Otago Central Rail Trail, New Zealand - As told by The Fat Controller AKA Mike Lee In February 2015, while things were very quiet at work, a colleague and I decided that we should visit New Zealand and investigate the Otago Central Rail Trail. For me, this had been a bucket list ride for quite a few years We elected to do a four day, three night ride over the trail, starting from the Clyde end. When I say elected, it was pretty much all that was available as it was arranged at quite short notice. Our preference was probably a three day trip, but I m glad we took the four days as it allowed more time to enjoy some off trail rides, and longer stops at pubs and coffee shops along the way.
Our transport provider picked us up in Queenstown, and took us through to his shop in Alexandra where we were introduced to our bikes and issued with a pannier each. The provider also arranges for your main lugguge to be transported ahead to your first, and subsequent nights accommodation. A part of the deal was that we were then to be taken to the trail head at Clyde, however, as we were both fairly used to riding
longish distances, we decided to ride the trail back towards Clyde, and return via a cross country bike path that runs beside the Clutha River. Back at Alexandra we rejoined the trail and settled in for the ride to Omakau. The country side soon opens out to typical Otago vistas, quite different to what we re used to at home, but rugged in its own right, and quite spectacular. After the old station of Galloway is passed, the trail tilts upwards slightly, and maintains this incline for the next 17 km, climbing 188 metres. It s not that steep, because it is a railway grade, but it does get a little sharper as you near the summit at Tiger Hill. Apparently, this can be quite challenging even for seasoned riders if there are contrary winds up there. Half way up the climb is Chatto Creek, which has a very conveniently located tavern, with access available right off the trail of course this was used to fuel up for the remainder of the climb. Once crested, it was a pretty easy roll down to Omakau, which had another pub. My colleague was not thirsty so I gave him wrong directions to where our overnight accommodation was (in a small town a couple of km s down the road call Orphir) and went to into the pub to experience local hospitality. After leaving, I also went off in the wrong direction, but caught onto my blunder early in the piece, so only had to do limited back tracking. A decent breeze picked up that had absolutely no obstruction due to the nature of the terrain, so found myself fighting the breeze all the way to Orphir. Our first night was in Blacks hotel, an excellent art-deco structure, and a wonderfully historic town. Here we met groups of other cyclists who would stalk us for the remainder of the journey. Also in attendance were the very excellent and hospitable locals with whom the
evening was spent patching trans Tasman relations! Day two dawned gloomy and foggy. Being a tropical rider, I have little experience of cold weather riding, and although it was February, I was expecting this, so insulated myself with several layers of clothing to see how things went. It was about 4 degrees when we departed, taking a loop detour back to Omakau to view a very historic old bridge, and to cruise through the old town. The day had warmed to 6 degrees by the time we hit Omakau, and shivered off down the track heading for Wedderburn. The layers appeared to be working which was the main thing. We were looking forward to this day, as you get to ride through the spectacular Poolburn Gorge, featuring high viaducts and tunnels. The day is spent predominantly climbing, but we re only talking a couple of hundred metres over tens of kilometres, so it is not at all arduous. 11 km out we stopped at Lauder where there was a cafe very conveniently fronting the trail. A second breakfast was enjoyed there before the more serious climbing was started. It was warming up enough to start removing some layers as well, and the once the fog burned off, the day was stunningly clear and bright. Enroute we visited a historic engineering works, and an abandoned gold mine site, before cruising down to Wedderburn after topping the highest point on the line. Riding time on this day was only 3 hours, for a total time of just over 6, so it meant we were in pretty early in the afternoon. This allowed plenty of time to contribute to the local economy via the cash register in the pub. The destination for day three was the town of Hyde, only 46km down the trail. However the historic town of Naseby was a suggested off trail loop ride that we did, adding another 20 km to the trip for the day. On return from Naseby we rejoined the trail at the sizeable town of Ranfurly. The station here is also the town tourist information centre and is therefore in a fantastic state of preservation, as is the whole yard. Once we left Ranfurly, we rode across a long flat plain, with a mountain range dominating the horizon. Doesn t sound interesting but it was really nice riding, and the surface of the trail had improved. There was a lunch stop at Waipiata then the trail veered around the range and entered another rugged gorge section. There was another tunnel and other viaducts, deep cuttings and high embankments, a significant contrast from the earlier plains. The riding completed at the Otago Central Hotel in Hyde, although the railway yard was nowhere to be seen. This had to wait for the following day. The final day of the ride was a short 27 km hop to Middlemarch. From
there, we would be transferred to Pukerangi where we would catch the returning Taieri Gorge train down to Dunedin. About 2 km from the town, you hit the old railway yard, which is complete with rails, some old rollingstock and the privately owned station (which was for sale). This was the closest flat area to the town where they could build a yard which explained the curious distance between the town and its station. It was a fairly straight forward run to Middlemarch, but not boring because we had the rock and pillar range as our constant companion along side us for most of the ride. A large viaduct also named rock and pillar is also featured on this section. The approach to Middle march is ruler straight, and you can actually sight the town about 10 kms out. Because Middlemarch is used as a occasional terminus by the Dunedin Railway you arrive to some proper working railway infrastructure and buildings. The train only visits here twice a week, with most of the services terminating at the top of the gorge down at Pukerangi. So ended our adventure on the Otago Central Trail. There are a number of operators that provide end to end services on the trail and talking to other riders, it seems that they all do a good job, offering different levels of service. All you need to do is ride your bike and enjoy the places you visit. They organise your accommodation, bikes, luggage transport and transfers to and from your accommodation at either end of the trip. This trail is positively embraced by the locals in the regions its passes through as it is a financial contributor to those areas. It s hard not to make comparisons with our local trails, but I would observe that while some of the Victorian trails have developed into better trails (ie, the fully sealedmurray to the Mountains), this was a pioneer trail and without its success to base a model on, I wonder how much development of other railway corridors would have occurred.