Crown Range Road

What goes up must come down. While many NZ roads have managed to defy the laws of physics, yesterday's ride did treat us to an awesome uphill followed by one of the best downhills to date. Now, I'm not a fan of downhills. Give me endurance, give me height, give me effort, but spare me speed. I just don't like going down fast. But this descent in particular was exceptional and I throughly enjoyed it.

So the ride out of Wanaka climbed gently but steadily right from the start through the old mining and now skiing town of Cardrona.

Leaving Cardrona the road narrowed and began its winding climb over the Crown Range on NZ's highest paved road (1150m). 

The final 3km to top were the steepest but not nearly as steep as the first 3km of the Haast Pass. 

So we chugged along quite comfortably to the top where we caught our first glimpse of the descent to come and Queentown in the distance. A quick chat with another cyclist at the top and we were off on the long ride down the hill into the valley far, far, far below us. 

Maybe it was the openness of the road - the fact that I could see what was beyond the next turn (and the next one, and the next one...) - that didn't frazzle my nerves. I didn't feel trapped in a tightly winding speed trap. 

Down and down and down we rode which a few stops at some pull-outs to enjoy the views (and cool off our squeaky brakes). Within seconds the top of the pass was well out of sight yet the squiggles below us continued as far as we could see. Not only did they continue, but they became tighter and tighter as we hit the steepest descent near the bottom with a dozen hairpin turns in quick succession.

It was a fantastic ride with the steepest turns marked with "Check Brakes NOW!!" road signs. Wouldn't it be too late to check your brakes mid-descent?! 

When it was all done and we hit the first flat piece of road of the day, I did honestly fancy turning around and trying my legs up those switch back... if only someone would pick me up at the top and bring me back down ;-)