Photo: Ben Wilkins
touch was everywhere adding beautiful colours to the already stunning Queenstown scenery. Our steed’ s for this portion of the ride were Yamaha’ s WR250F and 450F shod with Metzeler’ s MC360 road-legal dirt tyres. They’ re aggressive looking dirt tyres which are suitable for full-on enduro work but I was surprised at how well they tackled the tar-seal on the way from Queenstown centre up to the Skippers Canyon gravel road. At the saddle marking the start of the road we stopped to take in the view. There’ d been some light snow overnight, which hadn’ t melted yet, bringing a feeling of depth to the view down into the canyon. It’ s at this point Scotty Columb tells us this is ranked as the 7 th most dangerous road in the world. Looking at the switchbacks hugging the steep slopes, with big drops to the valley floor below, it wasn’ t tricky to see why that’ s the case – it could easily be game-over if you overshot a corner. It didn’ t take more than a kilometre to get into the flow of the bends, dips and rises of the road, our enduro machines proving to be the perfect lightweight tools for the job – light, nimble and able to turn and stop far more quickly than any big adventure bike. In fact, it would be very easy
for it all to go wrong as confidence grows and speeds rise. Looking down some of the drops was enough to curb too much throttle use. The depths of the canyon were well below the‘ crisp’ we’ d experienced in town and it was with some relief we stopped in the warmth of the sun next to the Skippers Canyon Jet operation. I’ ve done a few jet boat rides over the years, but the Skippers Canyon ride is well worth the trip up the canyon. A
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