Glenorchy Lake Road
A 420 km loop
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Why this ride
A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. 420 km round from Cromwell - plan on about 8 h 44 of riding. On the way it passes Queenstown / South Island, Glenorchy Lake Road, near Te Anau and Queenstown. The highest point is about 1,300 m.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Cromwell
fuel
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.
- Queenstown / South Island return
swim
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.
The part of the country that a rider can reach lies to the south, at the head of Lake Wakatipu, near Glenorchy. From there, the road runs north through the Rees valley toward Paradise, a stretch of about twenty kilometres of gravel through farmland and beech forest, with the mountains standing around like a wall. The area was used as a film location for The Lord of the Rings, and the landscape does look like Middle-earth. The gravel is generally good, though loose in places, and the fords can be deep after rain.
The lake is the other theme. Lake Wakatipu is shaped like a lightning bolt, and its water level rises and falls by a few centimetres every half hour, a phenomenon that locals explain with a legend about a giant whose heart beats beneath the water. Scientists have a less romantic answer, but the legend is more fun. The water is cold, around ten degrees even in summer, and a swim is for the brave, but the stony beaches at the head of the lake are beautiful.
Fuel is not available at the head of the lake, so fill the tank in Queenstown before the run to Glenorchy, which is about forty-five kilometres. A cafe in Glenorchy serves coffee and pies, and the village has a small general store. Be careful on the gravel, and check river levels before crossing fords. Autumn brings golden poplars and clear light, and winter brings snow on the peaks.
- Glenorchy Lake Road food stop
food
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.
Glenorchy is the end of the road, a village of a few hundred people at the head of Lake Wakatipu, named by Scottish settlers in the 1860s after a glen in Scotland. The village has a cafe, a pub, a small shop and a lagoon with boardwalks and birdlife, and it is the gateway to some of the finest walking in the country. A handful of tour operators run jet boats and horse treks, and in autumn the poplars along the road turn gold, making the place glow.
The lake road itself is one of the great rides of the South Island. It runs for forty-odd kilometres from Queenstown, hugging the shore in a series of bends, with the water on one side and steep hills on the other, and the views of the lake and the peaks beyond are superb. The surface is good, but the road is narrow and winding, with sheer drops in places, and it can be busy with tour buses in summer. In the morning, mist lies over the lake, and the light is soft.
For food, Glenorchy has a few simple places to eat, so a stop for lunch is easy, though there may be a wait in the busy season. Fill up in Queenstown, since fuel at the head of the lake is limited, and carry layers, as the weather changes quickly. Sandflies are common near the water, so bring repellent. The light in the evening, with the mountains turning pink and the lake still, is a fine reward.
- Photo stop near Te Anau
swim
Photo stop near Te Anau, about halfway.
- Near Queenstown
finish
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.
Lake Wakatipu is a long, narrow glacial trough shaped like a lightning bolt, and it has a curious habit: its surface rises and falls by several centimetres every few minutes, a slow breathing caused by a standing wave. Māori legend explains it as the heartbeat of the giant Matau, who lies sleeping at the bottom of the lake, his body forming its zigzag shape. The water is clear, startlingly blue and very cold even in summer.
The road south is a good one. It runs along the lake with long sweepers, a few tighter bends and a stretch known as the Devil's Staircase, where it climbs and twists above the water before dropping toward Kingston at the lake's southern tip. Traffic can be heavy with campervans and tourist coaches, many driven by visitors still adjusting to the left side of the road, so give them room. Strong winds can funnel down the lake, and black ice is a real danger on shaded bends in winter.
The rides from here go in two directions. The Milford Road continues south through Kingston and across the plains to Te Anau, then up through the Eglinton Valley and the Homer Tunnel to Milford Sound, one of the world's great mountain roads. The vineyard ride heads the other way, through Frankton and the Kawarau Gorge to Gibbston, Cromwell and Bannockburn, where pinot noir grows on terraces of gravel left by gold miners. The first commercial bungy jump was set up on the Kawarau Bridge, and you can still watch people leap from it.
Fill the tank in Queenstown or Frankton, which have everything. On the way to Milford, Te Anau is the last reliable fuel stop, and there is a long stretch beyond with almost nothing. Bring warm, waterproof layers whatever the season, because weather in Fiordland and around the lakes changes fast.
- High point near Kingston
swim
High point near Kingston comes up 300 km in.
- Scenic stretch near Kingston swim
- Back to Glenorchy
finish
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.
The Kawarau runs out of Lake Wakatipu in a cold, fast, blue-green flow and cuts east through a gorge toward Cromwell. State Highway 6 follows it, a road of constant, easy bends hugging the cliffs, with rock overhangs and the river just below, and at the Kawarau Bridge it passes the place where commercial bungy jumping began in 1988. Whatever you think about jumping off bridges, the engineering and the setting are impressive, and the viewing area is free to watch from.
Gibbston itself is a high valley whose cool nights and dry summers suit pinot noir, and the old schist hills around it give the place a strange moonscape look. Cellar doors cluster along the highway, and there is a cheese place or two for lunch. Do the sensible thing if you are riding: taste lightly, or let the pillion taste. Further on, the gorge was the scene of dramatic gold sluicing in the 1860s, and tracks and stone remnants still dot the hillsides in places.
Cromwell, about fourteen kilometres away, is the town with proper services, fuel and food, and a stone-fruit reputation that shows in the big fibreglass fruit sculptures by the highway. The old town is partly drowned beneath Lake Dunstan, flooded when the Clyde Dam was built in the early 1990s, and its historic buildings were moved to a rebuilt precinct beside the water. Arrowtown, nearer to the north, is a classic gold-rush village worth the short detour.
The riding here is relaxed rather than extreme, ideal after the harder passes. The best time is late afternoon in autumn, when the vine leaves turn red and gold against the dry hills. In winter, the gorge can hold frost in the shadows well into the day, so watch for black ice on shaded corners.