Starting the Otago Central Rail Trail

March 16, 2023

Day 1 of 3 days on the Otago Central rail trail took us from Middlemarch to Waitipiti. The trail was a real railway from 1921 to 1990 when it was closed for good. The cycle pathway was one of the first in NZ and with over 10,000 participants annually it is great success, thus leading to many more cycle trails. I am actually happy to be on the rail trail because the roads around here are very hilly. It is serious sheep/lamb farming here with miles and miles of nothing. We are now in Waipiti for the night at the only place in town. The countryside is lovely but quite desolate.

The eggs here are amazingly good so I often have poached eggs on toast with spinach.

I met up with Tim here for breakfast before we left Dunedin. I will see him again in Queenstown.

The beach outside of Dunedin, a surfer’s paradise.

At the start of the trail, it was cool but I overdressed.

There was serious train accident on this route in 1943. This monument was created in memory of the 21 who died (19 men and 2 women).

One of several former rail stations not unlike the Le Petit Train du Nord in Quebec

A tunnel that we passed through with more to come

Along the trail they have re-created the solar system where every cm equals a 1000kms between the planets. Here we obviously have Saturn.

There is always one who doesn’t follow the rules and outside the boundaries

One of the bridges we crossed where they left the rails

A map of the whole trail with the gradient that is only 1-3% because it was a real railway. The arrows show are stop points along the trail.

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 736 km (457 miles)

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