Day 28: Frankton to Wanaka

Started off the day with blue skies and a few clouds, a welcome change to the rainy weather of yesterday. We hit the Queenstown bike trails on our roundabout way of getting to Arrowtown. The bike trails were very nice, a few steep hills, and a few confusing detours but overall more enjoyable than trying to ride next to all the drivers on the roads.

The mountains and river were particularly pretty as we rode through the morning, eventually making our way to Lake Hayes and around it on a track (what Kiwi’s call a walking/riding path). Next was Arrowtown which has done its best not to change since its gold mining days.

We paused at a sweets shop and they had free fudge samples, so we enjoyed that for a bit, but the marketing worked because we walked out with two kinds of fudge (sea salt caramel dark chocolate, and apple pie). After devouring half the fudge we decided a hamburger was in order before our big climbs of the day, we got our current bike touring usual of a bacon & egg hamburger. Very tasty.

Then we were off along the river for some beautiful riding until we hit the trail to take us half way up the mountain. There was a sign at the bottom that called the track “well graded”… well that was true it was very much a steady 10-15% grade. Matt was stubborn and rode the most of it, Pam was less stubborn and pushed her bike up most of it. The views were good as we started ascending and just kept getting better. Finally at the top it was an amazing overview of the valley below.

We continued on a gravel road and then hit the road going over the mountain pass. This started out very easy and well graded. We were hopeful that the worst was behind us, but every km or so it just kept getting steeper. Eventually we were winding around the mountain at the 12-14% grades that seem so popular in NZ.

We paused many times and it took us forever to get to the top, but we eventually made it. 1076m in elevation and there is a plaque at the top proudly proclaiming that this is the highest sealed (paved) road in NZ. We got a good chuckle at that, of course we found the highest paved road in the country and decided to ride over it…

Anyways we nearly fell off our bikes with exhaustion and immediately set to the most important thing while cycle touring, a second lunch. A few PB&J sandwiches later we decided to make our way down the other side. We thought it was much more gradual down the other side but were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves rocketing down the next 4km at speeds over 65kmh. After that the decline slowed, but we were still flying compared to our earlier slow climb.

We breezed through the town of Cardrona and made our way in to Wanaka which is nestled at the bottom end of a lake with beautiful snowcapped mountains across the lake. We found the Holiday Park, went and looked at the lake, tried to find something labeled a “jump park” on the map to no avail, and hit up the grocery store and called it a night.

Today was very challenging, as Pam said several times “my legs are on fire”. Very steep and long climbs. As usual the views from the top were great and the downhill was a good time.

Distance: 78.87

Time: 5:52

Average Speed: 13.41 kmh

Max Speed: 65.07 kmh

Climb: 1186 m

The Remarkable Mountains and the Kawarau River

The Remarkable Mountains and the Shotover River

Arrowtown

View across the valley to Lake Wakatipu

Pam so tired from the climb that she decided to go skydiving with no parachute

At the summit of Crown Range

From the shroes of Lake Wanaka