Lake Dunstan Trail, Cromwell to Smiths Way
Cromwell · Otago · Point to Point
This walk was suggested by the community and checked against the authority quoted above before it was published. The route line comes from official track data. The rule-setter’s own wording: “Dogs on a lead. Southern Lakes Trails, who run the Lake Dunstan Trail, answer it directly in the FAQ on their own trail page, read 27 August 2026, verbatim: "Are Dogs allowed on the trail? Dogs are allowed on a lead around the urban areas of the trail - Smiths Way to Cornish Point - some 32kms. DOGS ARE NOT ALLOWED from Cornish Point to Clyde Rowing Club - this is farm land." This walk sits entirely inside the on lead half, running from the Cromwell Heritage Precinct north to the Smiths Way carpark. The trail code on the same page states the ban from the other end: "NO DOGS are permitted between the Dunstan Arm Rowing Club and Cornish Point." Central Otago is an off lead district by default under the Dog Control Bylaw 2020, clause 4.1.1, but the operator's own current words are more restrictive and they decide it, and the Cromwell Heritage Precinct end also sits inside the Old Cromwell on lead area named in clause 4.5.1. Do not carry on south past Cornish Point with a dog”. Evidence: the rule-setter’s own published wording. How we check dog rules.
Good to know
Dogs are allowed here. Keep them on the lead, watch for ground-nesting birds and stock, and read the signs at the gate.
About Lake Dunstan Trail, Cromwell to Smiths Way
Lake Dunstan Trail, Cromwell to Smiths Way is a point-to-point of 16.2 km, near Cromwell in Otago.
This is the flat half of the Lake Dunstan Trail, and it is the half you can bring a dog on. It runs 16.5 km one way from the Cromwell Heritage Precinct, north along the lake edge and through Pisa Moorings, to the Smiths Way carpark off State Highway 6. There is almost no climb in it. The whole line sits between about 195 and 205 metres, so the work is all in the distance and none of it in the gradient, and you can turn round at any point and halve the day. Inge, who put us onto this one, walks and bikes it with Pip, and she is right about something most write-ups get wrong: the built trail does not stop at Pisa Moorings. It keeps going north along the shore for another 10 km to Smiths Way. The surface is gravel almost the whole way, wide and well formed, with one short compacted link. There is a toilet at the Heritage Precinct and another right beside the trail about 1.2 km along, which is the spot Inge dropped her pin on. Two things to plan for. The first is the sun. There is no shade anywhere on this line, not a patch of it within 400 metres, and a Central Otago summer afternoon out here is brutal on a dog. From December through February make it a morning or an evening walk and carry water, because the lake is beside you but the bank is riprap and not always easy to get down to. The second is the bikes. This is a Great Ride, it runs two ways, and it is not segregated, so riders and e-bikes come past in both directions, often quietly and quicker than you expect. That is the practical reason the lead rule here is a sensible one rather than a nuisance. Keep left, keep the dog in close, and give way when you hear a bell behind you.
Graded hard, it climbs about 71 m overall, and takes about 3 hr 21 min to walk.
Dogs are allowed here, on the lead. This walk is on the map because Inge & Pip suggested it, and we checked it against the source above.
