Crown Range Road Drive To A Queenstown Lookout

Get a description of the 22 km scenic drive up Crown Range Road during winter to a Queenstown lookout to see snow-capped mountains.

This driving route starts at the bottom of the Crown Range when coming from Queenstown and heading towards Wanaka.

It is approximately 11 km (7 mi) from the bottom of Crown Range to a scenic lookout point.

Crown Range Road consists of a few long and straight stretches of road on the Crown Terrace, but overall it is a fairly winding road when going uphill or downhill with hairpin turns on a few locations.

Naturally, you won’t be able to maintain 100 km/h (62 mph) while driving on Crown Range Road.

Nonetheless, it is a fairly short drive uphill to the viewpoint and should take you between 15 and 20 minutes to complete without stopping in between, even if there is snow or ice on the road as is often the case during winter in New Zealand.

Just make sure you check the driving conditions for Crown Range Road before you head out.

Crown Range Road is not a restricted road (as far as I know), which means that rental cars are allowed to drive on Crown Range Road.

This makes sense, because Crown Range Road is not only a sealed (paved) road but also a main route between Queenstown and Wanaka.

How To Get To Crown Range Road

Crown Range Road can be approached from three different directions:

1. When driving from Cromwell to Queenstown on State Highway 6.

1. When driving from Queentown to Cromwell on State Highway 6.

1. When driving from Wanaka to Queenstown via the Cardrona Valley Road.

Note: If you drive from Wanaka, you’ll only experience the downhill part of the scenic drive described in this article.

Basic Info For The Crown Range Road Scenic Drive

Click here to see a map for this scenic drive from the junction of State Highway 6 with Crown Range Road to the lookout point at the top of Crown Range Road.

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