Quick ride through the Molesworth and Rainbow

[merv]

Hi Bob, great to see your story. Haven't seen you for years so it was good to see you pop up on here again. I was over in Melbourne for the long weekend visiting my daughter so no riding in the weekend for me.

[thommo77]

Cheers, Frodo. Brought back memories of my ride through the Molesworth/Rainbow in Feb. Totally agree about the 'big' country.
A truly magical ride.

[NordieBoy]

So I rode north over Island Saddle, which apparently is the highest publicly accessible road in NZ - 1370m or something like that.

Other than Mt Altimarloch (you rode past it on the way out of Blenheim) at 1693m.

[Howie]

Other than Mt Altimarloch (you rode past it on the way out of Blenheim) at 1693m.

I guess it depends on the definition of "public accessible road". How high is MT Altimarloch? There is also Obelisk off Symes road up in the Old Man Range near Alexandra which is 1682 or 1695 metres depending on the map you look at.

[merv]

Lol, my highest claim to fame in NZ is the Remarkables Skifield Road which you'd say is public as it was open access and I managed 1627m there according to my GPS a few years back.

[Frodo]

From the DoC Molesworth brochure:
[Island Saddle] at 1347 metres, this alpine pass is the highest point on the Rainbow–Hanmer Road and the highest public accessible road in New Zealand

But as others have pointed out this appears to be wrong. I wonder if "highest pass" might be correct?

Anyway, its a great part of the Rainbow ride!

[Racing Dave]

Other than Mt Altimarloch (you rode past it on the way out of Blenheim) at 1693m.

With permission, continuing past the ski-field car park on Mt Dobson (trials bike) we reached 2020m.

[NordieBoy]

I guess it depends on the definition of "public accessible road". How high is MT Altimarloch? There is also Obelisk off Symes road up in the Old Man Range near Alexandra which is 1682 or 1695 metres depending on the map you look at.

The GPS said 1693m.
The road goes right to the summit.

2007 DB1K

[Maha]

Fantastic photos Frodo, love the ones in post #3...
And the Nelson Lakes look anything are but ordinary in the pic.