TA day 28: Hawea to Queenstown
Distance 121km, Elevation Gain 1383m
OMG what a day!
Slightly later start than normal as food truck at The Camp in Hawea not open until 8am. Still with granola, bagels and coffee on board we headed onto the Hawea River trail. Quite nippy round the pipi in the mid morning shadow but a lovely track nonetheless. ‘Twas a quick ride into Albert Town so that Andy could catch up with nephew Ben, Lucy, Louie and Zoe for a coffee and pastry (thanks Ben), whilst Alastair zipped into Wanaka to be purchase a new phone, his having died (finally!). No such luck on the phone front so another coffee stop then off to the mighty Crown Range.
25k down the road is Cardrona with its historic pub and eatery. Lunch over we were back on the road for the climb up to the highest point above sea level for the whole tour, and what a climb it was! The last two k especially challenging but what a vista from the top! Worth the effort just to take in the stunning scenery.
Short break to catch breath then the plunge down the hill. Unfortunately about halfway down this iconic road there is a gravel road that leads to a track which drops you straight into Arrowtown, so the blast down was short lived. Still the track was well graded and the views just as awesome.
From Arrowtown we picked up the Queenstown Trail which instead of a straight run into the tourist mecca, meandered around the rivers and finally lake Whakatipu before we hit Queenstown proper. The trail went on forever and ever, so much so that the mornings efforts on the Crown Range were completely forgotten; we went into survival mode!
I might just add that the QT trail had heaps of signs but totally baffling to cyclists who just want a clear direction to food and loggings.
