on Nov 7. We did 3/4 day electric bike tour and my wife and I had an awesome day with the sun shining and fantastic vineyards tasting.
One of our favourite experiences in Queenstown! Such a beautiful place to explore and be outdoors. We had transport to the bikes and then free rein to get to as many wineries as we wanted to. The bike trail has incredible views and it puts such a fun twist on a wine tour! Cannot recommend this enough. If you’re in Queenstown you HAVE to book this in! :)
A brilliant way to spend a day in Queenstown. Encompasses all good things about the area, amazing scenery, beautiful wine, gorgeous food, lovely gin.
