Central Otago Rail Trail bike ride
Whew - not been with you for a few days now as we've been doing the bike ride - 110 miles approx.(took us 3.5 days to do).
We're now in Dunedin, having taken the Taieri Gorge rail journey which we picked up from a place called Middlemarch at the end of the ride. Dunedin's a little bit of a culture shock after having spending several days out in remote wilderness. One day we didn't see anyone else all day on the trail. Did see lots of sheep though.
It's 17:40 on Friday here - you chaps won't even have started your Friday back home and here we are, the weekend's with us! Thank God it's Friday. What a week.
Actually we had a good bike ride. The weather held out (although it did rain heavily last night - thankfully we'd finished by then).
Tomorrow we're flying up to Whangerai, which is up near the Bay of Islands in North Island. We're hoping for warmer weather.
When we get chance to blog again we'll give details of bike ride and attach some photos. There's a particular good one of Rita and myself sat outside a shop in Ranfurly - I have my arm around her, and I must say she was looking exceeding attractive that day, so watch out for that one!
We'll update again as soon as poss - probably edit this post, rather than create a new one.
So now we're in Whangarei, about 1000 miles from Dunedin...but this post is all about the Otago rail trail bike ride.
3/12/2006
We stayed at a place called Clyde at The Hartley Arms Backpackers hostel, which turned out to be a little gem. The couple who ran the place were very friendly (as is the Kiwi wont, we are finding more & more). Bed & Breakfast for two (private room) came to $65, which equates to about #24 sterling. Puts our YHA prices in Blighty into perspective.
4/12/2006
Setting out from Hartley Arms - Day one.
Cycled from Clyde to Ophir today.
...stopping on the way at the local Post Office, with Strange Post mistress in attendance.....
30 miles today on our hybrid bikes on very gravelly surfaces, so it was actually a reasonably hard ride. The route is quite exposed in places, but we were fortunate it wasn't particularly windy today. En route we stopped at Chatto Creek (see PO above). there was a bar there ..and not much else.The proprieter did not stock mineral water on account of 'never having been asked for it before'. She also sold stamps, but only for internal post to NZ.
Ophir is a very small place, which apparently often experiences the highest & lowest annual temperatures in NZ (not in the same day). Temp range is from -20C to +40C. It was somewhere in between today. Today was our first encounter with a disparate group of Kiwis. A woman of about 65 years old, a man of about 35 years old, a very shrieky woman who was around 30 and a strange bloke of around 35 who didn't utter a word, but did a lot of staring.
After we'd been to the one and only pub in Ophir for our evening meal (fish,chips & beer), we came back to the backpackers accommodation common room and were immediately regaled with some remarkable shrieky tales of how today's cycling had gone, by the now recumbent Shrieky woman. She had flung her whole, not inconsiderable body across the only comfortable seating in the place. Suffice to say, we retired to bed early.
5/12/2006 Ophir to Wedderburn
Weather dry & cool today. Another 30 miler, but seemed a bit harder than yesterday, mainly because there were some quite monotous bits where we were ploughing throgh thick clinker (the sort of stuff that goes down before roads are surfaced).
When we arrived at Wedderburn, guess who was there - you've got it - Shrieker & entourage.
We stayed at the Wedderburn Tavern - a prize dump, I have to say.
The landlord was sociable enough though. Turned out he used to be a flight attendant with Air NZ and knew Derby as he used to stay there with his friend, Mr Alan Jarvis, who came from Derby. Mr Jarvis was also a flight attendant with Air NZ.
Shrieker's name is Pauline, we know now. She will continue to be known as Shrieker within this blog.
6/12/2006
Day Three - Wedderburn to Hyde (about 30 miles again)
Lovely sunny day today. Set off at 10:00 a.m. with spirits high & hearts aglow.
Arrived in interesting township of Ranfurly after about an hour. This town is famous for it's Art Deco architecture. When I say town, it actually only comprises about 4 streets, but it was a very good place to spend a couple of hours.
It was here Rita and I had our picture taken.
