Perfect weather for our activity today, cycling 35km of the Central Otago rail trail. As the name implies, the trail is the old railway route through gold mining and what NZ calls 'big sky' country. We rode through the tunnels and viaduct of the Poolburn Gorge, through Lauder, Ida Valley and Omakau and back down to Wedderburn. Along the way there were little red boxes marking all the old stations and you could get a stamp at each one. You know I love that kind of geeky extra.
A few of us decided to take the slower approach... fitness aside, though, there's no way I was cycling this stunning route without stopping to take in the scenery. The best way to describe it we agreed was Scotland on steroids with better weather...
Above is one of a few old railway bridges... What you can't see is how bumpy that bridge is... The only tell tale sign is the terror written all over my face. Terror or perhaps more lack of gratitude to auto taking photos from that angle...
Plenty of wildlife on the bike trek - spotted a hare on the way, stopped to let cattle traffic cross and saw a lot a lot of sheep - and then, at 22k, we all caught up with each other and stopped for a picnic lunch.
Starting off again, I was horrified what a little hummus could do... I was struggling big time but then a few friends caught up and reassured me that we were at the start of the incline. Looking back we were clearly going up but looking forward it looked flat, doing nothing for my morale...
What did do good things for my mood though was the final 5k downhill... The kid in us took over and we raced our way down to our lodge and tavern at Wedderburn. Here's the completion photo. Sweaty, but alive. Whoop!
After the best shower of the trip (sweet jesus it was good), a whole lot of tim tams and milo, we cooked ourselves up a huge meal of BBQ chicken, salad, couscous, Mike's bruschetta and Sofie's Spanish omelette... Needless to say we all ate well that night after our active day!
No comments:
Post a Comment