I’m not sure which came first; the desire to drive some of NZ’s great roads, or the Troopy. Which ever way it was, ever since we took over the custodianship of the Troopy the Rainbow Road has been firmly on the bucket list…no wait… more pressing than that; it’s been on the DO NOW list.
Covid has stuffed up a lot of things, for us the Rainbow Road was a big one. First lockdown; couldn’t get the materials to do the Troopy refit. Second lockdown, got the gear, did the refit. Ready. Then another lockdown and then more. Last year got away, then this season of the Rainbow being open was fast evaporating. Ange and I were very literally packed and ready to go when the last lockdown struck. We opted to sit it out, it wasn’t so bad, the surf was good at home.
The Rainbow Road is a 115 km 4wd road over the Rainbow Station and the Molesworth Station. It’s only open late Spring until late March. The road snakes and climbs along the Nelson and Marlborough border into the backcountry highlands. From St Arnaud in the northeast, to Hamner in the southwest. Not a stretch of it is boring. It is, in the true sense of the word, epic.
You can easily do it in a day, most people choose to overnight at one of the DoC campsites. We opted to stay on the road for 3 nights; two at the Sedgemere Lakes campsite and one very windy one at Lake Tennyson. When we got out at Hamner, we wanted back in again.
The DoC webpage about it is HERE
And here are [some] of my pictures ….
