The Pigroot & the Maniototo — Palmerston to St Bathans(SH85).
Distance
130 km
Duration
1 day
Climb
700 m
The Pigroot & the Maniototo — Palmerston to St Bathans (SH85).
SH85 — "The Pigroot" — climbs inland from the Otago coast onto the high, dry tussock basin of the Maniototo, following an old gold-miners' packhorse trail. Big-sky riding past Art-Deco Ranfurly and the larch-ringed gold town of Naseby, finishing at the luminous blue sluicing lake of St Bathans. Mostly sealed with a short gravel run at the end.
Quick facts
SurfaceMixed
Distance130 km
Days1
Total climb700 m
DifficultyEasy
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The route.
PalmerstonStart · Coastal Otago junction town where SH85 turns inland. The route is nicknamed The Pigroot after the old gold-rush packhorse trail. Fuel up here.
KyeburnScenic Point · Junction of SH85 and SH87 amid the old Kyeburn Diggings goldfield, where the wide Maniototo tussock country opens out.
RanfurlyScenic Point · The Art-Deco heart of the Maniototo, rebuilt in the 1930s after a string of fires and now a rural deco showcase.
NasebyPhoto Spot · A tiny gold-era town in larch forest at 600m — "2000ft above worry level" — and New Zealand's curling capital.
St Bathans — Blue LakeEnd · A vivid blue lake left behind by hydraulic gold-sluicing, beside the 1882 Vulcan Hotel (reputedly haunted). A short gravel run leads in.
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