A great days cycling today, we arrived at Hyde and stayed at The Central Otago Hotel.
No sign of Shriker today, I think they'd gone Curling in Naseby. They ceratinly weren't staying where we were.
This hotal was like a palce. Beautiful rooms, wooden panelling all done up to the highest standard. Alas there were only three guests that night. Thos being ourselves and an English chap, Neil, who was frequenter visitor to New Zealand and did lots of walking whilst over here - he was actually walking the trail that we were cycling. The owners of the hotel were out when we arrived and so Neil had volunteered to show us around. We chose our room and then settled down to an evening meal which had been pre=prepared for us by the owners.
The main course was delicious - the dessert (homemade ice cream), the best we'd ever tasted. the teenage son of the owner was around, he told us her Ice cream recipe was a secret.
7/12/2006
Hyde to Middlemarch (20 miles)
Fairly short ride today, but it was very windy.
We arrived in Middlemarch by 12:30 a.m.
It was quite a desolate place, nothing like when Mr D'Arcy lived here (did he? I'm not too good on Jane Austen).
Were having lunch in the Kissing Gate cafe when who should appear, but Shrieker & Co.
We booked into Blind Billy's Holiday Camp - Billy really is blind - his car registration (I think it's only driven by his wife) is 'NO SEE'.
Blind Billy's is all a bit ramshackle, but we did manage to cook our tea in the old railway carriage that serves as the comman room on the site. Beans on Toast.
8/12/2006
Blind Billy booked our shuttle to the airport & a hotel in Dunedin for us. Very efficient.
In the afternoon we took the Taeri Gorge railway, which we had pre-booked. This is a scenic route which runs from Middlemarch to Dunedin. Shrieker & Co were in the same carriage. We kissed them all goodbye at Dunedin station (metaphorically). I had to bob back into the station though to get something from the Tourist Information. There was the silent bloke, again, on his own now. Leave me alone!
We're now in Dunedin, having taken the Taieri Gorge rail journey which we picked up from a place called Middlemarch at the end of the ride. Dunedin's a little bit of a culture shock after having spending several days out in remote wilderness. One day we didn't see anyone else all day on the trail. Did see lots of sheep though.
It's 17:40 on Friday here - you chaps won't even have started your Friday back home and here we are, the weekend's with us! Thank God it's Friday. What a week.
Actually we had a good bike ride. The weather held out (although it did rain heavily last night - thankfully we'd finished by then).
Tomorrow we're flying up to Whangerai, which is up near the Bay of Islands in North Island. We're hoping for warmer weather.
When we get chance to blog again we'll give details of bike ride and attach some photos. There's a particular good one of Rita and myself sat outside a shop in Ranfurly - I have my arm around her, and I must say she was looking exceeding attractive that day, so watch out for that one!
We'll update again as soon as poss - probably edit this post, rather than create a new one.
So now we're in Whangarei, about 1000 miles from Dunedin...but this post is all about the Otago rail trail bike ride.
3/12/2006
We stayed at a place called Clyde at The Hartley Arms Backpackers hostel, which turned out to be a little gem. The couple who ran the place were very friendly (as is the Kiwi wont, we are finding more & more). Bed & Breakfast for two (private room) came to $65, which equates to about #24 sterling. Puts our YHA prices in Blighty into perspective.
4/12/2006
Setting out from Hartley Arms - Day one.
Cycled from Clyde to Ophir today.
...stopping on the way at the local Post Office, with Strange Post mistress in attendance.....
30 miles today on our hybrid bikes on very gravelly surfaces, so it was actually a reasonably hard ride. The route is quite exposed in places, but we were fortunate it wasn't particularly windy today. En route we stopped at Chatto Creek (see PO above). there was a bar there ..and not much else.The proprieter did not stock mineral water on account of 'never having been asked for it before'. She also sold stamps, but only for internal post to NZ.
