The tale of travelling the Old Dunstan Road, Otago, 120 odd kilometres of gravel road between Alexandra and Middlemarch (more or less)
First a bit of history and a map of the Dunstan Trail (for those not familiar): http://www.nzsouth.co.nz/goldfields/dunstrai.html
Our trip (Mrs S and I) started from the Vincent County Rally site at Galloway (not too far north of Alexandra) and involved crossing the Crawford Hills (first image in slideshow looking back towards Galloway). None too difficult but took a little while to being on gravel again especially with a passenger and loaded up with gear.
First stop was just south of Moa Creek to check the map and to take a photo of some sheep and off down Webster Lane we go until we see the pub. At the pub we turn right and thats the start (from the western end) of the Dunstan Trail though a road sign to say it was the Old Dunstan Road would've have been nice.
The scenery changes quite drastically, the grass has gone and been replaced by tussock. There are rocks everywhere. Impressive, very impressive.
In no time the Poolburn Reservoir came into view and the its dam. According to my map we are in "Plains of Rohan Rohirrim Vilage" territory of the Lord of the Rings fame. It's at about this point the road changed from being a gravel road to a 4WD road (not that I noticed any difference for quite a while) and our first water crossing. It looked fairly wide and deep (to me) and ummmed and arrrred whether I should get off and have a closer look as the water was quite dark and the bottom couldn't be seen. In the end I decide to just cross it; dead easy no rocks found.
The second water crossing we came across was a little more challenging (water crossing image in slideshow) as the road down to the water was fairly steep and rough, the photo doesn't quite show how steep the track was. In the end a uneventful crossing and it was to turn out to be the most difficult section of the trail.
The next photo after the water cossing shows where we had to go, it looks a long but didn't take long. The road itself through here wasn't too bad. There were some ruts from water running the road but these were fairly easy to avoid.
At the halfway point I made a slight mistake - we came across a intersection and turned left onto Linnburn Runs Road instead of right and back on to the Dunstan Trail . We were now heading towards to Patearoa and away from Old Dunstan Road, no big drama though as it was great being able to barrel on a beaultiful smooth gravel road somewhere in excess of the speed limit. Turning right onto Paerau Road had us going heading in the right direction.
Back on the Dunstan Trail we had a slight climb to make, and felt the same as at the start of the ride - lots of rocks, tussock, rough road. But once at the summit the road changed into a fairly smooth open flowing road for the rest of the journey. It go kind of boring, repetitive boring still great country to travel through but not particulary challenging. The only major landmark was a lake, Loganburn(? - not named on my map) Reservoir, the last photo.
At the end of our trip we decided not to follow the road all the way into Clarks Junction but turn off and go on Rocklands Road to Shannon. So in the end we probably done about 95% of the Dunstan Trail.
In the end it was a great trip, the GS coped well as did Mrs S. I would be keen to do it again though not the whole road. Next time I would only do the Moa Creek - Paerau section (or vice versa), it offered the most challenges and the best scenery.
Powerpoint Presentation with a few photos
Couple of vids taken by Mrs S
A few photos to until I get the PPS loaded, now uploaded
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Awesome write up Mr S. Great views, glad you two had a good ride. Shame it wasn't as big of a challenge as you hoped. Maybe we'll get to ride it with you next time.
Originally Posted by SDU
). NH, we went home via Middlemarch to Macraes Flat (went past the gold mine - what huge hole in the ground that was not to mention the piles of diggings) then on to Palmerston then SH1 all the way home (and it took forever SH1 sucks).
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