After some skiing and hiking in Queenstown, we planned for a slightly easier final day and made arrangements to ride the Lake Dunstan Bike Track near Cromwell. We have been watching the construction of this new bike track for a while now and after reading lots about it we were curious to test it out for ourselves.
The track is 55 kilometers long and follows Lake Dunstan and the Kawarau and Clutha Rivers from Cromwell to Clyde. The mountain bike track is definitely not a simple lakeside trail and the main section of the trail which runs through the gorge includes several sections of cantilevered boardwalks and a few sneaky climbs.
We were dropped off at the start of the track near the town of Cromwell and the first half of the track was an easy ride along the Kawarau River arm of Lake Dunstan, through several vineyards, and the area around Bannockburn.
After crossing the river, it wasn’t long before we started to enter the gorge and after stopping to admire the warning signs we continued on towards Clyde. The track was really well formed and nice and smooth, although it was narrow enough that you definitely needed to pay attention and hope that there weren’t too many people riding up the valley.
For the most part the track stays close to the water, however there were a couple of good hills that take you up and over some of the rockier sections of the valley. Throughout the valley there is evidence of the work that has been done to stabilise the area; there are 13 tunnels with a combined length of almost 20 kilometers that have been drilled into the hillside to help with drainage and prevent landslides.
We made good progress down the valley and arrived at the Clyde Dam just after lunchtime. We were able to make a detour into Clyde to get a snack before getting on the road back to Christchurch.