Having never been to Mavora Lakes, despite riding past the turnoff a couple of times on events, I was keen to finally visit and camp there – it apparently being a beautiful spot. It seemed worth having a couple of easy days to do so, which meant we’d probably be able to wait out some forecast bad weather in Queenstown the following night. With a big cooked breakfast under our belts, booking the boat across Wakatipu, a cafe stop and visits to bike and food shops – we eventually left town mid-morning.

There looked a good gravel backroad option that would show us some more of rural Southland than the highway would – an easy decision to make, even if it was a bit further to ride it wouldn’t matter today. A surprisingly steep, albeit short, climb to soon start sweltering in the sun and discover we were chasing a grader down the road. Oh no, fresh soft gravel! Thankfully the operator had the blade a bit low for much of the road, so there was a strip with no gravel on it down the middle of the lane.

Mt Titiroa had constantly been around for a couple of days, and still was keeping an eye on us. Top of the steepest climb on this detour.

Spying the offending grader off in the distance at the bottom of a long, straight descent we were relieved to catch and pass it – the driver kindly stopping and waiting us to get by. Our eighty minutes of rural views with mountains off in all directions continued on a warm, still morning – far better than being on the highway.

The going was easy.

Inquisitive audience during a snack break.

Spotting possible shelter to bivy in is a regular aside of bikepacking; I’d give this shed a miss I think.

Doing the right thing and phoning for permission to cut straight across a farm to Mavora Lakes Rd backfired in that permission was denied – quite possibly could have snuck through, but we’ll never know. Having my phone on and surprisingly good coverage did at least give me the news that my new mountain bike frame had finally been delivered. Except there was no sign of it where it was supposed to be. I lagged again trying to sort it out, thankfully it was found at the wrong address and all sorted before we disappeared up backroads.

Half an hour on the highway and we turned north towards the lakes, the slightest southerly at our backs as the road very modestly climbed. Lunch in the shade of a row of pines, chatting to a Te Araroa through-hiker as she walked-jogged another interminable road section – I don’t think I could do that TA, so many road sections on foot.

Southland scenes.

Easy climbing, bit more traffic than I expected – but not too dusty.

Finally I get more than fifty metres down the road to Mavora Lakes, this being about a hundred metres.

A nice tunnel of beech forest shaded us all the way to the first campsite we found. We promptly stopped and pitched tents, dipped in the lake and generally lazed around appreciating a half-day on the bike.

Pretty rare that my tent is up so early on a hot afternoon that it’s worth opening up both sides for any breeze.

Early evening, we rolled along the road to North Mavora Lake for a look-see. Out of the trees, the breeze was up and most helpful.

End of the road, although 4WD tracks promise a bit more bike exploration if we should return.

Back to camp into the wind was a fairer indication of just how strong it was. Thankfully our campsite was well sheltered. The sun sunk towards the ridge of the mountains directly opposite our shore, where we were sitting cooking dinner. Scorching, it was rather odd having to get up from our stoves and dinner to stand in the lake to cool off some. Eventually the sun disappeared and the evening quickly cooled to a most pleasant temperature.

Another lakeside, another fire.

To bed eventually after a bit of night-sky gazing. A shorter day on the bikes, thrilled to have finally got to Mavora – on a stunning day in good company no less.