Alps to Ocean: Part I

Day 15: Dansey Pass to Kurow 52km (826k)

I was glad to be off gravel, although that was going to be short lived. Leaving Dansey Pass for the Waitaki River Valley the schist cliffs give way to towering flat-topped buttresses of waitaki limestone, and after a quick ten k’s I was back on gravel. This time on the Alps to Ocean cycleway heading inland – counter to the downward flow of cyclists.

I can’t say there was anything too exceptional about the ride to Kurow, other than some Māori Rock art in some limestone caves, Duntroon (that I will discuss in my next blog) and the Duntroon Wetlands. Other than that it was a pretty monotonous cycle either alongside the road or among at the ugly weedy and scrubby floodplains of the mighty Waitaki River – that was heard not seen. Being on a floodplain meant there was a of water damage to the track making it a rather lumpy bumpy escort in places. A couple of tributary streams to the river required minor water crossings but I was lucky that these weren’t in flood otherwise a road detour would have been needed.

Maerewhenua Māori rock art

Local resident

A taniwha (monster) eating a person?

Limestone karst with moody Campbill Hills in background

The whole day felt like a bit of a dilly-dally. Late start. Slow ride. Lots of stops. Uninspiring landscapes. So I was glad to finally get to Kurow only to be disappointed some more. I could barely drink the cider or eat the hamburger and greasy chips from the local tavern, and then strolling about town looking for points of interest all I could find was that rugby legend Richie McCaw was born in the region (among others) and the town is lobbying to have a statue raised in his honour. Hu-rah!

The only saving grace to the day was the free kayaks at the campground where one could paddle a short 200m circuit around the Kurow Wetlands. Pretty, but cold.

Paddling in Kurow Wetland, courtesy of Kurow Holiday Park

Day 16: Kurow to Sailors Cutting 56km (882k)

Dam! Dam! Dam! I cruised past three dams today and the shimmering stunning lakes they have created; Lakes Waitaki, Aviemore and Benmore. I also racked up a few hundred megabits in photos, and banality of yesterday evaporated in the sun.

Ruins above Lake Waitaki

Waitaki Dam

Lake Waitaki

Wine Tasting Cottage

Wine Tasting Cottage

A dip in Deep Stream

Lunchtime Lake Aviemore

Benmore Dam

Looking down on Benmore Dam

Sweat dripped off my nose as I worked my way up to each dam. And the ‘up’ just kept coming. After the grunt to the top of Benmore Dam the trail become harder, narrower, gravellier, and fricken spectacular! The contrast between the rugged parched desolate brown earth that crumbles broken into the placid deep-blue water sets off something primordial in the deepest core of my brain, and makes me feel so damn lucky to be alive. Here’s a bit of a video see what I mean.

Dansey Pass – Otago

Day 14: Naseby to Dansey Pass Camp 52km (774km)

Today was going to be a fifty k belter on gravel under a relentless sun. So again, I broke camp to the sparrows morning chorus. To start with it was a mercilessly steep grind just to escape out of Naseby’s town centre, however, after that the first ten kilometres or so was pretty flat farmland. The geomorphologist in me appreciated the towering badass-gully erosion of the Kyeburn valley loess and till as I rolled by and conversed with the passing sheep. The gentle incline ended at Kyeburn Diggings where a lodge was just starting to open for the day, and on this particular day it had a broken coffee machine – damn it!!

Badass erosion

Kyeburn Lodge

After Kyeburn Diggings the uphill slog to Dansey’s Pass began. The single lane gravel road followed the Kye Burn and a pylon line. It was well maintained, so other than a few corrugations it was easy to navigate. But it was hot sweaty work. I took to counting to 100 over and over again to stop myself remunerating of the difficulties of what I was doing. I stopped often to catch my breath and photograph the valley and surrounding hills. The landscape of course was stunning with the softly rounded golden tussock tops that is so very typical of central Otago.

Never ending up

Sweaty

Top of Dansey’s Pass

View down other side

Dansey Pass, Otago – Elevation 935m

At the top I took a moment to appreciate the view and congratulate myself on my accent of the pass. However with the day’s temperature still climbing and with no shade to speak of I was keen to keep moving.

Schist valley

Big Rock

After the arduous climb I enjoyed the speedy decent and the dramatic change of scenery. I was suddenly in deep green valleys surrounded by towering faces of schist – Jurassic in age – I felt like I was inside the protruding bones of the earth; fractured, broken and falling apart in the sun.

