This stretch of road is the Crown Range, and if the ride is called the Milford Road, it is because this is the way you leave Queenstown's orbit and swing back toward the lakes. It is the highest paved main road in New Zealand, topping out at around 1,076 metres, linking the Wakatipu basin to Cardrona and Wanaka by a route that looks improbable on a map and feels even more improbable once you are on it.
From the Arrowtown side the road climbs in a series of tight hairpins known locally as the Zig Zag, with a drop on the outside that makes you grateful for the barriers. Higher up, the landscape strips back to tussock, bare schist and long views over the Wakatipu basin, with the Remarkables standing stern across the valley. Weather changes fast. I have been warm in Arrowtown and been in sleet at the summit forty minutes later, and in winter there can be snow and ice, with chains advised or required on occasion. Check conditions before setting off.
Arrowtown, ten kilometres away, is worth knowing about for its own sake. It began as a gold town in the 1860s when prospectors worked the Arrow River, and the Chinese miners who arrived afterwards left behind a restored settlement of small stone and sod huts beside the river. Autumn here is exceptional, when the poplars and willows turn gold along the main street and the hills behind turn to rust. It is a good place for a pie, a flat white and a rest before the climb, and there is fuel in town.
Queenstown, twenty-five kilometres off, has everything a rider could want in the way of fuel, food and beds, but also summer crowds that fill the roads. Over the top, Cardrona has a famously photogenic pub, a hotel dating from the 1860s gold rush, set in a nearly empty valley with a ski field above it. Wanaka, a bit further, sits on its own lake and is gentler and quieter than its flashier neighbour.
The best light comes in the evening, when low sun rakes across the basin and the schist glows. Take it slowly on the descent toward Arrowtown, because the bends tighten, and watch out for the cyclists who like this climb as much as the riders do.