Our family was in Queenstown for the last leg of our southern island road trip and decided to do a spontaneous bike ride. Called almost every bike shop in Queenstown but they were mostly booked out given it was high season (just after Christmas) and we had a 4yo, 5yo, 7yo with us and needed a trailer or tandem bike of some sort and/or junior bikes with trainers. Around the basin was also booked out but gave the suggestion that we could pop by after lunch to see if any of the morning rentals returned their bikes early. Really appreciated their suggestions for us to work around instead of an outright no. We did that and they managed to scramble up 1 e-bike with a trailer for 2 kids, and 1 junior bike (no training wheels), and 1 regular bike. It was a fantastic idea for us to go for 1 e bike with the trailer and 1 regular bike instead of 2 e bikes or 2 regular bikes. My husband took the e bike with the trailer and younger two kids in it and it worked out to be about the same speed with my riding a regular bike without the extra trailer weight. The only problem left was that my eldest, the 7yo had to take the junior bike without trainers as there wasnt much of a selection left. Being city folk from Singapore, we didn’t get him a new bike ever since he outgrew his toddler bike with training wheels about 2 years ago. He was extremely rusty and not confident about riding without training wheels on dirt paths around the lake no less. One staff in particular from Around the Basin, I think her name is Jessie (sorry if I got it wrong, he remembers it starts with a J) was super encouraging and even took time to run along side him down the hill right outside the shop to get him started on the big boy bike. She gave excellent advise of looking straight ahead instead of down and would run ahead of him telling him to look at her and ride toward her. When we eventually set off he was still wobbly, but 2 hours and 2 rounds around the lake later, he peddled back into the shop and excitedly gave her a hug saying he did it! Great service and fantastic staff. Was a wonderful end to our travels in New Zealand. And special thanks to J for giving our boy a confidence boost. We’re gonna pick out a new bike for him soon 🙂