The road continued to follow the increasingly deep gorge that contained the head waters of the Maerewhenua River until I finally arrived at a Lavender Farm at Loch Lomond. Here I took a well deserved break in the shady picturesque farmlet where I made a couple of doggie friends and bought myself some lavender soap – I will need that later – and some lavender and honey ice cream – DELICIOUS!

New Friend

Lavender Picking

Lavender Farm, home to delicious ice cream

I had one more torturous climb over the foot hills of Maerewhenua Spur before the final run to Dansey Pass Motorcamp. One of the many things I appreciate about cycle touring is the surprising camping grounds you find, that you would have never found otherwise. They are so often wonderful little gems in amazing locations, sometimes having used old forgotten buildings in creative ways – for example, there were toilets in old concrete water tanks at Curio Bay camp, the kitchen and recreation room at Riverton’s camp was in an old community hall, and the cabins at Waipara where in 80 year old train carriages.

Dansey Pass motorcamp was no exception. Located on the bend of a pool and riffle sequence of the Maerewhanau River you could tyre-tube down the river ending in a spectacular swimming hole surrounded by large water-smoothed schist blocks. Or, like my camp neighbour, you could fly fish or pan for gold just meters from your cabin. Difficult times indeed!

Dansey Pass Motorcamp

Rail Trail to Naseby

Day 12: Middlemarch to ‘just out of’ Waipiata 55km (687k)

Today I cycled the last third of the Otago Rail Trail from Middlemarch to Waipiata. The first 14k or so out of Middlemarch was all a bit …. ah linear. So I tore through the quiet ho hum and sweat odour of farm life in conversation with myself – the Rock and Pillar Range on left and the invisible Taieri River on the right. Paddocks. Sheep. Peddle. Paddocks. Sheep. Peddle.

It wasn’t until the valley narrowed, and the schist bluffs appeared, along with man’s determination to tame the landscape for the railway, that things became more interesting.

Taieri Gorge Selfie

Prices Creek Tunnel – 151m

Tunnel Selfie

Ganger sheds, platforms, plaques, and original station buildings allowed those interested to fill their heads with historical facts and figures about the railway that breathed life into central Otago at the turn of the 19th century. Although, I have to admit that I wasn’t all that engaged in this particular aspect having done this ride twice before – so I tended to stop in the shade to read my book instead.

Hyde Station

Hyde Station

The cycling was breezy – slightly downhill with a wind pushing me along – so it wasn’t long before I was at the pub in Waipaita eating buffalo wings and drinking ginger beer.

Bridge 1.5km from Waipiata

Once satiated with spicy goodness, I filled up all my water receptacles at the bar then shot back 1.5k to an informal camping spot by a bridge on the edge of the Taieri River. I pitch my tent under the crack willows, and with not a soul around I baked body and soul in the sun, read my book and took an unplanned afternoon nap. Ahh – bliss!

Waipiata Informal Camp – Otago Rail Trail

Day 13: Waipiata to Naseby 25 + 10km trails (722k)

The forecast was cloudless and hot, so I was up and packed at the crack of dawn. The fog lifted, the wind died, and the temperature dialled up. It was hot by the time I got to the home of tractors (Ranfurly) and sweltering by the time I got to Naseby at 11am.

“2000 feet above worry level”

Naseby township’s welcome sign

Naseby Holiday Park is situated right next to Swimming Dam, and since I was swimming in sweat I quickly pitched my tent and headed over to the dam. Unfortunately this is what presented itself – a flotilla of humanity in all its fun shapes, sizes, and blowup ride-on-things – a.k.a an introverts worst nightmare.

Swimming Dam

So I photographed the evidence then sauntered disappointingly back into town, bought an ice cream and a $1 map of the towns walking and mountain bike trails from the lovely lady at the information centre.

Despite the heat, I relieved my bike of all it’s panniers and hit the “water-race trail”, a meandering Grade 2 that my touring bike could handle. The Mt Ida water-race was constructed between 1873 and 1876 to provide the water needed to extract alluvial gold from the hills around Naseby. The race is 100km long ending in Naseby – with its source coming from the Manuherikia River near Mt Bathans – however I only followed it for five or six kilometres. I wound my way in and out of valleys and pines, all on a perfectly friendly gradient that crisscrossed the more adventurous mountain bike tracks.

