The Queenstown Trails Trust is delighted to announce that we’re underway with an upgrade to the Bush Creek Trail. It’s been a long time in planning, but Elevate Trail Construction are making great progress and hope to be finished before the winter sets in.
The primary driver for this project was to enable both uphill and downhill traffic (walking and mountain biking) to co-exist in a safe manner. The original trail was too steep to ride a bike up and created conflict on the way down due to the extreme gradient. This also led to erosion issues, where a braking rut channelled all stormwater down the track, leading to excessive scouring. This in turn created really technical riding sections, which are quite out-of-grade when compared to the Grade 3 Coronet Faces Water Race – resulting in an inconsistent experience for anyone riding from the other end.
The other issue with Bush Creek was a whole lot of river crossings and wet feet. With a huge thanks to Helibike NZ and Heliworks, we were able to strop-load a whole lot of treated timber into the right locations for Straight Up Construction to build six awesome crossings. These bridges combined with some strategic re-routing in the upper valley now means that you can keep your socks and your chainset dry!
The new improved Bush Creek Trail will form a key part of the Coronet Loop Trail, offering a great climb to start the whole circuit, or a great descent through native bush into Arrowtown from the Coronet Faces Water Race Trail. The trail is designed for both walking and biking, and we ask that you always ride Bush Creek with due consideration for other users.
The Queenstown Trails Trust is really stoked to be able to deliver these improvements for our community, with huge thanks to Soho Properties and QLDC.
