Mavora Lakes

The Mavora Lakes track is a farm road from Walter Peak to Highway 94. It's more or less 100 km one way and can be done in both directions, easily. There's bus transport from Queenstown and Te Anau to the southern end of the track and a steamferry connecting Walter Peak with Queenstown. It's a pleasant ride along a well-maintained gravel road - possible with a normal touring bike. I went from north to south: The track follows Von River, climbs steeply to a plateau with wide views of the surrounding mountains and then gradually leads down to the turnoff to Mavora Lakes. Both Lakes have good basic DOC-campsites - and the sandflies know this.

The southern part is a little less scenic, mostly farmland, with some cows for company. I was lucky to spot one of the rare pancows (panda-cow-crossing), a breed that's still being kept secret but might help in the future to get rid of the introduced eucalypt trees.