The Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail is a cycle trail funded as one of the projects of the

New Zealand Cycle Trail The New Zealand Cycle Trail project (Māori: ''Nga Haerenga'', "The Journeys") is a New Zealand government initiative, co-funded together with local councils and charitable trusts, which is to build and operate a network of cycle routes throug ...

. The trail extends more than from

Aoraki / Mount Cook Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height, as of 2014, is listed as . It sits in the Southern Alps, the mountain range that runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination, it is also a favourite ...

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. The trail has both on and off-road sections. Funding for the trail from the New Zealand Community Trust budget was approved in July 2010, after the trail had been shortlisted as one of 13 from 54 nationwide proposals.

Sections

The trail comprises eight sections, and from west to east descends from down to sea level:

Aoraki/Mt Cook to Braemar Station

The long first section starts out on a dedicated cycle trail, and continues on a gravel road. The first section is the most remote of the trail and includes some unbridged stream crossings.

Braemar Station to
Twizel Twizel () is the largest town in the Mackenzie District, in the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand. The town was founded in 1968 to house construction workers on the Upper Waitaki Hydroelectric Scheme. Today, Twizel is a ser ...

Continuing on a gravel road over hilly terrain, this section takes in the southern shore of Lake Pukaki and the hydro-electric system of the area around Twizel once on sealed roads. Towards Twizel, the cycle trail leads across Pukaki Flats, an area of tussock grasslands typical for the Mackenzie basin. Twizel is the largest town along the cycle path until the end at Oamaru.

Twizel to
Lake Ōhau Lake Ōhau is a lake in the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island of New Zealand. The Hopkins and Dobson rivers fed into the northern end of Lake Ōhau. These rivers have their headwaters in the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana. The lake ...

The third section is long and is the only one with a slight gain in elevation. It partly follows canals that are part of the hydro-electric system connecting the glacial lakes. A cycle trail goes around the southern shore of Lake Ōhau, finishing on a sealed road to

Lake Ohau Alpine Village Lake Ohau Alpine Village, often referred to simply as Lake Ohau, is a village on the western shore of Lake Ōhau in New Zealand. Lake Ohau village is located in the Waitaki District in Canterbury, west of Twizel. There are about 140 sections ava ...

and the Lake Ohau Lodge.

Lake Ōhau to
Omarama Omarama is a small town (population 291 at 2018 census) at the junction of State Highways 8 and 83, near the southern end of the Mackenzie Basin, in the South Island of New Zealand. Omarama is in the Waitaki District, in the southern Canterbu ...

The dedicated cycle trail in this section leads through remnants of old

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

forest and includes the biggest elevation changes, climbing about along the Ōhau Range to the highest point on the trail at over above sea level, before descending to finish a total of about lower after a total length of .

Omarama to
Otematata Otematata is a town in the Waitaki District of Otago in New Zealand's South Island. It is defined as a "populated area less than a town" and the 2001 New Zealand census gave the "usually resident population count" as 243. By the 2018 census it ...

The first half of this section over the Omarama Saddle is on a dedicated cycle trail next to SH83, the second half is on the state highway itself.

Otematata to
Kurow Kurow is a small town in the Waitaki District, New Zealand. It is located on the south bank of the Waitaki River, northwest of Oamaru. Description The name is an Anglicised form of the Māori name of the nearby mountain, Te Kohurau. In the ...

Continuing into the

Waitaki Valley The Waitaki River is a large braided river that drains the Mackenzie Basin and runs some south-east to enter the Pacific Ocean between Timaru and Oamaru on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It starts at the confluence of the ...

, the sixth section, long, follows sealed public roads and takes in

Benmore Dam Benmore Dam is the largest dam within the Waitaki power scheme, located in the Canterbury Region of New Zealand's South Island. There are eight other power stations in the Waitaki Power Scheme. The dam is the largest earth-fill (zoned embankme ...

, the largest dam within the Waitaki hydro-electric power scheme, as well as

Aviemore Dam The Aviemore Dam is a dam on the Waitaki River in New Zealand. The dam is a composite dam, with an embankment section, and a concrete section. Built in the 1960s (and completed in 1968) it impounds Lake Aviemore. Aviemore Dam is owned and operat ...

and Waitaki Dam. An off-road 16-kilometre bicycling section was opened on 17 December 2020, from Sailors Cutting to the top of the Benmore Dam in the Waitaki Lakes region. $1.2 million was spent creating the section.

Kurow to Duntroon

From Kurow, the cycle trail continues off-road to Duntroon, in an area well known for its limestone formations, Maori rock drawings and dinosaur fossils of the "Vanished World".

Duntroon to Oamaru

The last section partly follows the Vanished World trail and past the Elephant Rocks on a mix of sealed public back roads and dedicated cycle trails. From Weston, the cycle trail follows an old railway line and enters Oamaru via the Oamaru Gardens. It finishes after at Friendly Bay, adjacent to Oamaru's Victorian Historic Precinct.

Sites

Sites on the trail include: • Aoraki/Mt Cook • Snow-capped Mountains • Golden Tussock Landscapes • Glacier Lake Tours • High Country Stations • Hydro Canals • Native Forests • Elephant Rocks • Limestone and Clay Cliffs • Maori Rock Art • Vanished World Fossil Sites • Boutique Shops • Museums • Lakes:

Ōhau Ōhau is a village and semi-rural community in the Horowhenua District and Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located just south of Levin on State Highway 1. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage ...

, Pukaki, Benmore,

Aviemore Aviemore (; gd, An Aghaidh Mhòr ) is a town and tourist resort, situated within the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Badenoch and Strathspey committee area, within the Highland council area. The town is popul ...

• Historic Limestone Tunnels • Hydro Dams: Benmore, Aviemore, Waitaki • Vineyards • Oamaru's Victorian Precinct • Galleries & Gifts • Steampunk HQ, Oamaru • Blue Penguin Colony • Pacific Ocean

References

External links

* of the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail. {{coord, -43.7192, 170.0937, region:NZ, display=title New Zealand Cycle Trail Tourist attractions in Otago Sport in Canterbury, New Zealand Sport in Oamaru Sport in Otago