The year we came down Molesworth there were quite a varied assortment of trucks laying FX Networks Fibre beside the road. Compared with Haast to Wanaka in early 1970s it was very civilised. We took the 2am ferry and started at daylight but that made it a very long day to Christchurch.

Drove it maybe 5 years ago in a 2WD, south to north. The only slightly difficult bits were the two fords at the Hanmer end, just after Jacks Pass. The first was the worst where there were a couple of rocks maybe the height of a kerb; this just needed a bit of care. If you can drive your car onto the kerb, you'll have no trouble.

Thanks; south to north is my more probable direction, so good to know!

A group of us ran through it back in the day.  About 12 years ago?  The 'Molesworth Stampede', if I recall correctly.  It was 84 km from Cobb Cottage to middle of Hanmer Springs.  We did it as 4 x half marathon relay.  Some others did 2 x marathon and a handful of crazy people did the full 84 km!  

We've subsequently driven through (in a Santa Fe) and it was fine for driving and a 2WD would be OK.  The worst part was getting from the turn off near Seddon and heading South to the start of the station.  It was miles of windy metal roads.  The station itself, was mostly much better road as I recall.

Drove Hanmer to Picton via it last January.

A relatively easy drive on a gravel road and easily done with a 2WD vehicle. Saw a couple of other vehicles and chatted to DOC ranger along the way.

Dont go if heavy rain expected of with last 2 days. Lots of long flat gravel roads, a couple of up hill windy bits but not too bad if you have driven on gravel before.

Some gates to open and close along with BIG bulls but they were not interested in us :)

Beautiful scenery you wont see anywhere else. Pick the easy pass out of Hanmer. (West of town)

Long windy sealed road at the end till you meet up with SH1 (through lots of Grapes being grown) and does get boring after the day on the gravel.

Basically no food or water (or fuel) from Hanmer to Blenheim.

Lots of places to stop and picnic along the way though.

Go for it and be one of a small number of NZers who can say they have been there, done that.

In case anyone else is following the thread and thinking of driving the route; apparently it's closing on Sunday 28th January at 7pm for the forseeable future due to the extreme fire risk. 

https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/marlborough/places/molesworth-reserve/things-to-do/tracks/acheron-road/

Hopefully it's going to be open again when we get down there (March!)....