CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Arrowtown it runs 1643 km to Cromwell; allow about 32 h 09 of riding. On the way it passes Wanaka lake stop, Milford Road high section, Te Anau overnight and Crown Range Road. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
19 km on Crown Range Road.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
The Crown Range Road is the highest sealed public road in New Zealand, topping out at about a thousand and seventy-six metres, and it connects Queenstown with Wānaka by a route that is as beautiful as it is steep. On one side, the land falls away toward the Wakatipu basin, with the jagged line of the Remarkables across the valley. On the other, the Cardrona valley opens, golden and broad, leading toward Wānaka.
Read the complete Crown Range Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Crown Range Road is where the day begins. Next is Wanaka lake stop.
Wanaka sits at the southern end of its lake, with mountains stepping away to the north in long blue ranks, and the water itself is the colour of a glacier-ground gemstone. The lake is New Zealand's fourth largest and was carved by an ice tongue that once pushed down from the Southern Alps, leaving behind a deep basin and the smooth hills you ride through to get here. The town is a modest four thousand people, but it feels bigger in summer, when walkers, skiers and holidaymakers fill it, and it works neatly as a place to fill the tank, eat well and look out at the water.
Read the complete Wanaka lake stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wanaka lake stop comes up 68 km in. Next is Milford Road high section.
The Milford Road does not so much climb as march into a wall. Past the beech forest of the Eglinton Valley and the long flat tussock of the Hollyford headwaters, the Darran Mountains rise in grey granite slabs on every side, and at the top of it all sits the Homer Tunnel, a rough, unlit hole in the rock that was a work-relief project for decades before it finally opened in 1953. It is just over a kilometre long and drops steeply toward the western end, and riding through it is a small adventure: cold, wet, loud, and more atmospheric than any modern tunnel has a right to be. The high section where the road approaches it is among the most dramatic stretches of tarmac in the country.
Read the complete Milford Road high section write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
135 km in you reach Milford Road high section. Next is Te Anau overnight.
Te Anau is a small town with a large job. It sits on the shore of the lake of the same name, the biggest in the South Island, and serves as the gateway to Fiordland National Park, one of the wildest places in New Zealand. About two thousand people live here year-round, many of them working in the tourism that comes through, and in summer the main street is full of campervans and people with boots and cameras.
Read the complete Te Anau overnight write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Te Anau overnight, early in the day. Next is Back to Crown Range Road.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Crown Range Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Crown Range Road. That is the ride. Next is Glenorchy Lake Road.
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.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Cromwell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Glenorchy Lake Road is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Queenstown / South Island return.
At just over three thousand metres, it is the highest peak in New Zealand outside the Aoraki Mount Cook region, and its steep faces and hanging glaciers attract mountaineers from around the world. It sits in the national park, among beech forest, river flats and high basins, a landscape that few people ever see.
Read the complete Queenstown / South Island return write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
406 km in you reach Queenstown / South Island return. Next is Glenorchy Lake Road food stop.
No road reaches it. The country here is high, wet and wild, with beech forest, alpine lakes and jagged peaks, and the Humboldt mountains stand over it like a wall. A rider arrives on the lake road and looks up at it from below.
Read the complete Glenorchy Lake Road food stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 473 km in. Next is Photo stop near Te Anau.
Photo stop near Te Anau sits at 541 km, about halfway. Next is Glenorchy Lake Road checkpoint 8.
South of Queenstown, the road to Kingston follows the eastern shore of Lake Wakatipu, squeezed between deep, cold water and the jagged wall of the Remarkables. In winter they are white to their bases; in summer the bare rock glows gold and grey in the evening light.
Read the complete Near Queenstown write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Glenorchy Lake Road checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is High point near Kingston.
676 km in you reach High point near Kingston. Next is Scenic stretch near Kingston.
Scenic stretch near Kingston, late in the day. Next is Back to Glenorchy.
It is a landscape of schist gorges, river terraces and some of the southernmost serious vineyards on earth, and it earns a stop in its own right.
Read the complete Glenorchy write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Glenorchy closes the day.
Crown Range Road → Wanaka lake stop is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wanaka lake stop → Milford Road high section is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Milford Road high section → Te Anau overnight is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Te Anau overnight → Back to Crown Range Road is 124 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Back to Crown Range Road → Fuel stop near Cromwell is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Cromwell → Queenstown / South Island return is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Queenstown / South Island return → Glenorchy Lake Road food stop is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Glenorchy Lake Road food stop → Photo stop near Te Anau is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Te Anau → Near Queenstown is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Kingston → Scenic stretch near Kingston is 11 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Kingston → Back to Glenorchy is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.