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
50KIWI RIDER
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