Hoffmans Dam

Following water race

Coalpit Dam

The rocky landscape and pine trees gave off a decidedly North American vibes, and a few kilometres in I came across two pretty tree hemmed dams – Coalpit Dam and Hoffmans Dam. Best of all there was not a blow-up unicorn to be found, thus finding my afternoon bliss. It was not until hunger and a cooler bite to the wind that I reluctantly peddled my way back to the cacophony of the popular and populated Naseby holiday park.

Heritage buildings – Naseby

RnR Required – Otago

Day 8: Ahuriri flat to Dunedin 112km (594k)

Yuk! Leaving the Caitlin’s behind I find myself back on Statehighway 1, hurtling trucks and SUV’s towing oversized caravans and trailers, all whilst being squished onto the narrowest of road margins. Thank God for the dark humour of my audiobook “Blow” which distracted me from todays long, terrifying and tedious ride.

Sod Hut – State Highway One

Day 9: Dunedin 0km

The signs were there waking up from Day 7 – puffy bleary eyes, lacklustre energy, but waking up from Day 8, I couldn’t ignore the signs anymore. Aghast at my reflection, I looked like I had serious health issues. It was all a bit alarming to be honest. What was obvious, was that 600km in 8 days without any real preparation for such a physical onslaught was having its toll on my body, which was now experiencing some sort of cortisol overload. Okay, okay, it was time to a) consult Dr Google, and b) re-evaluate my plans.

Thus my day in Dunedin was sit-on-my-arse- sedentary. Whilst all other campers departed for their days activities, I was left as the lone camper at a picnic table with her book. Even though my camp was at St Clair’s surf beach, I did not so much look at the beach. Movement was reduced to toilet breaks and cups of tea, and the enjoyment of my trashy detective who-done-it book. At 4pm I was picked up and transported by car to a BnB in Middlemarch, where I was presented with a real bed with real sheets … and was asleep by 8:30pm.

Day 10/11: Middlemarch: 38km (632k)

Having sentenced myself to bed rest and light duties, I allowed myself one activity per day. My first of which was a 20km round trip (plus an hours walk) to Sutton Salt Lake – New Zealand’s only inland salt lake. The lake’s salinity is blown in as ocean aerosols and washed in as chemical erosion of nearby rocks and soils. As the lake has no outlet, the salt in the lake concentrates via tens of thousands of years of rain and evaporation cycles.

Once at the lake, I found a comfy rock to perch upon and busied myself with reading my newly purchased light comedy novel, and intermittently photographing the lake and hunting geckos.

NZ Gecko

Salt Lake

Sutton Salt Lake

Later that night I was spoilt with smoked trout, roast lamb, veg, and raspberry custard tart for dinner. For company I had the BnB owners, a retired musician and his Danish sound-therapist wife, and a truck driver come international snare drummer, and three dogs. An interesting evening. Starting to feel somewhat restored!

The next day I decided to hike up the Rock and Pillar Range along Glencreag track to Big Hut. It turned out to be a rather arduous climb that gained in excess of 1000m over 5km of trail. The track follows six mile creek and passes through grassland, alpine tussock and hebes, and onto the tundra tops. It also passes a delightful little alpine flower garden in a small wind protected swale. It took three hours to finally reach the hut – finally – as I was starting to doubt there actually was one!

Alpine Garden

Six Mile Creek

Big Hut est. 1946

Arriving at Big Hut

View down to Taieri Plain

The wind was cold and proper howling on the tundra tops so sheltering inside Big Hut for my lunch – which housed several rooms and a ping pong table – was appreciated.

Big Hut replaced Top Hut – which was of schist construction with one wall being the big Boulder out the front – in 1946. And the colloquially named “rock and pillar breeze” requires there to be guide-ropes from hut door to long-drops which are themselves bolted and lashed down with spar wires from all corners – a little breeze huh?! Big Hut was intensively used as a ski lodge between 1946 and 1953, but with the building of a lodge on the more accessible Coronet Peak in 1954 regular skiing on the Rock and Pillars ceased.

Lenticular cloud aka “Taieri Pet”

On the way down – which only took an hour – I was treated to the awesome cloud formation known locally as the Taieri Pet. This pancake layered cloud formation which is commonly seen in the Taieri valley forms when high norwesterly winds blow over the Rock and Pillar range.

