Old Dunstan Road Alexandra to Paerau

We have very few photographs of this trip, and Google Maps is very uncooperative as far as showing the route is concerned, possibly because it's a pretty marginal road in places, and is closed for a good part of the year. But it's a great, if challenging, ride, and forms one leg of the trio of rides in the Maniototo through very exposed and scenic countryside.

We made this trip on October 2007.

Click here for a link to a route map I created by telling Google Maps I was planning to walk the route rather than go by car!  And then Google refused to let me save the route to My Maps, so I had to settle for a screen shot.  Click on the map below to see a larger version.

To re-create the route in Google Maps choose Alexandra, Central Otago, as your start point, choose the option to show the walking route,  and choose Paeroa as the destination. And then one more step: drag the route so it follows the Old Dunstan Road as far as it's shown on the map.  That should do the trick.

We navigated this route using my now rather dated Navman ICN520 which knows its way across this country just fine.  It was very handy when we came to un-signposted intersections, unfailingly pointing us in the right direction for the next leg of the journey.

There are lots of gates to open and shut.

The road surface varies considerably. In places there's good hard flat clay, and easy riding. In other places you ride over exposed rock slabs, or boggy water sodden pug, often in small patches. The side of the road can be deceptive - what looks like firmer ground can be a dry surface over wet mud.  IN some places we were reduced to less than walking speed - allow plenty of time.

The weather can change quickly on these exposed hills. In summer it can be scorchingly hot, and at other times it can be bitterly cold. I imagine a heavy rain would make parts of the road very slippery.  We were fortunate that the road was relatively dry when we made the journey.

This ride can be combined with one of the other Maniototo Rides to start (or end) at Roxburgh via Lake Onslow, Clarks Junction via the Great Moss Swamp, or Ranfurly via Patearoa.