Beautiful Arrowtown-Queenstown loop – but we lost the lake
After my parents enjoyed a relaxing ride around the quiet, shady, tree-lined streets of Arrowtown on the Motom and Matt’s bike, we ate a final lunch together before they left to check out Doubtful Sound. The six days together went very fast, and we greatly appreciated their company and support for our riding.
We planned riding around 40km including the Arrowtown-Queenstown loop and a ride around Lake Hayes. We set off crossing the footbridge first, and thoroughly enjoyed riding the wide, shady, attractive river path. Next the Twin Rivers track took us along the Kawerau river, sometimes climbing to be high above, then dropping right down to the river in the shade of trees. Some climbs were quite steep but the Motom managed it (one climb felt like we only just got there) and the paths were wide and quite smooth, if dusty riding with a strong wind. We looked across to grey rocky steep hills and the beautiful green river snaking below.
Returning back to Arrowtown was through farmland and a manicured golf resort. We somehow missed the turnoff to Lake Hayes, so ended up with a shorter ride than planned. The trail was very close to the lake, and the lake a decent size, so it’s a bit of a mystery how we lost the lake.
Riding: 34 km, 464 km total for the trip.
