For more than a year, members of the Cardrona Valley Residents and Ratepayers Society have been investigating cycleway options between the village and Wanaka.
Chairwoman of the society's cycleway subcommittee Kathy Brook-Lynne told the Otago Daily Times this week the ideal route would mean traversing about eight properties in the valley.
The owners of only one of the properties had declined to have the cycleway run through their property, Ms Brook-Lynne said.
''We just ran into a little bit of a problem ... and we came up with a zero - no go.
''So that kind of slowed it down a bit.''
Ms Brooke-Lynne said the distance involved with the property was quite substantial.
An alternative was to have the cycleway run along the road reserve at that point.
''It's not ideal and it's not as easy or preferable obviously, but I guess that's a possibility.''
She was still hopeful of being able to negotiate access through the property.
Ms Brooke-Lynne said it did not appear feasible to have the track running along the Cardrona River corridor, because of flooding issues in the corridor and difficulties resulting from the river changing its course over many years.
She pointed out that where landowners had given approval in principle, there was still considerable work to do on final agreements and easements acceptable to landowners.
Some of the land where access was required was owned by the Department of Conservation, by Land Information New Zealand or by the Queenstown Lakes District Council.
The cost is estimated to be $1million, which Ms Kathy Brook-Lynne did not believe would be hard to find.
''There are different organisations that would support it financially but we have to get the agreements with the landowners in place first.''
Ms Brooke-Lynne said the aim would be to complete the track to a standard acceptable to the district council who, it was hoped, would then maintain the cycleway.
The society hoped to ''advance as quickly as possible'' the first two or three kilometres of track between the village and the road to the Cardrona Alpine Resort skifield, which is open to mountain biking over the summer.
''We just see it as being a really good thing to connect the two areas.
''There's a lot of support among the ratepayers association and generally with the residents for that.''
One of the valley's landowners, Lane Hocking, of Robrosa Station, said he had given his support ''in principle'' but still wanted to ''check out the fine print''.
He could not see any particular benefits for his property but liked to see people ''making the most of the great outdoors''.
''You look at these cycle tracks - yes, they've all had their battles, but when they finally get put in they seem well used and successful.''
He could, however, understand why some property owners had reservations, because of the effect on their farming operations.
Tim Dennis, who was employed to survey a route through the valley, said the intention was to try to create a high quality cycle trail ''which has a good cycling feel to it''.
''So that means spending as much time as possible away from the road and next to the river. So that's definitely the aim.''
Mr Dennis said it would be simpler for the cycleway to stay on just one side of the Cardrona River, but it might cross the river at some point, depending on agreements reached with individual landowners.
''Finalising exactly where it goes needs to be worked through with all the parties.''
The idea of the cycleway being built in conjunction with a proposed $2million wastewater pipeline from Cardrona to Wanaka's Project Pure treatment plant was ruled out.
Mr Dennis said in a lot of places the pipeline could go straight through a paddock with no issue because it was underground.
''But having a cycle trail through the middle of somebody's paddock is not really all that practical.''
Mr Dennis said the valley offered ''really good terrain'' for a high quality track.
''There's no big hills ... you've got a destination at both ends ... you've got a nice river valley ... natural progression to go to Cardrona and then, who knows?''
New association chairman Blyth Adams called the cycleway as a ''wonderful idea'' and hoped it would one day continue to Queenstown, although he acknowledged the difficulty in crossing the Crown Range.
