Cromwell sits where two of Central Otago's big rivers used to meet, and these days the meeting happens under water. When the Clyde Dam was finished in the early 1990s, the rising Lake Dunstan swallowed the old town centre and much of the gorge, and what survived of the gold-era main street was rebuilt as a heritage precinct on the new lakeshore. It is worth the short detour: schist cottages, a bakery or two, and the eerie knowledge that the original riverbank is somewhere below the boats.
The riding around here is a matter of light and space. State Highway 6 runs west through the Kawarau Gorge towards Queenstown, a tight, rocky slot with the milky river far below and bungy jumpers dropping off the old bridge at the far end. North, State Highway 8 heads up past Tarras towards the Lindis Pass, all long tawny hills and wide bends that let you see oncoming traffic a kilometre away. South towards Clyde and Alexandra the road follows the lake through bare schist country that looks almost lunar in the late afternoon.
This is the driest corner of New Zealand, and the summer heat is real; in winter, frost can glaze the shady bends well into the morning, so do not trust the gorge before the sun has been on it. Wind funnels down the lake too, which you will feel on an exposed motorcycle crossing the bridges.
The gold rush of the 1860s first brought people here, but the money now is in stone fruit and wine. Bannockburn, just across the water, grows some of the most southerly Pinot Noir in the world, and roadside stalls sell cherries and apricots in midsummer. Cromwell itself is a proper service town with several fuel stations, supermarkets and cafés, so it is the natural place to fill the tank and eat before the longer, emptier stretches toward Haast, Te Anau or the Lindis, where the next pump can be a long way off.