Why Queenstown's Bike to Brewery trail is the ultimate weekend activity
When I set off from the carpark in Arrowtown, the weekend market was on. Filled with artisans, it's a great way to see local crafts and grab a gift or two. Of course, Arrowtown is also the perfect place to grab a pre-ride coffee and pastry before hitting the trails.
Realistically, this is the only section where road cycling is required. After you come up from the carpark to the main drag of Arrowtown, you head down through the public carpark to reach the cycle trail (Countryside Trail) along the Arrow River. After a quick dip back on to the road, you'll reach Millbrook Resort and Country Club. While you're technically cycling along the road here, the vehicles are few and far between and the speed bumps mean no one is rushing past you. Also, the helpful sights of the bright-blue Wharehuanui trail signs keep you on the right track – no pun intended.
From here, there is a mix of gravel paths and tarmac bike paths along the main roads heading up towards Coronet Peak. This is the trickiest part of the cycle and the section where my unfit legs were happy to have the assistance of an e-bike.
You pedal up the incline of Coronet Peak Station Rd, riding across with spectacular views of the 2000m Remarkables in the distance. This is classic New Zealand countryside and this vista makes the burn in your legs worth it.
After you've climbed, the next part is a slightly technical downhill switchback section. It's pretty steep and had me riding the brakes a lot, but I saw plenty of seasoned cyclists take it in their stride. Given how flat the rest of the route is, it was cool to test myself with something a little more challenging towards the end.
From this section by Downey's Dam, it's a straight shoot to Arthur's Point. You can stop at the historic Gantley's Tavern for a well-earned pint before continuing to Canyon Brewing, or pedal straight to the brewery taproom.
I headed straight to Canyon Brewing where a flight of delicious, locally brewed beers awaited alongside some seasonal sliders. With an expansive outdoor seating area overlooking the Shotover River and the Edith Cavell Bridge, it's the perfect spot to rest and relax after a satisfying 16km cycle.
Starring a menu and ethos grounded in sustainability, Canyon Brewing is an ideal place for a weekend pint. Tasting the various brews, it's interesting to see the use of locally sourced ingredients, including the fact its Canyon Gold lager is the first Central Otago-brewed-and-grown lager, using Queenstown-grown barley grown by the brewery director, James Paterson.
There's something beautiful and unbelievably satisfying about spending time cycling through the New Zealand countryside, exploring under your own steam and then settling in for local food and sustainably sourced beer. Add in the sunshine on the deck area and you have a 10/10 weekend activity day.
Despite this trail being relatively new, it's already getting a lot of use, as is the rest of the Queenstown Trails network, with 402,544 riders hitting the trails in the 2023-24 period. A new section of the Wharehuanui trail is scheduled to open in April, connecting to the new Shotover Gorge Trail.
This new cycle route, as the name suggests, follows the Shotover Gorge from Arthur's Point for 7km before connecting with the Tucker Beach Trail, which goes for a further 3.5km to the Old Shotover Bridge. From here, the route also interconnects with the Twin Rivers Trail and the Countryside Trail, opening up day and multi-day route options across the Wakatipu Basin and the wider Queenstown area.
Developing the Shotover Gorge Trail hasn't been an easy task, with the construction of the Kimi-ākau bridge to cross the Shotover River and the renovation of the historic Hugo Tunnel at Big Beach made possible through donations by the Hugo Charitable Trust.
The Hugo Tunnel is a mining tunnel that spans an incredible 108m at the mouth of the Shotover Gorge. Although construction was planned during the Gold Rush, it wasn't built until 1962, and since then has fallen into disrepair. However, it's set to offer a historic and impressive addition to the new trail from this month onwards.
However, if cycling to Central Otago's most beloved vineyards is more your speed, there's a new route, the Kawarau Gorge Trail, set to open in summer 2025-26. This 32km trail connects the vineyards of Bannockburn, near Cromwell, with the popular Gibbston Valley wineries near Queenstown. Connected by two spectacular suspension bridges, the route promises amazing valley views and plenty of tasty cellar-door experiences.
So, despite being apprehensive about cycling again in general, let alone being left to my own devices armed with a paper route map, this self-guided bike-to-brewery tour is the perfect way to spend a weekend in and around Queenstown.
If you've never done a cycle tour before and want to dip your toe in the water, this is a great route to start on. It's relatively short, well signposted and has beautiful scenery and enough of a challenge to make you feel like you've earned the pint at the end. What's not to love about that?
