Lake Dunstan Cycle Trail - quite the Challenge!

Sunday 15 February

We’d seen the epic cycle track along the western shore of Lake Dunstan from Cromwell to Clyde (or vice versa) so many times as we drove down SH8 on the eastern shore, and watched dozens of reels about it… today was our day to conquer it!

Another Great Ride - this one goes from Cromwell to Clyde or vice versa and is an Intermediate Grade 3 due to the narrow winding paths and steep drop offs - yikes!

We left from the Cromwell Heritage District with Nickie & Russ hiring e-bikes from NZ Bike Trails and we brought our own. From Cromwell, an easy track went out along to Bannockburn, over the Kawerau River and back past Carrick Winery to pick up the full on trail right opposite where we’d started, but on the other side of the water, 14km under our belts!

Jonny was our guide as he had tackled this several times, but I think we were by far his slowest protégés. I was terrified of the hill climbs & descents ahead and Nickie, like me, had deep gravel phobia! The signs did not exactly settle our nerves, but the initial kilometres of this section were nice & wide, flat & easy.

But we pressed on in the cold wind and made our way along the lake at almost water level, on graded gravel tracks, around cantilevered boardwalks bolted into the cliff face, suspended above the water below and up & down a few windy bits until we reached the infamous bacon butty boat at 20kms in! $20 each for a bacon butty or a burger, but who’s gonna quibble when it’s the only food for miles around?

From there we hit my nemesis - the Cairnmuir Ladder goes up around 300m or more in a series of quite steep and tight zigzags… I was tempted to just walk it but I put on my big girl pants, put my power up to 3 and my gears as low as possible and made it with just one stop for photos! Up and up and up we went, until we got to a lower ridge above the lake waters where things eased up. I was terrified but managed to make it in one piece… now the next issue was going to be getting back down. 😳

However, the view from up here was incredible and it was mind-blowing to think you could cycle through such an alien, rocky landscape. By now the sun had made an appearance and it was getting pretty warm, but better still, the lake waters were glowing a glorious turquoise- green colour and looking stunning. Louis was my Mr Motivator getting me this far, but the love and support from Russ & Nickie was awesome too - poor Nickie was feeling a wee bit nervous, but channelled that energy into helping me get through my panic... such lovely friends. ❤️

After the trig point (which we posed at in honour of Goldschmidt Wines and Uncle Don) we rode along the high tracks for a while before encountering a few craggy gorges where we had to cycle in and out of the rocky crevasses and at one point came to a fabulous wide suspension bridge across a particularly steep and stony gorge. The Hugo Suspension Bridge - paid for by a local philanthropy group, the Hugo Green Trust - opened in May 2021 and runs 85.5m across the gorge, it's specially engineered to cope with the wild winds which whistle down the valley.

From here we hit goat country and a few more bolted on gantry paths around the rock face. Looking up to the skyline at one point we were all amazed to see a small tree growing out of the highest rock! Zoom into the centre of the picture of the ridge line several images above…

And then finally a fairly easy cruise into the boathouse beach; we stopped for a snack and to watch this lovely black lab having a swim and a ride on a paddleboard 🖤

Then the final kilometre or so - a chance to fly down past the Clyde Dam, across the Earnscleugh Bridge into town.

Mission accomplished! Around 42km cycled and time for refreshments at Merchant before the boys cycled back to Springvale (Russ on my bike) and Nickie & I got the bike hire transfer back to Cromwell to pick up the Pajero. It felt odd - looking out from where we started 5 hours earlier across to the base of the track along the gnarly edge of the lake!

No peace for the wicked - Louis and I were back in Cromwell an hour later to meet Ania, Mocha, Floyd & Puss as we have offered to house sit for Ania & her partner Gareth in August. The meeting seemed to go well and the dogs loved us, particularly Louis, and Puss said “fine, they’ll do!” so I think we got the gig!

Back at the Websters’ Russ cooked up the most fantastic risotto with salmon and we all ate tons after the day’s adventures!