carburetted history piece.
Some lovely sweeping tar seal started the
Awatere Valley Road. Apparently this road can be
swamped with tourist vehicles but on this Sunday
traffic was light, with only a couple of organised
tour mini-buses, and a couple of 4x4s on the
gravel proper.
The guys in the office were right. This road is
stunning. It’s not so much the road itself, which is
still exhilarating to ride, rather it’s the beautiful
high-country that’s stunning. I’d heard it likened
to Afghanistan and I can see why; vast river valleys
give way to imposing scree covered mountains.
A truly rugged and beautiful place. In fact,
stopping at the Molesworth Cob Cottage, built in
1865, we wondered how tough and long a journey
it must have been to traverse the Molesworth
with a horse and cart some 150 years ago.
108 KIWI RIDER
From the Molesworth homestead we took the
Acheron Road up and over Wards Pass at 1145m
before departing the main drag and setting off
up the Severne to Sedgemere 4x4 Road to link us
through to the Rainbow Road. A quick lunch stop
in welcome shade from some trees by the Alma
River had us refreshed and ready to go.
The Severn to Sedgemere 4WD Road is 24km of
fun. Where the Acheron Road is easy riding gravel,
the Sedgemere offers more technical riding while
still not being too tricky. Following the course of
the Alma River for a way, the track has some
beautiful stretches with a few stream crossings
thrown in for good measure. Thankfully they
were running pretty low when we went through
due to the lack of rain, although that didn’t stop
one plucky lady from having a little dip...
The Sedgemere spat us out onto the Wairau