Waikaia Bush Road State Highway 8 about 6km north of Roxburgh takes you into Piano Flat. Waikaia Bush Road starts out as an easy climb through farmland with relatively good gravel road and a few unlocked gates to go through. Although when we did this track it was covered in cloud, you could see some glimpses of excellent views peeking through.
After the climb, the road plateaus and becomes flanked on either side with swamp, we did it after some heavy rains so the top section of the track was covered in very large brown puddles that were difficult to gauge the depth of, but they turned out to all be traversable and less than knee deep. At the top there’s a hut and a sign warning you that from here on the track becomes very difficult, 4WD vehicles frequently get stuck up here.
As the road starts to descend, it stops being a road and becomes a narrow track down stepped bedrock with no dirt or gravel topping, this was quite fun to go down on the drz400 but my father’s 650 V-Strom being heavier and having less clearance was frequently hitting the bash plate as it went down the steps.
After the stoney descent, there’s another short climb, then a sharp descent down into the valley, this has some very steep sections on a loose surface that was particularly damp on the day we did it, one of the sections leading into a hairpin, so we had to be very careful coming down and I wouldn’t recommend it on a larger bike as the 650 had trouble with slowing & traction on the descent.
Once down into the bush the road becomes muckier, but there are no cliffs to fall off so you can have a bit more fun in the final section, the change of scenery to forest and rivers is welcome too, after the barren Otago mountain tops.
I’d recommend that the first time you try this road you take it going from the Roxburgh end towards the Waikaia end as going up the stone steps would take a very experienced rider. I’d also recommend only doing this road on a lighter high clearance bike with knobbly tires.
There’s a gate on the Waikaia side that’s locked over winter. Given the difficulty of the road I’d also highly recommend only going with another rider and letting someone know where you’re going before you leave. A Spot Tracker or Personal Locator Beacon would also be recommended.
Contributed by: @cass
Track type: Dirt Track
Track composition: Rough, Loose, Steep
Slippery when wet?: Yes
Suitable for bikes > 650cc Experienced
Suitable for bikes < 650cc Experienced
River crossings? No
Can’t view the video 🙁
It was blocked in 154 countries by 1 copyright holder due to an obscure piece of music in it, 3 other copyright holders chose instead to place ads about their music on the video and otherwise leave the video stay live.
I’m trying tot fix it now but the original video I have has the music in it already.
Did they go all the way through and down the other side?
Yep
It’s working now. Youtube muted the offending 3 minutes or so of sound but the rest is ok.
That was an excellent video. Really enjoyed it. Pity it’s in such a low resolution.
‘@Frank Widmer went through Piano Flat and took some pics http://milfordart.co.nz/piano-flat-and-waikaia-bush-road/
Huge Thanks to @Cass . for sending us in the GPS track for Piano Flat
Way better up there on this year’s Dusty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsFcZb6FQc0
Edited by Admin:
@Andrew Thomson If you just copy the video URL in it will show up here.