Haast Pass Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Haast

   Haast is the last outpost before the wilderness. For decades, it was cut off by rivers and forest, and the road north to Fox Glacier was only completed in 1965, making it the last link in the West Coast highway.

   Read the complete Haast write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Haast is where the day begins. Next is Haast Pass.

2. 2. Haast Pass

   Haast Pass is the lowest crossing of the Southern Alps, at 562 metres, and the road over it carries State Highway 6 from the inland lakes of Otago to the wild West Coast. It is a gentle summit in a high, steep landscape, with beech forest on the slopes and snow peaks above, and it feels like a doorway between two worlds. On the east side, the land is dry and open, with tawny tussock and the pale blue of lakes. On the west side, the rain falls heavily, and the forest is dense, green and hung with moss, a temperate rainforest that reaches almost to the sea.

   Read the complete Haast Pass write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Haast Pass comes up about 55 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Blue Pools, mostly downhill.

3. 3. Blue Pools

   The Blue Pools are a spot on the Makarora river where meltwater from the Southern Alps runs clear and still over smooth, round stones, and the colour is something between sapphire and turquoise. A short walk of about fifteen minutes from the road leads through beech forest to a swing bridge across the river, from which you look down into deep, glassy pools where trout hang in the current. The water is so clear that the stones on the bottom seem within reach, and the colour changes with the light and the weather. After rain, the river turns a milky grey, and the pools lose their magic, so a dry spell is best.

   Read the complete Blue Pools write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Blue Pools. Next is Lake Hawea.

4. 4. Lake Hawea

   Lake Hawea is a deep glacial lake about thirty kilometres long, lying in a valley carved by ice between the dry hills of Central Otago, and the colour of it is the first thing you notice: a cold, dark blue, almost black in the middle, fading to emerald in the shallows. It sits just east of its twin, Lake Wanaka, separated from it by a narrow ridge called The Neck, and both were scooped out by the same great glaciers that once filled the valleys. The hills around are brown tussock and bare schist, with scattered willows and poplars along the shore, and in autumn the colours are gold and orange against the blue water.

   Read the complete Lake Hawea write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lake Hawea, late in the day. Next is Wanaka.

5. 5. Wānaka

   Wānaka is a lakeside town that grew up without quite deciding to. A few thousand people live here, on the southern shore of a long glacial lake, with mountains in every direction and the white bulk of the Southern Alps closing the northern horizon. The great peak of Mount Aspiring, nearly three thousand metres high, is a pyramid you may glimpse on a clear day beyond the lake, and it is a rewarding sight after the climb from Queenstown.

   Read the complete Wanaka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Finish at Wanaka. That is the ride.