Back in the 1860s they found gold in them thar hills......'them thar' being the hills and plains of central Otago. That brought with it the creation of a railway line which traversed the otherwise sparsely populated region. When the gold was gone, and with the increasing popularity of motor vehicles the railway closed in 1990. The department of conservation took control of the line in '93 and removed the line but resurfaced the track making it rideable. It is now 151km of cycle friendly terrain from Clyde to Middlemarch that takes you through some teeny tiny settlements and a journey through history.
So it was that we parked up Gertrude in Clyde and started the cycle (with four days of clothes and 1 day of food on our backs with the aim of purchasing more along the way)
Having not got very far Alistair decided on a diversion to do some single track biking up the Poolburn Gorge walkway which was covered in wild thyme, the smell of which made Sam hungry (whilst we can cook lots on two burners we can't quite stretch to thyme roasted veggies). We then found what looked like a bmx track in the hillside which we played on for a while before continuing the cycle along the rail trail. A lovely old station we found intact was Galloway:
Along the way are information stops inside old gangers sheds. Gangers were the folk employed to keep the line free from obstruction (informative this cycle as well as pretty and good exercise!)
Further along the trail we found some clumps of apple trees that had apparently grown from people throwing cores out of the carriages (I've always wondered whether that would happen.....), and it would have been rude not to pick a few....
Nearby to the camp site we were staying in the evening (in cute little huts as we didn't have any panniers in which to carry a tent) we passed through historic Ophir:
Before a quick bite of fish and chips and a sneaky drink in the local in Omakau, followed by a dark (we forgot torches) cycle back to the campsite.
Day two was sunny and consisted of:
- tunnels (~200m and tricky without a torch)
- passing the 45th parallel (being half way between the equator and the South Pole) twice. Which is apparently the same latitude as Bordeaux and Alsace.
- A visit to the old progress mine:
- A lunch stop (pie) from the general store in Oterahua (population 23!!!!).
- And a detour off the trail mid afternoon for a little town called Naseby which advertises itself as 2000ft above worry level.
We were the only people in the Royal Naseby Hotel....(not surprising given the size of the local populous I guess).
One reason for cycling the extra 14km to Naseby was that in the evening we went curling in an indoor curling rink (yep it's ~25 celcious outside and frozen inside) which was great fun.
Back at the hotel my entire plate at dinner was deep fried (they even deep fry crab sticks?!?!) which again is perhaps not surprising given visitors seemed few and far between.
Day 3. The second reason for going to Naseby was the local forest offered some great mountain biking. So before setting off on the day's 48km of rail trail we went biking on the single track. This was fun, if a little muddy after the overnight showers, but true to form the NZ sun was out again giving us great weather to cycle in.
Back on the trail we passed:
- More remnants of the railway
- And more beautiful scenery
Until it got so hot we had to stop for a dip in the river
Which turned out to be quite fast flowing...
Dinner and sleeping were at the Central Otago Hotel in Hyde which is the only place in the area so was full (~20) of people cycling the trail. This hotel was great and they fed us with more salad and veg than we'd seen in days (which Sam was very grateful for) and roast beef for those who partake (which Alistair was very grateful for).
Day 4 was an easy downhill 30km to the end of the trail at Middlemarch. Here, with slightly tired legs we had a yummy lunch before being split up into different buses (each only had 1 space) for the trip back to the start, all the more knowledgable about the history of the area.
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