Details
The Arrowtown-to-Arthur's Point Bike To A Brewery experience costs $95 for a standard bike hire with maps and shuttles, $145 for an electric bike, and $40 if you bring your own bike from Queenstown.
Children's bikes (ages 5-14) are $75 for a standard bike and $125 for an e-bike. Infant bikes and equipment are also available (ages 0-4) for $65.
Tours depart from the Around The Basin store at 3 Searle Lane, Queenstown.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
03-07-2025
- RNZ News
Iconic heritage-listed Cardrona Hotel goes on the market
Heritage-listed Cardrona Hotel is going on the market. Photo: Supplied to RNZ One of the country's most photographed pubs - and a fixture of the Central Otago landscape - is going on the market. Expressions of interest open on Friday for the 162-year-old, heritage-listed Cardrona Hotel. Cade Thornton, who has owned the pub with his partner Alexis and James and Fleur Jenneson since 2013, said the decision to sell was indescribably difficult. The group decided it was time to step back and focus on their young families, he said. "It's just such a friendly, happy place. It's a great environment to work and to be the custodian, the captain of that, is tremendously rewarding, and to see the place change in our time. It's defined my life, really." The hotel on the Crown Range Road between Wānaka and Queenstown included a restaurant, year-round beer garden, and 17 ensuite hotel rooms sleeping up to 44 guests. Its facade dated back to a now-vanished gold rush town that thrived in the 1860s, when Cardrona was a bustling settlement supporting thousands of Otago gold rush miners. Cade Thornton said it employed 40-50 staff, and the hotel was often fully booked. "The business is in really good stead. I've got some very long-term senior staff who love the pub and their jobs and their roles, and they want to see it through with the new owner," he said. He said the hotel attracted people from all walks of life. "We'll have guests arriving by helicopter, all dressed up for a nice meal, and then the local farmers will come in, leaving their gumboots by the door. I don't think there's any other place quite like it in New Zealand." The hotel on the Crown Range Road between Wānaka and Queenstown included a restaurant, year-round beer garden, and 17 ensuite hotel rooms sleeping up to 44 guests. Photo: Supplied to RNZ The Cardrona Hotel was being sold by private negotiation as a freehold going concern. Thornton said the owners would not be publicly disclosing a price, although in 2010, prior to expansion works, it was valued at $3 - 4 million. He hoped the next owner would have a "real passion" for the pub. "Fifty percent of buying it would be that you'd have to love it. You couldn't just look at it as a business opportunity. You'd have to be passionate about the business, the pub, its history, its potential," he said. "If someone's wanting it, who's got the means and the drive, I don't think they'd ever regret it," he said. Expressions of interest were open from Friday, 5 July until Friday, 15 August.
1News
15-06-2025
- 1News
'This is ridiculous': South Island ski slopes kick into gear
You know winter has well and truly arrived when the South Island's commerical ski fields open for another season. The Remarkables and Coronet Peak near Queenstown, Cardorna Alpine Resort and Mt Hutt in Canterbury all opening the gates to keen ski bunnies — even with limited snow for some. Steve Hall, in his second season of running The Remarkables, told 1News, "[We] haven't had a lot of natural [snow], but [we] have got some great snowmaking, and you can see our coverage is looking really nice for where we're at." Just a handful of ski areas were ready for today's opening, but that did not stop people making the trip up on what was a bluebird day in the tourism Mecca. American tourist, Tyler from New Jersey told 1News: "The snow was awesome... this is ridiculous!" ADVERTISEMENT His friend, Andy from Seattle said, "it's so worth it, it's nice and dry and the snow guns are going and everyone's super stoked to be here". Over at Cardrona Alpine Resort, some had been waiting in line since 1am to be the first on chairlift. Chief mountains officer Laura Hedley said: "We've had a little bit of natural snow but we've just had a massive effort from our snow makers to get us open for today and there's so many people out there having a great time." The resort had also opened just a few areas on the mountain, with around 150 hectares of new terrain, known as Soho Basin, expected to make a debut later this month. There was hope for more of the white stuff falling in the next few weeks. Hall told 1News, "we're always doing snow dances". "I think if you're in this business, you're an optimist, but you're always doing snow dances," he laughed. ADVERTISEMENT While mother nature has not delivered a major amount of snow so far in the south, Mt Hutt in Canterbury had so much snow on Friday, when it was due to open, and had to hold off until Saturday. On top of all the openings, The Remarkables was also celebrating a major milestone — 40 years in business. A lot had changed over the decades for all of the ski fields, in particular, infrastructure upgrades. The Remarkables alone have spent more than $90m on new facilities and chairlifts over the past 10 years. "The base building, the three big high-speed, six-seater chairlifts, which is pretty amazing, it's world class stuff really," said Hall.
