Biking the Dunstan Trail

wagons long gone i sing this song

riding bikes along the Dunstan Trail

we bike under grey skies, wind and hail

to a lonely musterers hut on Rough Ridge

then there’s warmth and sun to Styx jail

beyond the Lammermoors, majestic and desolate

an old horse shoe lies in the dust

The Dunstan Trail was an old wagon trail from Dunedin to the gold fields to Central Otago in the 1860’s. It crosses four mountain ranges, the Rock and Pillars, the Lammermoors, Rough Ridge and the Raggedys. Later it was ungraded to a 4 wheel drive road. Because it traverses highlands at 1000 metres and is exposed to extremes of weather, it is closed in winter. It can snow any time of the year.

The route is about 170 kilometres long from Dunedin to Alexandra. It goes through Outram to Clarks Junction and on to Deep Stream at Rocklands where the gravel road starts. From there it is a steady climb over the Rock and Pillar Range to the Lammermoors, which are high tussock highlands northwards to the Upper Taieri Valley. Descending the Lammermoors one arrives at the Styx, which was a staging post on the original route and where there are some historic buildings one of which was the jail where the gold bullion was stored. 1.5 kilometres north of Styx the original route heads cross country for 7 kilometres to join the Linnburn Runs Road at a derelict house. Heading north across the Linn Burn Creek it’s another 3 kilometres cross- country uphill to join the Old Dunstan Trail at 660 metres. From here it’s a long climb on a gravel road to Rough Ridge and on to Poolburn Reservoir. Beyond here the road drops to the Ida Valley and ascends the Raggedys to the Manuherikia River to Alexandra.

My companion was David George from Cromwell, a rugged individual who reminds me of “Barb-Wire Bill” in Robert Service’s famous poem. David is an orchardist, part-time poet and victim of a yearly bike ride with me. Belinda provided the support in our 4WD. On Saturday morning in a light drizzle and under grey skies we biked off from the Manuherikia Bridge at the start of the Rail Trail in Alexandra. 

It was an easy cycle up Galloway Road where we turned right into Crawford Hills Road for a steady climb over the Raggedys. The weather improved slowly with patches of blue appearing. At the pass we caught up with Belinda who plied us with left over pizza from the previous day. Then it was a fast downhill run to the Ida Valley. We had lunch at the bush shelter at Bonspiel Station. By now it was sunny and cold from a strong Southerly.

After lunch we cycled up into the hills to the southeast towards Poolburn. We had strong buffeting headwinds and were forced to walk for many kilometres. The road climbs for 360 kilometres to Poolburn, which we reached later in the day. Farmland gives way to tussock and rock outcrops. Poolburn appeared bleak and windswept. There were a number of cribs scattered around the north side of the reservoir. About 7 kilometres further on we reached Long Valley Ridge Road and as the day was well advanced and the weather was cold and windy we thought about camping. Belinda suggested the old Serpentine Church would be a good idea though we were uncertain where it was. We put the bikes on our 4WD and took off down Long Valley Ridge Road which was very boggy in parts. About 6.5 kilometres along we came to a tiny musterers hut parked in the tussock at 1100 metres. We spent the night there. It snowed.

Next morning dawned fine, frosty and windless. Belinda drove us back to the Old Dunstan Road where we biked onwards. It is mainly downhill to Linnburn Runs Road. We missed the cross country bit so had to back track to find it at 660 metres. It is a faint track heading across paddocks into farmland. It’s about 3 kilometres to the Linnburn Runs Road just north of Linn Burn Creek. The next section of cross-country riding is just south of Linn Burn Creek opposite a derelict house. There are traces of an old dray route meandering up the hillside and this took us up to the top of a ridge. Then there was a descent across a small plain to another ridge. The trail was easy to follow here but peters out on the next ridge top. The route then follows north of a fence line to the Styx Patearoa Road, which is about 1.5 kilometre north of Styx.

When we arrived at Styx just past the Taieri River bridge, Belinda was fossicking among the old houses there by the creek. We had lunch and a rest. Following this we had a 500 metre climb onto the Lammermoors as we headed south. Once on top we sped along though we were buffeted by a strong westerly wind. Loganburn Reservoir appeared on our right. This was the site of the Great Moss Swamp. On we went with a short climb over the Rock and Pillars where there was a steep descent to the plain below. We then sped across this to reach the tar seal at Deep Creek. Then it was another 10 kilometres or so to Clarks Junction Hotel that we reached at 5.45PM.



A mountain bike ride along the historic Dunstan Trail from Alexandra to Clarks Junction on 1/2 November 2008 by David George and Stanley Mulvany. Support by Belinda Mulvany