Rail trail day four (the end)

Brrrrrrr that was cold
Wind changed direction again - south now and very chilly but still a headwind so had to pedal all the way to Middlemarch. Only 29km though so not too bad (and we were crumble and ice cream powered from last night!)

Left at 9 as the sun was shining, colours lovely, views great. Past site of Hyde rail disaster, last two station stamps in little booklet, cake stop at Ngapuna and on to Middlemarch for 11.40ish where we had our own minor rail disaster!

Booked on 1pm train. Unfortunately two cruise ships had arrived in port and booked out every carriage on the train so we had been bumped off it. We could go on the 4pm train but as the cruise ship had arrived late it wasn't due in until 5.15 and it wasnt coming as far as Middlemarch so we would have to get shuttle bus and we might get to Dunedin by 7pm.

Middlemarch is pretty but not that much to do for 5hrs and we would have missed last afternoon with friends. Skip train, call friends, get collected, big lunch, walk to salt lake, walk dog, big (Turkish) dinner, big sleep.

Farewell Andy and Christy and Georgia and Brew (dog and cat) oh and chickens and on to the next bit!

Day 3 rail trail

Slightly wet and soggy start to the day - needed raincoats for the first part of the ride and then it was cold so needed coats to keep warm, and gloves and could have done with extra socks - very cold toes!

Made it to Ranfurly by 10 and spent some time looking around their little museum which was a pleasant chance to warm up a bit.

Then there was nowhere for about 32km so we had lunch in a Gangers shed as we were starving.

Oh, and just our luck - the wind had changed so we had to pedal - going downhill!

Lovely views even with the grey cloud !
One bridge, one tunnel and one viaduct later we made it to Hyde where we've just had yummy crumble and home made ice cream for pud!

Oh, and we've been doing a study of the ground surface on the rail trail (which is increasingly important now we have to stand up on the bridges which have planks going 90degrees to direction of travel!) Anyway there are big bits of grey/black stone which is quite bumpy, then there is medium sized grey which is okay but the best is the fine grey/brown stuff which is a bit like big sand. We had some mud and puddles today as well which Martyn tried to avoid - guess what I did - yup - straight through the middle kersplash!

Anyway, all down tomorrow so could we please have no headwind, fine grey/brown gravel and blue skies!

Day two rail trail (view)

Here is the view from our cabin this evening. There are ten cabins, one information stall and a pub here so guess where we're going for dinner!

Day two rail trail (a bit more)

Here is proof we made it to the top. Oh the dizzy heights!

Day two rail trail

Martyn moaned that his bum hurt this morning. I kept quiet about mine which does not yet seem to be as bad as I had thought it might be - at least I am still glad I did not pay out for the gel set cover! (I can hear mother now - where there's no sense there's no feeling!)

Had lovely breakfast and natter with owner of the Black Hotel in Ophir and set off. Vert surprised by how fast we went without the headwind of yesterday!

One curving bridge, two tunnels and a 37m high viaduct (which I had to cycle in the middle of so as not to look over the edge or down the gaps between the planks!) and we made it to Hayes Engineering - home of the famous wire strainer ! Which made a very good ice cream stop. A bit further on to lunch pursue Gilchrists store in Oterahua. Then the big climb over 45 degrees south latitude to the summit of our cycle ride at 618m (Claire and Ian are in fits if laughter again - I know they are!) and weeeeee someone fitted rockets to our bikes - downhill all the way to Wedderburn - very nice!

Here is my wire sieve (strainer!) I will post proof of making it to the top in a mo!

Day one rail trail

Just how stupid am I? Actually the reason for asking this has nothing to do with the cycling part of the rail trail I have just had another mental issue that Martyn says I have to tell you about. Oh the humiliation of what I am about to reveal.

