CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
2050 km from Arrowtown to Arrowtown, about 43 h 50 of riding. The stops in between: Queenstown / South Island, near Queenstown, near Kingston and Queenstown. The climb of the day is near Cromwell. It tops out at about 1,250 m. Long stretches are under trees.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 32 km this is Crown Range Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Lake Hayes is the small lake that every photographer in the Queenstown area seems to know about, and on a still morning you will see why. The water mirrors the brown and gold hills around it, and in autumn, from April into May, the poplars and willows along the shore turn a brilliant yellow. It sits in the Wakatipu basin between Queenstown and Arrowtown, along State Highway 6, and a walking track loops around the shore in a couple of hours, a fine way to loosen up after a morning in the saddle.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Arrowtown write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Milford Road Expedition is where the day begins. Next is Queenstown / South Island return.
Look at a map and this point sits in the middle of nowhere: high above the head waters of the Dart and Rees valleys, in the wild mountain country between Lake Wakatipu and Mount Aspiring. There is no road here, not even a good track for a bike, only ice, rock and bush on the slopes of peaks like Earnslaw, whose snow-capped summit dominates the horizon from Glenorchy. The label calls it a return to Queenstown, which tells you what the route does: it brings you home, and the actual road runs far to the east.
Read the complete Queenstown / South Island return write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Queenstown / South Island return comes up about 224 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop near Queenstown.
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Kingston.
Photo stop near Kingston, early in the day. Next is Milford Road Expedition 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.
Finish at Milford Road Expedition checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is High point near Cromwell.
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.
High point near Cromwell is the summit of this stretch. Next is Scenic stretch near Cromwell.
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.
about 1025 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch near Cromwell. Next is Back to Milford Road.
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.
Read the complete Milford Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Milford Road. That is the ride. Next is Crown Range and Wanaka.
Lake Hayes is the small lake that every photographer in the Queenstown area seems to know about, and on a still morning you will see why. The water mirrors the brown and gold hills around it, and in autumn, from April into May, the poplars and willows along the shore turn a brilliant yellow. It sits in the Wakatipu basin between Queenstown and Arrowtown, along State Highway 6, and a walking track loops around the shore in a couple of hours, a fine way to loosen up after a morning in the saddle.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Arrowtown write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Scenic stretch near Arrowtown.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Arrowtown write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Arrowtown comes up about 1253 km into the recorded legs. Next is High point near Cromwell.
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.
High point near Cromwell is the summit of this stretch. Next is Photo stop near Kingston.
Photo stop near Kingston, late in the day. Next is Crown Range and Wanaka checkpoint 8.
South of Queenstown, the land runs along the eastern shore of Lake Wakatipu, between the water and the jagged wall of the Remarkables, and the road towards Kingston follows the lake for long kilometres. It is one of the most spectacular roads in New Zealand, with the lake on one side, deep blue and long, and the mountains rising steeply on the other, their peaks snow-capped for much of the year.
Read the complete Near Queenstown write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Crown Range and Wanaka checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is Food stop near Queenstown.
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.
Food stop near Queenstown is where this day stops to eat. Next is Queenstown / South Island return.
North-west of Queenstown, past the head of Lake Wakatipu, the road gives out and the real mountains begin. This is the country around Glenorchy, the last small settlement on the lake, and beyond it the Dart and Rees valleys, where glacier-fed rivers braid across wide gravel flats under peaks that rise to nearly three thousand metres. Mount Aspiring National Park starts here, and so does a landscape that film makers have borrowed again and again, since the beech forests, the white rivers and the great bare walls of rock make it look like an ancient fantasy of the mountains.
Read the complete Queenstown / South Island return write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 1895 km into the recorded legs you reach Queenstown / South Island return. Next is Back to Crown.
Arrowtown is the sort of place that tells the story of the Otago gold rush in a few short streets. It sits a few kilometres from this point, on the Arrow River, where gold was found in 1862, and within a year or two thousands of men had descended on the valley. The little town that remained is a collection of stone and timber cottages, shops and a main street shaded by deciduous trees, which in autumn blaze yellow and red.
Read the complete Crown write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Crown closes the day.
Fuel stop near Arrowtown → Queenstown / South Island return is 224 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Queenstown / South Island return → Food stop near Queenstown is 207 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Queenstown → Photo stop near Kingston is 245 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Kingston → Near Queenstown is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Cromwell → Scenic stretch near Cromwell is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Cromwell → Back to Milford Road is 107 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Milford Road → Fuel stop near Arrowtown is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Arrowtown → Scenic stretch near Arrowtown is 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Scenic stretch near Arrowtown → High point near Cromwell is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Cromwell → Photo stop near Kingston is 128 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Food stop near Queenstown → Queenstown / South Island return is 190 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Queenstown / South Island return → Back to Crown is 159 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.