Day 8 - Duntroon to Oamaru

Ready to go - Constable Cottage

Our last day on the trail. I have felt better and better as the ride has gone on and on the last day part of me was ready to find another trail to do.

It was a bit chilly when we emerged from the warmth of our comfortable bed. However, 50 odd kilometres of riding was awaiting us and we had to be in Oamaru by 2:00pm.

Rachel and Barry's home

After a wander around the lovely cottage garden of Rachel’s home, we commenced the last leg about half an hour later than planned.

The trail took us to “Elephant Rocks”, passing through at least one dairy farm. It was easy cycling until there was a bit of a climb. The rocks are on private land and are interesting to look at. I guess someone at some time thought that they looked like stone elephants but I didn’t see any resemblance. Still, they were unusual and interesting shapes.

Elephant Rocks

Switch back pain at the end of this idyllic scene

The trail continued beside the road for another half kilometre then left the road to go through another farm. I thought we were going to go downhill or on the flat through a small valley. How wrong I was. There was a short sharp switchback that had me puffing to get up, then a reasonable climb through the farm to intersect with the road where I had a moment to catch my breath. The trail descended for a little while through limestone country with the track still going through farmland. We joined a rarely used rural road for a kilometre or two of fast riding. Then we followed the road for a few kilometres before turning off to follow a stream. The trail had been affected by flooding recently and there were parts which were down to bedrock which made it a challenge to ride over, slowing us down considerably. Then we had another significant climb. First it was up a very steep incline and it seemed no one got the gear right and had to push their bike for last five metres. A short sharp ride took us up to a shelter. At that point I thought that most of the climbing was over. Not a chance. The road was flat and then it climbed, and climbed and climbed. B & I managed to do the whole climb without stopping and I am sure it was at least as steep as the climb to Benmore dam.

Almost there

From there it descended to our rest stop for lunch. At that point, by my calculations, we were a bit behind schedule for getting to Oamaru. It was a quick lunch with a couple who had been riding e-bikes. They kept passing us on the hills (which they made look easy) but for some reason on the flat we were quicker. Apparently once over 26kph, the electric assist cuts out and they have to pedal. So, on downhill and flat sections we tended to be quicker. The husband had long standing injuries from playing soccer, so an E-bike was the only way he could join his wife to do the ride. A great option.

Limestone cliffs

The next part of the ride took us through a very dark rail tunnel, that had closed in 1930. B’s imagination ran rife when she spotted an unidentified large, black, sealed plastic bag which had been deposited in there. The trail followed the track for about three kilometres before we left it to join the road. Just as we were leaving our lunch place, another cyclist came past and said there was a coffee place in Windsor, not far up the road. Sure enough, a very cute coffee place with a very friendly host, was selling coffee out of an old church. The coffee was not too bad either.

Lunch

The track undulated from there on and a good part it was alongside a road before it turned into a whole lot of farms, all of which were dairy farms. The path followed a stream which was a brown rancid foul-smelling sewer. So much for dairy farmers cleaning up their act.

At Enfield we came across the Aussie cyclists we’d previously encountered, and one of the other cyclists. Her mate had managed to fall off her bike at a cattle stop and her hand had become stuck in it. She had been taken to hospital for treatment – the second injury we were to learn of.

It was about twelve kilometres to the final stop in Oamaru and I figured that if it was flat we would

Old Rail Tunnel

be there about 2pm. As it turned out it was anything but. While the hills weren’t steep they certainly slowed us down. The final run to town took us through the Oamaru Gardens which were quite large and very pretty.

After a quick ride through the buzzing Victorian Quarter we came to the end or our ride on the foreshore at 2:30pm. We took photos to mark the occasion and then went on to find the Cycle Journeys’ depot to get our shuttle back to Twizel where we’d left the car.

The day was much harder than I expected but with new found fitness I really enjoyed it. A little less pressure timewise however, would have been good and would have allowed us a look at some of the interesting sights we spied on the latter part of the ride.

Now to plan the next cycling adventure……

Total Distance cycled: 55km; cycling time 3h20; Elapsed time 5 hours.