Lower 45 Bike Camps, founded by Queenstowner Chris Dickson, took on its first group of three riders last month, before a full launch next season.
He says the camps' point of difference is they are run by world-class riders, like co-founder and director of coaching Nathan Rennie, a former mountain bike world champion.
"We offer an all-inclusive development programme with a four-to-one coaching ratio, which puts you with someone of the calibre of a world champion for six days."
Formerly based in the mountain bike mecca of Whistler, Canada, where he worked in bike retail and rental, Mr Dickson moved to Queenstown two years ago and started working for Skyline.
When he heard Skyline was planning to start gondola-assisted access to the Queenstown Bike Park he knew what he had to do.
"I made a bid to hire bikes on the mountain and that was unsuccessful, so the next thing was a camp-style programme and with nothing in the market like it in the southern hemisphere and friends in high places, I went for it."
The camps will be based at the "bike hub" of Pinewood Lodge, where riders will be given the choice of sharing dorms or upgrading to private quarters.
Mr Dickson said the week started with setting goals for what the riders wanted to achieve by week's end, before they headed off for three days of riding in the Queenstown Bike Park.
The week then included a trip to Cardrona to ride in the dirt park and also a helibike trip with Fat Tyre Mountain Biking.
Lower 45 plans to hold camps over 19 weeks in total from October and Mr Dickson said interest had been strong.
Anyone interested needed to ensure they booked in advance.
He said the camps were open to anyone over 12 years of age, but were aimed at people with mountain biking experience seeking to develop skills and have fun, rather than "complete beginners".
Also in the pipeline were children's weekend camps and a "women's only" camp, coached by women for women.
"The focus will still be about riding, developing new skills and confidence but once the riding is done for the day we'll try to add a few more lady-friendly options."
