Old Dunstan Road is 30km’s of through Otago’s best back country. While the track is not technical, it can be very bumpy in places, and there are quite a few gates. Roughly halfway through, Poolburn lake and it’s little collection of batches is stunning.
Old Dunstan Road is closed to traffic from the first Tuesday of June to 31st October every year due to extreme weather conditions and to protect the track.
This area is very remote with no cell phone reception and very little traffic. It is highly advisable to carry a PLB or similar emergency beacon if travelling in this area alone.
From Paerau Road just East of the GPX track shown, Old Dunstan Road continues South to SH87 just North of Dunedin. If you have a GPS tracklog for this section of Old Dunstan Road send it in.
Contributed by: @lenek
Track type: Gravel Road
Track composition: Bumpy, Loose, Undulating
Slippery when wet? No
Suitable for bikes <650cc? Beginner
Suitable for bikes >650cc? Beginner
River crossings? Yes
In December there was a washout on the Patearoa side of the track that wasn’t well signposted.
We built a small wooden bridge that from timber stuck in a fence over the stream nearby
2 people were pulling, 2 pushing, we did not dare to ride through it as it looked pretty difficult
Rode the part from the Moa Flat side to Poulburn and back Saturday Nov 23. Condition was bumpy with lots of rock poking through surface but otherwise good. Had two beginner riders with me no one had any problems.
https://www.relive.cc/view/vPv4GM4gkRq
https://video.relive.cc/70082015001_relive-tracker_1613026107583.mp4
When your Relive video is playing if you right click and choose ‘Copy Video address’ then paste that in here, delete everything including and after the ? in what you copied then the full video will come up.
K, I’ll try that for the next one. I thought this was a good way of showing the route.
Old Dunstan rd closed about 6km after Poolburn to Linnburn runs rd, gates padlocked. New sign attached.
Does anybody know why the gate is locked
What does the new sign say? It is closed over winter normally.
The sign is in the first pic.
But the doesn’t the sign say it’s closed through the winter until the 3rd of October, “Crosby Travels” post was 10th November, so I thought there must be a new sign attached to the gate and was wondering what that said. I am hoping to get down that way this summer.
I had also assumed that this was a closure over and above the normal seasonal closure.
Is anybody able to say whether it’s open now?
Thanks
Chris
Any update if the gate is still locked?
Hope to head down there later next week.
I await your replies.