February 2016

Stunning Queenstown is renowned as the adventure capital of New Zealand.  Surrounded by snow-capped mountains and lakes the scenery is spectacular and it is one great place to ride your road bike.

I was fortunate enough to visit Queenstown in 2016 and had great fun riding around Queenstown, and to the nearby towns of historic Arrowtown and stunning Glenorchy.

Queenstown to Glenorchy ride

Distance: 46.5km    Elevation: 1,025m    Time: 2:16

Riding along with the deep blue lake on one side of the road, hills on the other side, and snow-capped mountains in the distance this is one of my favorite rides of all time.

Glenorchy is a lumpy 45km ride from Queenstown.  The elevation gain over the 45km is just on 1,000m.  There are three Category 4 Climbs according to Strava.  I rode with my mate, Gordon – who wasn’t “hill fit” and we took around two and a quarter hours to complete the ride.

Below is a link to my Strava details for the ride and a map with the elevation profile

https://www.strava.com/Glenorchy_ride

Arrowtown

Distance: 21km    Elevation: 325m    Time: 50 minutes

Historic Arrowtown is just a short 22km ride from Queenstown.  The first 10 kilometers is mostly uphill but once you have ridden past the turnoff to Coronet Peak it is pretty flat all the way into Arrowtown.  Oh and don’t head up to Coronet Peak unless you want some serious hills.

My Strava link for this ride and the map and elevation profile are below.

https://www.strava.com/Arrowtown

Queenstown Loop

Distance: 30km    Elevation: 500m    Time: 1:19

This ride heads out of Queenstown, past the airport, and over the Shotover River.  The road is quite busy with traffic until you turn off just past the bridge over the Shotover.  From there it’s a steady uphill until you get onto Littles Road, then it gets very steep in sections. 

The last bit of Littles Road just before you get onto Arthurs Point Road is really steep at 20%.  Don’t let the big downhill before this section give you false hope.  It’s a real leg burner and if you are not in the right gear – like I wasn’t – you will end up walking the last 25m – like I did.  Fortunately, it’s mostly downhill from the junction of Littles Road and Arthurs Point Road back into Queenstown.

This is about a 30km loop and is mostly on back roads so it is very enjoyable – except for the one steep hill!

My Strava link for this ride and the map and elevation profile are below.

https://www.strava.com/Queenstown_Loop

… n Beers

I didn’t find any craft breweries in Queenstown back in 2016 (I probably didn’t look hard enough) but having a Kilkenny in the beer garden off Pog Mahones Irish pub was very enjoyable.

I also found a nice Japanese teppanyaki restaurant that had big glasses of Asahi beer on tap

Check out more of my cycling blogs here.