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.
Out of Arrowtown, one way: 1046 km, roughly 21 h 31 in the saddle. 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. Much of it runs through woodland.
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 230 km into the recorded legs. Next is Food stop near Queenstown.
A break here. Next is Photo stop near Kingston.
Photo stop near Kingston, about halfway. 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.
Scenic stretch near Cromwell closes the day.
Fuel stop near Arrowtown → Queenstown / South Island return is 230 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Queenstown / South Island return → Food stop near Queenstown is 211 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Queenstown → Photo stop near Kingston is 248 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Kingston → Near Queenstown is 130 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Cromwell → Scenic stretch near Cromwell is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.