Cruising on The Otago Central Rail Trail: Come Along For The Ride!

We spent 3 days last week riding The Otago Central Rail Trail (OCRT) from Clyde to Middlemarch. We rode about 5 hours every day. That included lunch stops, coffee stops, and stops at the Granger Huts along the way. Besides giving shelter, these little red huts have wall panels inside that tell the story of the area. 

Happy biker putting away the rain gear at the Granger's Shed.

Peek-a-boo!

Welcome relief from the rain at the Hyde Cafe.

Hyde Cafe: Flat white please and a salmon quiche with salad. 

Good choice.

After the 1860s gold rush in the Otago District, many miners stayed in the new gold mining towns and surrounding countryside, establishing farms and orchards. This area of NZ is known for its beautiful produce and lamb and beef production. It's soil is renowned for its nutrients. The produce needed a railway to the markets on the coast. Thus the development of the Railway began in 1891. The Railway line took 16 years to built due to the viaducts, bridges, tunnels needed and other construction issues. Progress was slow and costly during difficult economic times. Most of the construction was done by manual labor, using picks, shovels, wheelbarrows and horse-drawn wagons. It finished in Clyde in 1907. What took 16 years to build and lay, took 1 year to dismantle. That dismantle took place in 1991. It is now known as the Otago Central Rail Trail. Bicycling is king on the trail now.

This is where we started. 

The Otago Central Gravel Rail Trail opened in 2000 as a public reserve with no entry fee required. It was developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) in partnership with the Otago Central Rail Trust. The old Railway was invaluable to the people in the small towns back-in-the-day. Now, it has a new lease in life as a place for bicyclists and walkers to enjoy. 

Cruising along the Rail Trail.

Clever ways to entice people to your accommodation. 

Cute.

Checking out the old railroad station.

Yippie, 13km to Ranfurly. That's about 8 miles to our hotel. 

Aches and pains? What are those? Take 5 of these little white homeopathic pills every 4-5 hours and you'll be fine.

The old Ranfurly railroad station is now an iSite (New Zealand tourist info place).

Looks like rain.

The trail passes through some beautiful scenery, ranging from mountain ranges, hills, gorges, plains and old gold-mining towns. The heritage of the old railway line has been preserved with the retention of the viaducts and bridges and some of the old railway stations. It's a unique trail and its renaissance has clearly saved many of the small towns and villages in its path from becoming ghost towns. 

I waited and waited for a car to come by… quiet, quaint little town of Clyde.

We chose to ride the Clutha River Trail to Alexandra instead of the Rail Trail.  This would be our only tree-lined route.

When the DOC proposed developing a bike trail in 1993, many people laughed at the idea. "Who is going to ride a bike along the desolate countryside?" they said. However, it is the very contrast between city life and the stillness of a stark landscape combined with a touch of adventure that attracts large numbers of people using the trail. We met young and old people from all over the world on the trail. Since it's summer-school holidays in NZ right now, we met many NZ families spending time together in the great out-of-doors enjoying a 3 day rail trail bike ride.  

Sheep Station signage along the way to Lauder. A good place to stop for an apple snack.

...Cruising along the Rail Trail.

The Otago Central Rail Trail (OCRT) follows the old Central Otago branch railway line from Clyde to Middlemarch, a distance of about 150 km (about 93 miles). It is New Zealand's first Rail Trail. We rode a total of 176km (about 110 miles) due to bicycling along the River Trail from Clyde to Alexander instead of the Rail Trail and because finding our B&Bs and lunch spots added a few more kilometers each day. 

Day 1: We haven't even gone 2 miles and we're stopping for breakfast in Clyde! The old Bank is now a cafe.  

Waiting patiently for his poached eggs. 

The iconic Silver Fern on our flat white reminds us we are in New Zealand. 

We rented bikes from a wonderful company called Trail Journeys. We picked up our Avanti bikes in Clyde. Clyde is about an hour from Wanaka.  By 9am we got to the Trail Journeys offices, got our bikes and stuffed our overnight bags in the rented panniers. We left our car in their parking lot for 3 nights and away we went to ride the Otago Central Rail Trail!  We spent 2 nights at B&Bs in Lauder and Middlemarch and 1 night at a hotel in Ranfurly.

Our first night we stayed at the Old Lauder Schoolhouse B&B. 

