Three more riding days! I had been looking forward to today’s ride for a while, because it takes in one of my favourite climbs, the Crown Range. When I say it’s one of my favourite climbs, I’ve only ridden it once, 15yrs ago,  but it left an impression!

After leaving Lake Hawea there was a nice cycle track following the river. The checkpoint photo was at the Hawea River bridge, 11km in. 
It was a fast, flowy gravel trail with amazing views all the way to Wanaka. The autumnal colours are my favourite, with the golden hues of poplar trees as they begin to drop their leaves. 

I made it to Wanaka in good time, so enjoyed another second breakfast at a local cafe. 
From there, a gentle climb along the Cardrona valley took us to the Cardrona hotel, an iconic picture stop (and second control point photo for the day).

The climb to the Crown Range started from the hotel. The initial 10-12km was fairly gentle, slowly rolling upwards through the incredible landscape. It wasn’t until the last 3-4km that the gradient started getting steeper, and then with 1-2km to go it became rather pointy upward. 

I was riding my 29″/100mm setup instead of 125mm or 150mm cranks. Back in 2007, I climbed over Crown Range from the Queenstown side on 36″/110mm. It was not only a massive total gear ratio, it was also a very heavy wheel, not the feathery carbon 29″ I’m using now. No way was I switching to long cranks…I’m competing against my younger self!  The gradient kept getting steeper, probably over 10%, but I slowly pedaled my way up without stopping. Finally, the summit came into sight, legs were burning, job done!

A fast downhill, then gravel section took us to Arrowtown. There was another cycle trail that would take us all the way to Queenstown.  I was getting pretty tired by then, and was looking forward to a Ferg burger (Ferg’s is a Queenstown institution). I finally arrived, had a quick shower  then went down to get a double beef burger at Fergs. Gotta be eaten to be believed…it was very tasty.  There is one more checkpoint photo, this time it can be anything in Queenstown. Hopefully my burger counts as a ‘thing’.