Feeling pretty good to have this little adventure ticked off. I’ve just Cycled 172.5km over 4 days on the Otago Rail Trail. Overall the weather gods were good to us, a big storm came charging through the afternoon before we started, leaving a fresh dusting of snow on the ranges, and a few branches on the track the next morning, but nothing to write home about. Day three started with light intermittent rain, and developed into some pretty strong winds, but thankfully the worst was well after we arrived in Hyde and we had the luxury of a sheltered deck, then snuggling up indoors to watch the wind play with the surrounding trees.The bonus was, we got all our washing dry within an hour!!! Next morning was bright and clear and all down hill to Middlemarch.
Our bikes were really good, we went with “Trail Journeys” who were excellent in providing all our equipment organising our accommodation, and transporting our bags between overnight stops. We never had to wait once and received a warm welcome at the end of each day by our respective hosts. We even got pulled over by a local in Hyde, who seemed to know we were heading in the wrong direction, and redirected us to our beds for the night, (I got the feeling they might have been looking out for us, which was a nice feeling.)
Most of our meals were in local pubs and hotels, were we had a very friendly welcome from staff and locals alike, and the food and beverages were all plentiful and delicious, its hard to pick a favourite as they all seemed to hit the spot perfectly.
After we returned our bikes in Middlemarch, we had opted to go by train through the Taieri Gorge to Dunedin, what an amazing feat of engineering! Brilliant trip with lots of opportunities to capture the scenery, and marvel at the hard work and skill it took to open up this vital supply route over 100 years ago!
I really feel quite privileged to be able to experience our own country in this way, it’s a shame the cost of travel, and site seeing activities within New Zealand, makes this sort of holiday prohibitive for a lot of Kiwi families.

More South Island adventures to come soon.

Chrissie