The next day, while having lunch at a cafe miles down the road, a woman stopped by our table and asked us where we had been biking and where we stayed the night before. When we told her The Old Lauder Schoolhouse, she told us that
that was where she attended elementary school.

The schoolbags and keys are waiting for the kids!

Bikes are resting for the night.

Our room for the night was the old Staff Room. 

After dinner is time for a little R&R in the B&B's living room.

At the gate of our B&B in Middlemarch.

We had a nice quiet evening at the Middlemarch B&B. 

On a scale of 1-6 for bike tracks, the OCRT, with a gradient never more than 2%, is listed at grade 1, or easiest. Without any prior riding except for back in Nov. in AZ, we managed nicely. Without high altitudes and steep climbs up mountains, the ride was just right for us. Averaging about 35-40 miles a day on a flat trail is very doable for one old fart and one young lass! Ha. Ha. 

Now this is my kind of elevation for bicycling.

Yup, 618 meters. Which is not too high!

Reminds me of Big Sky Montana!

Weather: Because NZ is a long island lying at right angles to the roaring forties, it is known for its rapidly fluctuating daily weather patterns. However, because Central Otago is so sheltered on all sides, the daily weather patterns are far more stable than in the rest of NZ--- one of the attractions of the region and a valuable asset for the bike trail. We had 2 great days of weather and on the third day, we rode for about an hour and a half in the sunshine, an hour and a half in the rain and another 2 hours in air freshened with rain and a somewhat muddy track. Shower caps over helmets, raincoats and pannier covers kept us and our belongings dry. 

Taking a break on one of the many bridges we crossed on the nice sunny day.

Loving riding along the rocks on the nice gravel Rail Trail.

The walk through the tunnel will be dry. 

   

The trail passes through some beautiful scenery, ranging from mountain ranges, hills, gorges, plains and old gold- mining towns. The heritage of the old railway line has been preserved with the retention of the viaducts and bridges and some of the old railway stations. It's a unique trail that has helped save many of NZ's small towns and villages from becoming ghost towns. We enjoyed it all, especially the hospitality of the locals, the coffee stops for a flat white, and the good food along the way. Our last nightly meal at Cafe Quench in Middlemarch was actually extraordinary! We devoured the lamb shanks and the pumpkin/kumara mash. All was extra yummy and a fitting way to end the 3 day ride.  

Lunch stop at Chatto Creek. It was one of our favorite quaint places. 

Lots of bicyclists stop at Chatto Creek for a snack or lunch or just to enjoy the ambiance of the place. 

The sign says it all! Nose pats are allowed however. Henry and Honkey are happy for pats.

We shared homemade veggie soup and fish and chips at this cafe.

Cruising on the Rail Trail.

45º South

The 45th parallel south is a circle of latitude that lies 45 degrees south of the equator and theoretically marks the mid-way point between the equator and the South Pole. Unlike its northern equivalent, it passes mainly over ocean. New Zealand is one of the few land masses to lie in its path. 

 Latitude 45° south passes central Otago. This marker on the OCRT indicates where the trail crosses this latitude, a few meters past the highest point on the trail. Latitude 45° South crosses only 2 land places on the globe. Can you guess where? Can you guess which of the world's five oceans it crosses?

45º South

45º South crosses  New Zealand, Chile and Argentina. It mainly crosses the Indian Ocean,
 the Pacific Ocean and The Atlantic Ocean.

Land of schist and tors... Most of the exposed rock on the OCRT is schist. Schist was originally sandstone or mudstone and has metamorphosed by high temps and pressure over millions of years. 100 million years ago, much of Otago was mountains. Over the next 20 million years these were eroded down to a nearly level land surface known as peneplain. During the last 5 million years, folding and faulting has thrown up the present mountain ranges of the Otago. These flat topped ranges are part of NZ's oldest preserved land surface.

The Rock and Pillar Range is the eastern most mountain in Otago. It was named for the spectacular pillar outcrops of schist rock, known as tors ( from the Gaelic for "bulging hill"). Fields of tors delight the eye as one bicycles along the trail.

Cruising by the tors.

Go tors!

I love the language of all things rocky! Geology, like everything we encounter in life, has a specific language. 

The end of the bicycle trail in Middlemarch.  It was a fun 3 day ride. Hope that you enjoyed the ride too.
Cheers, Mary and Bob