Headin' south for the summer!

[DR MAT]

right-o dudes im after a bit of help from some experienced southern adventurers, im planning a trip down south soon. i havent been out of the north island yet, went to the top of the north last summer and going for the bottom of the south this year with some adventuring in between.
looking on my map i wanna go down wairau river an clarence river then up acheron river, molesworth station and awatere river. looks like theres a few locked gates and i believe its doc land.
does anyone know how i go about getting through those gates or any information on them and what to expect?

cheers
Mat

[thepom]

somebody will be along soon with more answers than you have questions.....but not me......

[JATZ]

looking on my map i wanna go down wairau river an clarence river then up acheron river, molesworth station and awatere river. looks like theres a few locked gates and i believe its doc land.
does anyone know how i go about getting through those gates or any information on them and what to expect?

cheers
Mat

Soooo..... you want to do the Molesworth and Rainbow roads ?

[Padmei]

Clarence reserve is only open a few times over the summer you have to pick a weekend that coincides. Molesworth (awatere valley)& Rainbow are open from the 28thish of Dec. If you look up DOC Marlborough on the web it will give you most of the info needed.

I have a ride report from a few of these over on here. they may be some help http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=537291

[Crim]

when you down - the famous dusty butt 1k is on in January look at these links;

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php/130674-DB1k-2011-Official-thread

http://advroutes.org.nz/

[cookiebare]

what date you headin down Mat?

[DR MAT]

hmm maybey ill have to stall the trip for a day up top before heading down from nelson so i can get into molesworth on the 28th, im going from hamilton to nelson on the 26th then pottering around the south till leaving on the 8th of january, i have a little book that says theres a toll to get through a locked a gate, do u pay someone to let u through or is there an honesty box somewhere? or is that just the gate to stop u going through before the 28th of december?

[DR MAT]

just checked out the doc site (thanks padmei) looks like i wont be able to do them both in one day so ill do molesworth on the 28th and clarence before i leave on the 7th, man i cant wait i wanna ride now! any other ideas of were i should ride?

[NordieBoy]

No toll on the Molesworth or Clarence Reserve. There is for the Rainbow.

[Howie]

Hi Mat, This ( http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/nelson-marlborough/molesworth-brochure.pdf ) is a good pdf file to down load and print from the doc site, Has a map of points of interest etc for Molesworth and Rainbow roads but is about 850kb.

cheers Paul

[Eddieb]

Hi Mat, This ( http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/nelson-marlborough/molesworth-brochure.pdf ) is a good pdf file to down load and print from the doc site, Has a map of points of interest etc for Molesworth and Rainbow roads but is about 850kb.

cheers Paul

Thanks Paul, I will be around the South island before and after the Dusty Butt also and plan on doing Molesworth and Rainbow.

[Howie]

Thanks Paul, I will be around the South island before and after the Dusty Butt also and plan on doing Molesworth and Rainbow.

Hi Eddie, I am thinking of heading down the weekend of the DB, not sure if I'll make it to that yet? then coming back North the weekend after, am planning on some west coast areas, and at least a few otago/ southland tracks like the mavora lakes, and maybe Lake Manapouri South Arm. followed by the clarence river reserve on the way home. Another reasonable pdf from DOC is this (http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/parks-and-recreation/activity-finder/four-wheel-driving/4wd-south-island.pdf ) . Which is an overview of 4wd access to DOC managed land in the south island. This is latest issue of it, only came out yesterday by the look of it.