Ophir is a very small place, which apparently often experiences the highest & lowest annual temperatures in NZ (not in the same day). Temp range is from -20C to +40C. It was somewhere in between today. Today was our first encounter with a disparate group of Kiwis. A woman of about 65 years old, a man of about 35 years old, a very shrieky woman who was around 30 and a strange bloke of around 35 who didn't utter a word, but did a lot of staring.
After we'd been to the one and only pub in Ophir for our evening meal (fish,chips & beer), we came back to the backpackers accommodation common room and were immediately regaled with some remarkable shrieky tales of how today's cycling had gone, by the now recumbent Shrieky woman. She had flung her whole, not inconsiderable body across the only comfortable seating in the place. Suffice to say, we retired to bed early.
5/12/2006 Ophir to Wedderburn
Weather dry & cool today. Another 30 miler, but seemed a bit harder than yesterday, mainly because there were some quite monotous bits where we were ploughing throgh thick clinker (the sort of stuff that goes down before roads are surfaced).
When we arrived at Wedderburn, guess who was there - you've got it - Shrieker & entourage.
We stayed at the Wedderburn Tavern - a prize dump, I have to say.
The landlord was sociable enough though. Turned out he used to be a flight attendant with Air NZ and knew Derby as he used to stay there with his friend, Mr Alan Jarvis, who came from Derby. Mr Jarvis was also a flight attendant with Air NZ.
Shrieker's name is Pauline, we know now. She will continue to be known as Shrieker within this blog.
6/12/2006
Day Three - Wedderburn to Hyde (about 30 miles again)
Lovely sunny day today. Set off at 10:00 a.m. with spirits high & hearts aglow.
Arrived in interesting township of Ranfurly after about an hour. This town is famous for it's Art Deco architecture. When I say town, it actually only comprises about 4 streets, but it was a very good place to spend a couple of hours.
It was here Rita and I had our picture taken.
A great days cycling today, we arrived at Hyde and stayed at The Central Otago Hotel.
No sign of Shriker today, I think they'd gone Curling in Naseby. They ceratinly weren't staying where we were.
This hotal was like a palce. Beautiful rooms, wooden panelling all done up to the highest standard. Alas there were only three guests that night. Thos being ourselves and an English chap, Neil, who was frequenter visitor to New Zealand and did lots of walking whilst over here - he was actually walking the trail that we were cycling. The owners of the hotel were out when we arrived and so Neil had volunteered to show us around. We chose our room and then settled down to an evening meal which had been pre=prepared for us by the owners.
The main course was delicious - the dessert (homemade ice cream), the best we'd ever tasted. the teenage son of the owner was around, he told us her Ice cream recipe was a secret.
7/12/2006
Hyde to Middlemarch (20 miles)
Fairly short ride today, but it was very windy.
We arrived in Middlemarch by 12:30 a.m.
It was quite a desolate place, nothing like when Mr D'Arcy lived here (did he? I'm not too good on Jane Austen).
Were having lunch in the Kissing Gate cafe when who should appear, but Shrieker & Co.
We booked into Blind Billy's Holiday Camp - Billy really is blind - his car registration (I think it's only driven by his wife) is 'NO SEE'.
Blind Billy's is all a bit ramshackle, but we did manage to cook our tea in the old railway carriage that serves as the comman room on the site. Beans on Toast.
8/12/2006
Blind Billy booked our shuttle to the airport & a hotel in Dunedin for us. Very efficient.
In the afternoon we took the Taeri Gorge railway, which we had pre-booked. This is a scenic route which runs from Middlemarch to Dunedin. Shrieker & Co were in the same carriage. We kissed them all goodbye at Dunedin station (metaphorically). I had to bob back into the station though to get something from the Tourist Information. There was the silent bloke, again, on his own now. Leave me alone!
posted by Leon Trotsky | 4:39 am
1 Comments:
Kia Ora, No prize for guessing what country I live in. I was searching the blog world whne your blog popped up, so I thought I would say hello. Your photos are worth sharing so I have mentioned your blog on my "NZ blogs".
Click on my name if you want to have a look at my blogs.
Post a Comment
<< Home