Lake Dunstan Trail fourth great ride in Central

The Lake Dunstan Trail is officially a great ride.

It was announced today the trial has been officially awarded Great Ride status by Tourism and Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash in time for the first anniversary of its opening tomorrow.

This brings Central Otago’s great ride trails to number four - the most of any region in New Zealand.

The official track counter has recorded more than 83,000 user movements (cyclists and walkers) since the trail opened, totally eclipsing predicted figures of 7000 for its first year.

It is now being heralded by many as possibly the best one-day ride in New Zealand and has been a catalyst to establish and expand businesses along its length; examples such as a pizza and wine caravan, a floating coffee and burger bar, and for the tech savvy, an app where people arrange a car transfer from end to end, are innovative and contribute to the user experience.

The Otago Central Rail trail is the original great ride and opened in 2000. It was this trail that inspired the future development of a network of trails throughout New Zealand.

In 2013 both the Roxburgh Gorge and Clutha Gold Trails opened and, with the addition of the Lake Dunstan Trail, there are now over 300km of interconnected off-road great ride standard cycle and walking trails to explore in Central Otago with more to come.