Lake Onslow Road – Linnburn Runs Road lies roughly between Roxburgh and Ranfurly and as the name suggests skirts Lake Onslow while running through some stunning undeveloped Otago land. At it’s North end it meets up with the Old Dunstan Road and the eastern end of the Serpentine Road also joins with Linnburn Runs Road.
Lake Onslow Road – Linnburn Runs Road are effectively the same road that changes name part way through. While we’ve said there’s no river crossings there is 1 small water crossing as shown in the photo’s below, however it’s so small it’s hardly worth mentioning.
Lake Onslow Road is closed over Winter from the weekend after Queens Birthday to 30th September every year, if you are riding down this way from the North Island I would recommend this and/or Old Dunstan Road as must do roads for adventure riders.
We are missing the southern end of Lake Onslow Road from the lake South in our GPS track, if you have a GPS track of that section please send it in.
Contributed by: @brainflex
Track type: Dirt Road
Track composition: Bumpy, Firm, Undulating
Slippery when wet? No
Suitable for bikes <650cc? Beginner
Suitable for bikes >650cc? Beginner
River crossings? No
Route https://goo.gl/maps/FALd3ZEz7tLqoha67
some pics
I rode the same route in November and might have a gpx for some of it.
Thanks to @Brainflex we now have a GPX track download for this.
That creek looks like Old Dunstan road. On deep creek road today it was 18 inches deep.
Lake Onslow could become a very different place if this power scheme was to go ahead.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/300589778/how-a-shallow-lake-nestled-high-in-the-central-otago-hill-country-could-electrify-the-country
I have been of two minds of that for a long time (well a couple of years since first mentioned). A shame about the fishing (at least just for a while), and the old fishing huts, but it’s a good idea I think – nothing else going for that entire basin area, and the work/jobs plus resulting big lake would be good for the area. The dickhead farmer who obstructed the old paper road from Alex to Onslow may be pushed to open it up again, which would be a good thing. Bring it on.