Ahuriri River Valley

A scenic 72 km ride (36km in, and 36km back out on the same road) in North Otago on generally easy unsealed roads with small sections of less easy riding.

The ride starts about 18 km from Omarama on the Omarama - Lindis Pass Road (State Highway 8) and follows the Ahuriri River Valley past Birchwood Homestead and on to the car park at Canyon Creek.

We made this trip in October 2009 in dry, fine conditions.  About 3 hours.

Click here to link to a route map on Google Maps.

The ride follows the Ahuriri River up the valley past the Birchwood Homestead and on to the Ahuriri Conservation Park.

The first 26km to Birchwood Homestead is a well-formed unsealed road, with easy riding 60 - 90 km/h.

The road is through open country and when we made the trip the road surface was good.

Google Maps shows the road ending at Birchwood Homestead, but the track continues another 8-10km across paddocks to the car park area near Canyon Creek.  This section of the road is classified as a 4WD track, with good reason.  You can see the 4WD track if you click the Google Maps link above and choose the satellite view.

Much of this part of the ride is on well-formed tire tracks across paddocks, mostly easy riding, but with some difficult sections where washouts have damaged or destroyed the road.  In the picture below the road used to be where the washout is, and a temporary track has been made through the bush to meet up with the track 50 metres further on.

When we were there in October 2009 all these damaged sections had rough but rideable makeshift tracks across or around the damaged areas and all could be negotiated with care.  I expect this the condition of this part of the track will change from year to year and season to season.

Information current as at October 2009.