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Son of Arrowtown's colourful life
Jim Childerstone, aka 'Five-mile Fred', who died recently, aged 90, was well known to many Whakatipu residents despite living out of town for the past 30 years. Philip Chandler delves into his full life and his interesting take on wilding pines. Forestry consultant, logger, writer, hiker, golfer, adventurer ... the list goes on. Third-generation Arrowtowner Jim Childerstone, who died recently, aged 90, might have lived with his wife Margot in North Otago for the past 30 years, but Arrowtown was still where his heart was. Raised there, his parents were Mary and Walter, and Mary's father was well-known local doctor, William Ferguson. When almost 7 he and Mary joined Walter in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he developed tea plantations. However, it was World War 2, and as Japan was about to invade they escaped by boat to South Africa. At one school he learnt rugby "the South African way under a former Springbok", he said. On arriving home he returned to Arrowtown School. He wrote he and school mates risked their lives exploring old gold mining tunnels. In his book, Up the Rees Valley, he wrote about 60-plus years of local trips and tramps with friends including summiting, with a schoolmate, the Remarkables in 1952 during a challenging 16-hour day. Margot says at Lincoln College, near Christchurch, where he received an agricultural diploma and post-grad degree in soil and water, he paid for most of his books from goldpanning in Arrowtown. She adds he stayed an extra two years to play on the college basketball team. He started his journalism career at Auckland's Herald newspaper, but had the opportunity to earn more as a pneumatic drill operator before a stint as a Sydney Morning Herald court reporter. He later travelled to Europe, sleeping on beaches in Greece, then in Canada worked on the Calgary Herald and was a part-time ski patroller in Banff. He and Margot, who grew up in Argentina, met in a London pub and married close by, in Hampstead, in '68. Jim worked for the British government's Central Office of Information which relocated him to the Solomon Islands. "We had two and a-half years, which was fantastic," Margot says, "and Jim trained some young Solomon Islanders as reporters." They had a summer in Queenstown, Jim working as an Earnslaw stoker, then returned to England. They popped back for good in the mid-1970s and bought a 5.5-hectare Closeburn property, near Queenstown, which was about 70% covered in wilding pines. They lived in their pantechnicon, Margot recalls, while Jim built a log cabin from Corsican pines. Visitors commented on its lovely smell, she says — they later moved into a larger residence built of Douglas firs milled above One Mile Creek. Jim operated a portable mill, cutting timber, mostly wildings, for houses in nearby Sunshine Bay and Fernhill but also over at Walter Peak, at the Arrowtown golf course and even Stewart Island. He set up a timber yard in Industrial Place, then a larger one called Closeburn Timber Corner where today's Glenda Dr is. Meanwhile, he wrote his 'Five-mile Fred' column in Mountain Scene over three years — named after Queenstown's Five Mile Creek, not Frankton's later Five Mile. They were his and mates like 'Twelve-mile Trev's' musings on topics of the day from "up on the diggings". His columns made a book, Of gold dust, nuggets & bulldust, accompanied by Garrick Tremain cartoons. The Childerstones also developed the Closeburn Alpine Park campground, but were badly burnt in the '87 sharemarket crash. The couple, who eventually paid off most of their debts, moved first to Arrowtown then, helped by Lotto winnings, bought in Hampden, North Otago, in '94. Jim still frequented Queenstown, staying in hotels with Margot when she'd bring through Spanish and Italian tours during her days as a tour guide. He established a forestry consultancy, and took a stand against the wholesale destruction of wilding 'pests'. "There are practical ways of attacking the problem rather than the gung-ho attitude of fundamentalist conservation groups," he told Scene on the release of his book, The Wilding Conifer Invasion — Potential Resource or Pest Plant, in 2017. Pointing also to the ugliness of sprayed Douglas firs on hillsides, he argued wilding trees could be harvested for high-grade building timber and biofuels could be extracted from wood waste while also applauding locals Michael Sly and Mathurin Molgat for tapping wildings for essential oil products. Queenstown's Kim Wilkinson, who recalls hiking in the hills with Margot and Jim on Sundays before enjoying their hospitality, says "Jim was still hiking around the hills in his late 80s and even in his later years had the mental energy and enthusiasm of a young man in his 20s". Margot says "people are coming out of the woodwork saying 'he did this for me', nobody has a bad word to say about him". She reveals before he died there had been moves made for them to potentially retire to a pensioner flat in Arrowtown.