The Caitlins

Day 5: Riverton to Fortrose 89km (354k)

Well that was boring. Flat. Long. Straight. Farms farms farms, and hurtling milk tankers. The most interesting parts of today was the nativity scene made of hay bales and getting to my destination.

Hay-bale nativity scene- the most interesting thing I saw all day

Fortrose has a freedom camp right on the edge of an estuary where a small number of campers had come to say the night. I camped between a group of Christmas Day revellers whose language and abuse of one another got progressively worse with the number of drinks consumed, and an inspirational 70-plus gentleman who was car camping prior to hitting Stewart Island to do some pack-rafting!

The day ended basking in the sun and making Yuletide phone calls to family, all of which made up for any hardship my arse was feeling. Christmas dinner was spicy 2-minute noodles with tomatoes and tinned chicken.

Fortrose – prefect end to a long day

Day 6: Fortrose to Curio Bay 46km (400k)

The cycling today was stunning with a blue-bird day and bright turquoise blue pacific, sand dunes shimmering in mint-green grass not yet dried by the summers heat, rolling pastures dotted with sheep, a road lined in flowering flaxes and cabbage trees, and hardly any traffic.

Cycling included many many views like this

Along the Caitlin’s coastal highway you are also spoilt for choice when it come to thing to explore; from light houses, to bush walks, to beaches, to waterfalls – lots and lots of waterfalls!!

Waipapa Point Lighthouse – built of Kauai and 44 feet tall

However today was suppose to be my first ‘rest day’ having only 33km of easy cycling to Curio Bay. So I tried to limit the number of side excursions that would up my distance, to only points of interest that were either very close to the main road, or to places I hadn’t already explored on previous trips. This plan worked well until I got a bit over zealous with my hiking (different muscles right!!)

I was so excited to get to the Caitlin’s Conservation area – as at this point I was a little over the farm-scape – thus I was enticed by a sign that read “walking tracks” and headed up a gravel road into the bush. Here I had lunch, then went for a bit of a 2 hour run-hike to see the Waipohatu waterfalls. It wasn’t the prettiest of bush walks I’ve been on but the large Rimu trees were impressive. The track was muddy and overgrown with lots of uphill. The air was damp and humid. I was cranking out a good sweat so when I got to those waterfall I jumped right in naked.

Waipohatu waterfalls and stream

I’m not sure where the day went, but I didn’t get to Curio Bay until dinner time. The blue sky was quickly being swallowed by rain clouds so I just had enough time to quickly explore Curio’s rock pools and take a fast walk along Porpoise Bay (of which a small pod of porpoises were playing!) before the sky opened for the night. I ended the day relegated to reading in my tent drinking far too many cups of hot mint chocolate – my new favourite drink.

Cool geology

Cool rock pools and kelp forests

Porpoise Bay, Curio

Day 7: Curio Bay to Ahiriri Flats 82km (482k)

There were a lot of knee grinding hills today, and cycling conditions were great – no wind, temperatures in the low teens and overcast – which all contributed to me feeling pretty good all day. A lot of the riding was through cool forest which I found more enjoyable that farmland, and my day was peppered with side excursions and coffee stops, but I resisted the urge to go on any long hikes to waterfalls.

Waikawau Jailhouse

Niagara Falls Bridge

Tautuku Saltmarsh

Lake Wilkie

Old Coach Trail, Papatowai – where the bush meets the sea

Tunnel Hill

I arrived at Hillview campsite in time for dinner, and pitched my tent as it started spitting rain, so like yesterday another well timed conclusion to my riding.

Hillview Camp

Hillview camp is a cute little camp in the middle of nowhere, complete with wandering chickens and nosey cows and llamas. There were only two guests, myself and a local Māori lad that worked down the road at a cafe at Kaka Point and lived in a cabin here. According to the owner – Kevin – in pre-COVID times the camp would be full and spilling over into the neighbouring paddock at this time of year. In fact, my whole travels through the Caitlin’s I was surprised by how little traffic there was, and the general lack of holiday makers in this beautiful part of the world.

The rain set in for the night, so I holed up in the kitchen, ate and read, then finally feel asleep to the putter patter of rain on my tent.

Beautiful Quartz beaches of the Caitlins