But first - left Andy and Christys at about 7.45 am (ugh) but only had to wait at bottom of drive for bus to pick us up. After a 4hr ish drive which basically followed the route we are cycling (yes we did wonder whether or not we needed to bother with cycling back) we made it to Clyde and the start of the trail. Sorted bikes and decided not to pay 35bucks for gel seat cover (may regret this tomorrow but ok so far)

Averages 17km/hr from Clyde to Alexandra and then hit the headwind and the crosswinds on the Galloway plains. Even the Kiwi bloke we met (who cycles this bit twice a week as part of his training programme said it was diabolical so I didn't feel so bad then). And there was a big long haul up a 1 in 50 to the top of Tiger Hill as well. Combination of wind and hill slowed me from 17 to 7 ish km/hr. Bummer.

Still plenty of places to stop and admire the views (which we forgot to take blog piccies of - will rectify tomorrow) so it wasn't too bad. 36km and about 4.5 hrs of cycling later we made it to Omekau, another 2km got us to Ophir, stretch, wash, groan, stretch, dinner, 3km walk to bridge and bed!

At dinner we reviewed the things we will see tomorrow, one of which is the Hayes Engineering Works (oh joy but apparently a bit of a farming gadgetry legend). In particular they are famous for the Hayes wire strainer which is still in use in most farms throughout NZ apparently. I had a lightbulb moment at dinner. I had been trying to work out why / how you strain (as in sieve) wire. I really must have left my Physics brain somewhere! Martyn was in fits! I get it now. Strain = tension. Just how stupid am I?

Staying with Friends

Just realised I haven't blogged for two days. Crikey. I think I have withdrawal symptoms!

Now, where were we when I last did this?

Oh yes, sitting in car in rain. Rain stopped (just a little sprinkle) and we went in to visitors centre at Benmore Dam which was very interesting indeed and it had some cool things for kids (ahem, us) to play with! Bit of history about the building of the dam and some interesting electic / hydroelectric facts. All this along with a very nice man who we had a natter with and who was very impressed by our puzzling out of how it all worked!

Tootled along side of Aviemore (ha ha, thought we'd gone wrong somewhere) and down to Oumaru to a penguin reserve but we decided the penguins were the same ones as we had seen in Australia so we weren't going to pay to see them here. Instead used their car park to have lunch in! Then drove from Oumaru down to Dunedin stopping at very intriguing Moeraki Boulders and also at Shag Point to search for yellow eyed penguins instead of little blue penguins but we didn't see any there either (but then yellow eyed penguins are quite rare and very shy!)

Found friends house in Dunedin with no sat nav and no argument - crumbs :-)

Slept in bed in a house which was a very novel concept and very nice.

Went out on Otago Peninsula and to only mainland nesting colony of Albatross and saw a baby one - wow! Then went out to the Penguin Place and saw my yellow-eyed penguins. Really weird because they nest under trees. You do not expect to see penguins under trees! AND, they had a little penguin hospital where they had one of those little rock hopper penguins (the ones with the crests that look like punk rockers) sad he was poorly but very cute!

Very nice Turkish meal for dinner having discovered that where we were going to go was closed for some reason. This was after we walked dog on beach and rescued a juvenile Shag which had two fishing barbs in its feet. Good team effort - 1 person to get dog off bird and then entertain dog, one person to supply jumper to cover bird up for carrying, 2 people to use multitude of phones to try to get signal and contact DOC for more permanent rescue of bird! Met DOC lady at hotel somewhere, barbs removed, bird released. Hurrah!

Currently having domestic day - washing on, emails done, got to play 'Keep Delete' our all new travelling game with our photos next. We are waiting for cycle hire lady to ring us back as we may be attempting the Otago Rail Trail in the next 4 days. This could be interesting. 160km in 4 days. There is a training programme and everything on their website. Martyn says we can do it no problem. I've put the ice in the freezer for when we finish and I need to sit on it! Apparently the biggest hill is a 1:50 you can buy cycle shorts and gel seat covers. Martyn is currently refusing these offers. Claire and Ian please stop laughing.............

Anyway, there is very little phone signal on this bike ride so there may be no blogs for a few days. After that I may well be blogging whilst standing up :-)