Actually I didn’t find any issue with riding along the northern lakeside road from Benmore Dam to Aviemore Dam (Te Akatarawa Rd); traffic was very light (even in late January with plenty of campers still around) and the speed limit is only 80km/h (and 50km/h near the campgrounds). My only complaint was that the ride along there was rather long and monotonous (I jokingly referred to it as Lake “Evermore”…), although the Deep Stream reserve was a nice scenic surprise towards the end.

I’ve ridden segments of AlpstoOcean and it’s one of the best of many in the south island.
There is a segment I have and always will avoid. Benmore Dam to Aviemore Dam. This link requires two on road only options, both needing sharing busy roads that are narrow in parts and winding.
Sure, there is a gradient to tackle with either option, but if traveling west to east it’s down hill so not too difficult.
To me, the lacking of an off road cycle way between Otematata and Aviemore should be addressed. There is room beside the road for most of the way. There also is a “track” that follows pylons, for their inspection I assume, that could be utilised.
The obstacle may be private land on some segments. Negotiation for access, fencing,etc would be needed, but similar intrusions through private land by this cycle way has been successful.
This would be a safer and more enjoyable ride than the existing need to share a busy road.

Not a typo; the strike-through supposedly indicates that a particular link doesn’t exist (a problem over time with some of the links in our older blogposts). In this case, the weblink is most certainly there but it doesn’t like that it’s on a non-secure (i.e. not https) website…

Aiming to cycle the A2O late April, hoping for fine weather…

I agree about the views heading Ocean to Alps. We booked accommodation at Braemar Station before realising the difficulty getting a shuttle to the Mt Cook Station Car Park ( little interest in a helicopter ride ). So for 1/4 of the price the bespoke shuttle was going to be, we got a daily Cycle Journeys trip from Twizel to Tekapo. Parked the car at Twizel and rode Tekapo to Lake Pukaki and headed up the lake. An awesome view of Aoraki Mt Cook most of the way. A great nights sleep followed by a NW gale which blew us back to Twizel. We completed our journey at Omarama and rode back to Twizel early on a quiet Sunday morning. Two years later we rode Omarama to Oamaru and shuttled with CJ back. Pleasantly surprised that this second adventure was just as enjoyable and interesting as the first.