Day 1 Queenstown to Ophir

We were woken up, properly, by a bus deciding to start up outside our bedroom at 6am.  In the quiet of the Queenstown morning it was a bit of a shock.   However, it did get us moving, packed and breakfasted.  Our transport to Clyde arrived just as we were taking the bags to the front of the hotel.  I had to drop off the car at the Airport so he was happy to pick me up from there as he was picking up others from there too. 

Ready to leave Clyde

The journey to Clyde took a little while as he did a bit of a tour of the place so it was around 11am before we got to Clyde.  We then had the mandatory DVD to tell us how to ride a bike, and finally they fitted the bike to us.  That all took time!  Bev had to change her bike as the seat was too low, however it was very well organised and the staff were very friendly and helpful.  Finally we were loaded up.  Two panniers on my bike (why do I always take the weight) and we headed for the river, first to get some dried apricots from a producer on the south side of the Clutha, then to ride the river trail (12 kilometres), which was a bit of an extra,  to Alexandra.  We found the dried apricot people OK and got a couple of bags them.  We thought we could join the trail from one of the side roads but that was not possible.  It meant returning to the bridge where the trail began.  The trail was really neat. Narrow but quite fast enabling us to quickly get used to the bikes.  It was a bit up and down but that added to the fun.  About halfway down the trail if climbed a bit  at the Earnscleugh and  we could see all these tailings from the dredging of the river.  They are almost like mountains.  They did this until the early 1960s.  There is a substantial part of the river bottom on the side of the river now, which is completely unproductive unless they use it as gravel or the like.  Near the end of the trail , across the river from Alexandra town centre we came across this very cute seat set in an old bath tub, of which we took photos of ourselves in it.

Relaxing in the bath

It was about 3:00pm when we got to Alexandra, a little hungry. We had lunch, refilled water bottles and looked at how far we had to go; it was around 29kms.  A quick calculation suggested it was going to be around 6:30pm before we got to Ophir.  No problem as there was plenty of light in which to cycle.  It was very nice and warm sitting at the café so we were in no real hurry. 

About to go on the rail trail proper

After cycling through Alexandra we found the trail well marked at Alexandra Station.  There is no station there now but it was where it stood about twenty years ago.  We made a bit of false start as we saw a sign to a “shaky bridge” but it turned out to be a stiff hill climb to a café and it was here that Bev learnt how easy it was for a chain to come off her and how useful it was to have a male nearby to fix it. 

The trail is gravel which was quite easy to ride on, but you still have to work.  The bikes are really good; new and easy to ride.  The tyres are a cross between a road tyre and a mountain bike tyre which were really suitable for the track.  The first part of the track was straight and fairly level.  In fact, apart from the beauty surrounding us it was quite boring.  The first stop was Galloway, a trip of about 7km.  Then it was another 10km to Chatto Creek.  I thought it was 3km and could not understand why it had not appeared.  Finally we arrived there.  The track had begun to climb so I was starting to feel it in my legs, and in my bum. High cloud had come over and there was a stiff northerly blowing making it somewhat harder work than earlier. 

Local art work on the trail

At Chatto Creek we filled our bottles and took a picture.  The next stage was Chatto Creek to Ophir.  The woman the hotel where we filled the bottles said she would phone ahead to let the people at Blacks Hotel know that we were on our way and that we  would be rather late. 

Out of Chatto Creek we began a climb up Tiger Hill.  It was in the form of sweeping S bend and the gradient was 1:50 as opposed to 1:70.  We were having to work a bit particularly as the wind had got up and was in our face.  The landscape is the Central schist which is part of the landscape.  Some of the land looks very poor, other parts were surprisingly green.  Apparently they had had a third of their annual rainfall already. We felt like we chugged up Tiger Hill and I could almost imagine a steam engine really having to work hard to get up the hill, puffing a blowing smoke, steam and sparks and the poor fireman working hard to shovel coal into the furnace.  About two thirds of the way up we came across several old apple trees which were the result of passengers tossing there apple cores from the train.  The apples were ready to eat so we picked a few before continuing on our way.  Finally we reached the top and then it was this wonderful fast ride down the other side to Omakau.  I got up to around 26km/h. At Omakau we followed the signs to Ophir, It was very speedy on nice smooth tar seal to Ophir where we found the hotel and relief for my bum which was letting me know that I had been sitting on it for most of the day.  The joy of a shower after 50kms of riding was something to behold.  

Dinner was quite late and we both had beer battered blue cod and chips; the chips were perfection, crisp and fluffy inside.  They had obviously got the temperature perfect.  The blue cod was pretty good too.  It was a great way to end the day. 

Day one ended with me putting  my head on the pillow and going to sleep immediately, with a delicious feeling of fatigue and knowing that after 50kms I could do the next without feeling too bad.  My bum was feeling OK although there were some tender bits.  It was going to be interesting to see if it repaired itself overnight or whether I should have bought some of the anti-chaffing cream at Trail Journeys.