We set out from Oamaru around noon in a heavy rain, headed inland to meet up with Otago Central Rail Trail and get back on course for the West Coast. We tackled a few big hills on the way out of town, but after about an hour the rain and the terrain both eased up significantly. About two hours into the ride we stopped to check out the famous Moeraki boulders, giant rock spheres sitting on the beach like giant's marbles. They formed around 55 million years ago when lime was slowly deposited around a pebble or bit of shell buried on the sea floor to form round boulders. The sea floor was eventually uplifted and the sea eroded nearby cliffs of mudstone to free the boulders onto the beach. We had to walk about a quarter mile down the beach to see them and got thoroughly wet with the incoming tide when we went to explore, so we spent a bit of time drying out and eating lunch before we got back on the road. 80k out of Oamaru we pulled into a free campsite in the town of Dunback and did our best to dry everything out.
Dead pigs tell no tales It was overcast the next morning when we started out, but we appreciated the cooler weather as we turned towards Hyde and began climbing the first of many enormous hills on the Macraes road. The road was gravel and traction was a bit tricky and we spent several hours climbing towards the clouds in a light fog with huge rocks looming out of the fields beside us. We descended into the small mining town of Macraes around 2:45 after passing a full kilometer of fence covered in wild boar and deer hides. We had lunch in a little historical park and left in a light drizzle which soon turned into a full-fledged downpour. More big hills, both up and down, and we finally arrived in Hyde where we picked up the Central Otago Rail Trail for a wet and muddy hour and a half to Waipiata. Along the trail Steve's bike threw us another curveball when his rear derailleur (which hadn't worked properly from the very start) suddenly got caught up in his spokes dragging it up and around and locking his back wheel. He was able to bend it back and place the chain in his lowest gear but shifting was completely out of the question. We limped into Waipiata at 7:15 and beelined for the only pub in town where we spent almost 2 hours around their woodstove attempting to warm up and dry off. They gave us free soup, toast and coffee and when the rain slowed down they directed us to the free camping area in town where we set up our tent. All our bags were thoroughly soaked, but the tent was just damp and the sleeping bag mercifully dry.
Our only "highpoint" on the trail Fortunately for us the next day dawned sunny and warm, so we decided to stay a day at the campsite and dry out all of our things while we tried to figure out what to do with Steve's bike. We called the bike shop in Auckland that had sold us the bikes and told them about all the trouble we'd had from the beginning. They agreed to send us a replacement bike that had just been returned to them in Christchurch, but the closest place with a bus station was another 130k away in Cromwell. Since Steve's bike was technically ridable, if not shiftable, we set out on the trail the next day. We left our campsite at 11 and stopped in Ranfurly for lunch. The trail climbed gradually but steadily upward to the highpoint at 618 meters then went gradually but steadily downhill from there, passing through a bunch of really small towns. There was one interesting section through a gorge with a couple of bridges and tunnels, but other than that it was straight and flat through farmland and we found ourselves getting bored.
Pre-patch job We made it within 10k of Alexandra, the second to last town on the rail trail, but at around 8:15 we had another stroke of bad luck when my back tire blew out. We went to patch it and found that the sidewall of the tire had completely separated from the tread and pinched the tube, causing the flat. It was frustrating but not surprising, considering the tires had been cracked and dry-rotted when the shop sold me the bike, but they assured me they would be fine for a few more months. We put in a new tube and cautiously inflated it enough to be able to push the bike then found a campsite for the night. The next morning I cut a bit of plastic from one of our Tupperware lids and with some duct tape managed to patch the sidewall enough to keep the new tube inside so we could ride to Alexandra. We decided to try and hitchhike the 55k from there to Cromwell since neither of our bikes were fit to ride, but after 2 hours in the hot sun on the side of the road we hadn't had any luck, so I decided to just ride until my tire gave out entirely. Surprisingly after 3 hours of slow cautious riding we pulled into Cromwell with the make-shift patch still intact. We paid to stay at a holiday park so we could take some well-earned hot showers and then moved to a free campground a few K outside of town to await Steve's new bike.
More pictures here!
More pictures here!
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