Article from the Newsletter June/July 2008

THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD by Andy Bebington

The South Island of New Zealand is about as far away as you can get, without starting to come back again. Liz and I had a holiday there and, among other adventures we rode the Central Otago Rail Trail over three days. Central Otago was a gold-mining area in days past and the railway wound its way through gorges and over chasms to service both the gold mining and agricultural communities. It is alas no longer, other than the south eastern end where a tourist train runs into Dunedin via the Taieri Gorge, The rest of the line has been converted, a la Sustrans, to cycle and pedestrian use. There was reportedly a fair bit of resistance from the residents to the idea of opening the line up ten years ago, but it is they who have benefitted, as businesses have sprung up to meet the needs of cyclists and walkers. Admitedly, these are not always of the highest quality - one landlord of a remote bar was such a surly character that anyone (Fred West, Pol Pot, Adolf himself .... ) could open up a bar in competition and take all the custom through sheer charm. Much of the accommodation we used was, to be polite, heritage - which in New Zealand means “jerry-built in the 19th century and barely still useable, but still in use because it's still there”. One bedroom had a door which didn't shut; in the same hotel we only had two loos between a dozen of us. Another had a bathroom door which didn't lock, and the recommended cafe stop - indeed, the only cafe for miles - had a very restricted range of anything to eat. That said, the countryside was amazing. We lost more time to stopping for photos than I've ever done ... and as you exited each bend another phenomenal landscape hove into view. The basic route was a 100-mile "Z" lying on its side, climbing gradually up and over a ridge, carefully arranged (for the first two days) so that the wind was either on our backs - wonderful for climbing - or on our flank -terrible for crossing gullies (several times Liz and another lady were reduced to walking, terrified, over bridges as the wind threatened to hurl them over the edge). Having the wind on your back after the crossing of the ridge on Day 2 was magic. Railway routes don't have serious bends, central Otago doesn't have many level crossings, people coming the other way were moving sooo slowly - you could career downhill on a gravel track at 10 mph without any care in the world. Wonderful! The other side of the same coin was that those riding the other way were struggling uphill - maybe only a 5% slope - and into a very stiff wind; with no choice but to press on, in tears in some cases, as they needed to be at their B&B by nightfall ... and there were no other B&Bs between them and it. Then, on the last day, our leader (Bas, who sounded like a Kiwi but came from Holland (whose assistant - and girlfriend - sounded like an Aussie but came from a Chinese family in Hong Kong) warned us that the last six miles would be out of the ranges of hills, on to the river flood-plain, arrow-straight and boring, and (as luck would have it straight into a stiff head-wind). Liz tucked in behind me for shelter and we ploughed our way - no other word for it - into the wind for the final leg. In between riding the railway route, Bas took us in the minibus to a couple of old gold-mining towns, to the largest indoor curling rink in the southern hemisphere (have you tried curling? It makes bowls look simple!), to see Mount Cook, to an observatory, and to the steepest street in the world (1 in 2.86 anyone?) No I didn't try to ride it; three of us walked it though with photos to prove it. Central Otago Rail Trail? Whinge all you like, about the accommodation, the company of your fellow-riders, the wind, or whatever. It was a wonderful experience and not one that daunted Liz -35 miles a day on a railway route, with gentle hills albeit with a problem wind from time to time. We're glad we went.