Milford Road Expedition
A 336 km loop
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Why this ride
Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. A 336 km loop that starts and ends near Arrowtown, about 7 h of riding. The stops in between: Queenstown / South Island, near Queenstown, near Kingston and Queenstown. near Cromwell is the high point. It tops out at about 1,250 m. Long stretches are under trees.
Roadbook
- Fuel stop near Arrowtown
fuel
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.
Arrowtown, a few kilometres north, is the historic heart of this area. Gold was found in the Arrow River in 1862, and within months thousands of miners had poured in. The town that grew up then still has a main street of stone and timber buildings, now occupied by cafes, galleries and shops, and avenues of trees planted by the early settlers. Down by the river, the restored huts of the Chinese settlement tell a less romantic story: Chinese miners came to Otago in the 1860s and 1870s, invited at first, then faced discrimination and hardship, and their stone huts and stores are now a protected site.
For riders, this is the gateway to the Crown Range Road, one of the most famous drives in New Zealand. The road begins just north of here, near Arrow Junction, and climbs steeply in a series of switchbacks onto the range. Before you start, the roads around the basin are worth a look: the back road from Lake Hayes to Arrowtown winds through farmland and vineyards, and the route out past Arthurs Point to the Shotover River gorge is a short and twisting ride. The traffic in the Queenstown area can be heavy, especially in summer and during the ski season, with tourists in rental cars and campers who are not used to driving on the left.
Queenstown, twelve kilometres away, has every service you could need, as well as an endless list of adventure activities, from bungy jumping to jet boats. Arrowtown has fuel, a supermarket, cafes and restaurants, and it is quieter and more relaxed than Queenstown. The area is also wine country: Central Otago Pinot Noir is famous, and the Gibbston Valley to the east is lined with cellar doors. The weather can be very changeable, with hot summer days and freezing winter nights, and snow is common on the hills in winter.
- Queenstown / South Island return
swim
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.
What exists here is landscape on a vast scale. The Southern Alps forced upward by the grinding of the Pacific and Australian plates, and the glaciers that carved the lakes are still cutting valleys in the high basins. Beech forest covers the lower slopes, and keas, the alpine parrots with a taste for rubber and a character to match, patrol the ridges. Tramping tracks like the Rees-Dart loop pass nearby on foot, taking several days, and a hiker who left the roadhead at Glenorchy sees none of what the motorcyclist sees from the road.
The riding that does lead you toward this region is the run around Lake Wakatipu, one of the best short rides in the country. Between Queenstown and Glenorchy the road is narrow, curving, and full of lake views, and the mountains close in with every kilometre. From Glenorchy it carries on to the gravel, so unless you are riding something built for dirt, the tarmac ends and the turn-around begins. Rental riders in particular should check the conditions of their contract before heading up any unsealed road.
For fuel and food you will want Queenstown, a lively resort town with plenty of everything and a petrol station on most main roads. Glenorchy has a small store and a cafe or two but is not the place to assume anything about fuel, so fill the tank before leaving town. Evenings in the high country cool off quickly, even in mid-summer, and rain can arrive from the west with hardly any notice.
If you end up at this spot in the sense of looking at it from the road, you are most likely seeing it as a distant white wall. Treat it that way: a backdrop, and a very good one.
- Food stop near Queenstown
food
A break here at 96 km.
- Photo stop near Kingston
photo
Photo stop near Kingston, 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 Cromwell
pass
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.
- Scenic stretch near Cromwell scenic
- Back to Milford Road
finish
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.
From the Arrowtown side the road climbs in a series of tight hairpins known locally as the Zig Zag, with a drop on the outside that makes you grateful for the barriers. Higher up, the landscape strips back to tussock, bare schist and long views over the Wakatipu basin, with the Remarkables standing stern across the valley. Weather changes fast. I have been warm in Arrowtown and been in sleet at the summit forty minutes later, and in winter there can be snow and ice, with chains advised or required on occasion. Check conditions before setting off.
Arrowtown, ten kilometres away, is worth knowing about for its own sake. It began as a gold town in the 1860s when prospectors worked the Arrow River, and the Chinese miners who arrived afterwards left behind a restored settlement of small stone and sod huts beside the river. Autumn here is exceptional, when the poplars and willows turn gold along the main street and the hills behind turn to rust. It is a good place for a pie, a flat white and a rest before the climb, and there is fuel in town.
Queenstown, twenty-five kilometres off, has everything a rider could want in the way of fuel, food and beds, but also summer crowds that fill the roads. Over the top, Cardrona has a famously photogenic pub, a hotel dating from the 1860s gold rush, set in a nearly empty valley with a ski field above it. Wanaka, a bit further, sits on its own lake and is gentler and quieter than its flashier neighbour.
The best light comes in the evening, when low sun rakes across the basin and the schist glows. Take it slowly on the descent toward Arrowtown, because the bends tighten, and watch out for the cyclists who like this climb as much as the riders do.