Crown Range

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Panorama of the view from the Crown Range road near Arrowtown
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Panorama of the view from the Crown Range road near Arrowtown

The Crown Range of mountains lies to the east of Arrowtown in Otago, New Zealand. It is noted for two features, the Cardrona skifield, on the slopes of the 1900 metre Mt. Cardrona, and a highway, known as the Crown Range Road, which winds steeply between the town of Arrowtown and Wanaka to the north. This road is the highest part of New Zealand's highways.

The area was heavily populated during the Central Otago goldrush of the 1860s, the town of Cardrona, now little more than a dot on the map, briefly having a population of several thousand prospectors.