Alps to Ocean Trail – Twizel to Lake Ohau Lodge

A 315km cycle trail from the highest mountains in New Zealand to the coast, the Alps 2 Ocean Trail is a wonderful way to spend the best part of a week on a bike. Due to logistics I skipped the first couple of sections from Aoraki Mount Cook and started in Twizel, spending six days riding the remaining six section to Oamaru. This post covers the first day cycling 46km from Twizel to Lake Ohau Lodge.

Twizel is home to around 2,000 residents, but up to 10,000 people during peak season, making for quite a bustling little town, complete with two Four Square supermarkets within sight of each other (same franchise, different owners). What caught my eye was the lack of curbs throughout much of the town, just a slightly delimitated pavement area for pedestrians. This was ideal on a bike though as there was no curb to hit!

The A2O trail heads along Grey Lyon Road, a typical paved road which is relatively quiet but with a 100kph speed limit for cars so you need to be visible and sensible on these sections. The A2O trail follows a mixture of paved and gravel roads, and off-roads paths. The landscape was striking heading out of town, with the yellow grass demonstrating how dry the Mackenzie Country region is, with water restrictions and a complete fire ban over summer.

These rock formations were unexpected, a warm up for similar but larger formations at Clay Cliffs the following day.

Loch Cameron is a popular swimming spot which marks where the trail turns onto quiet roads that run alongside Ohau Canal, one of a number in the region totalling 58km in length connecting Lakes Tekapo, Ohau, Pukaki and Ruataniwha. These were built in the 1970s and 1980s as part of a huge hydroelectric power generation project.

There are some sizeable pipes at the end of the canal, taking water to the Ohau River.

The canals are apparently amazing places to fish for trout and salmon. Home to some of the largest in the world due to their oxygen rich glacial fed waters and constant water levels. There are commercial salmon farms in the canals, recognisable by their smell…

It was a pretty cool place to cycle through, though tiring in the summer sun and with a strong cross wind trying to push me off the road…

About half way through the day I reached Ohau Weir, where the Ohau River flows into beautiful Lake Ohau.

Here I finally escaped the road for more enjoyable off-road trails.

The trail is well sign posted, though a map is always useful to carry.

Lake Ohau was looking good on a sunny day.

Tupuna Te Maiharoa Pou was of an unusual design and colour for Maori sculpture.

It was then back on the road, Lake Ohau Road through to the end of the day.

It passes by the much smaller Lake Middleton, home to popular campsites and some flash looking new houses on the hillside above in Lake Ohau village. These are probably new since a devasting fire in 2020 destroyed 48 structures in the area.

There was another 7km to go to reach Lake Ohau Lodge, a classic New Zealand ski lodge dating back to 1951, which has had mixed fortunes, but is benefiting in the summer months from a steady stream of cyclists on the A2O trail.

The lodge is up on the hillside and has pretty spectacular views of the landscape, lake and Southern Alps.

The snow capped mountain in the distance is Aoraki Mount Cook, which at 3,754m high, is the tallest mountain in New Zealand.

I took a quick dip in the near freezing Lake Ohau. It felt more like the sea given the size of the waves from the strong winds. A refreshing experience!