The bike trail network around New Zealand is getting ever longer. This is a good thing!

In the last year or so, there’s been an extension to the Clutha Gold Trail running from Roxburgh to Lawrence in Central Otago. The extension runs another 62 km from Lawrence to Lake Waihola, which is itself only another 40 km short of Dunedin.

When I was a kid growing up in Central Otago I used to look out the window of the car during long and boring road trips to Dunedin and think about how cool it would be to bike instead. Maybe, I thought, I could do it in a day…?

So while back there on holiday I wanted to give it a go.

With R. and R₂ off to Dunedin to see friends I figured they could pick me up on the way home, and therefore I’d have most of the day to get as far as I could.

I started with a mackerel sky, not too early in the morning, cruising down the wide, compacted path close to the Clutha River.

I had a way to go before getting to Lawrence and the (new to me) piece of trail. After Beaumont the trail leaves the river and heads east following the main road for some time. I had ridden this part of the trail before and I was happy to roll into Lawrence as I was really looking forward to trying the new bit.

In this section, between Lawrence and Waitahuna, the trail takes an opportunity to dive through some very pretty rolling farmland some distance from the main road. It was great to be away from the road! This is one of the nicest sections of the trail, and many thanks to the farmers that have allowed access to their land to make this happen.

I arrived at Waitahuna expecting the cafe at the old railway station there to be open… but… no, it’s only open on some days. (Always check… Facebook.) It was late morning and I was by this time thoroughly sick of muesli bars and having ridden about 60 km. Oh well. Better roll on another 30 km or so to Milton!

Mānuka Gorge is another highlight. After Waitahuna there is a bit of a hill, followed by a tunnel… and a second tunnel, and ending with a viaduct high over a side road. This section was probably my favourite: it’s mostly on an old railway formation and slightly downhill; much of it is in a valley away from the main road and surrounded by trees. I loved speeding down here so much I did not stop for photos.

After this fairly exciting piece I was into the open plains south of Milton grinding on towards lunch. Some friendly walkers told me where the best cafe (The Forum) was, and I stopped there for mince on toast and a coffee.

Revitalised, I continued. North of Milton the trail takes a route through a working dairy farm to get to the railway line, which it follows to Waihola. The dairy farm is apparently owned by Calder Stewart, the local company that makes most of the steel farm sheds and bridges in the lower south. For the trail, they have built lots of bridges around Milton, including these two very cool bridge follies on the dairy farm.

The larger one, further away in this picture, is a memorial for one of the company founders. These are really nice pieces of infrastructure for public use and a great thing for a tired rider to happen across.

I was nearly at the end of the trail now (and starting to feel it). Lake Waihola is a shallow, almost estuarine lake full of birds, and the trail at this point goes over boardwalks in the lake so you can get a better look.

I had to concentrate though… both because I was tired and also because the boardwalks were full of elderly people exercising. By this time it really was a nice sunny day with no wind, and so perfect for people to get out and about. It’s great that there is this multi-use facility for the community to enjoy.

I arrived at Waihola township, trail’s end, where the lake foreshore was full of people picnicking and ducks being opportunists. Given R. and the others were still in Dunedin, and that I now had no desire to continue further up on the main State Highway 1 towards them, I thought I’d double back to enjoy those bridge follies again.

Finally at Milton, I stopped at the nearest park and waited for rescue. I was just about had it, but I was happy. My longest ride in some time, and exploring a new piece of trail!

I’d also figured out the best new bits for the rest of the family to try next time we are in the south. I think they’d love the Mānuka Gorge piece in particular.

Hopefully in the future the trail can be extended to Dunedin. There’s the exciting possibility of a multi-day loop connecting the Otago Central Rail Trail, the Roxburgh Gorge Trail, and the Clutha Gold Trail that is not too far off being realised!

On today’s walk, eight eels and a new pūtangitangi (paradise duck) family…

Previously: tuna (an eel) in the same stream.

It’s possible to want Gaza to be free of war and mass death; to have self-determination as part of a two-state solution… at the same time as wanting the October 7th hostages to be returned to their families.

These are not exclusionary wishes and the average person would surely want both.

But even many thousands of kilometres away, in a local suburban park not visible from the road, it feels like some people don’t want both those things, just one of those things.

I do not think they are making the best case for themselves.

There’s plenty of room around town for both statements to be made separately. Putting one over top of the other is at best a statement of exclusion and at worst one of erasure.

If that is their real message then I think I have received it.

This is my Uncle Norman’s thinking chair. We think he bought it in the 1930s when he was at University.

For most of his life though, it was beside the fire at the farmhouse on the southern border between Otago and Southland, where he would sit at night and read the newspaper or a book.

He’d have needed a nice chair to relax in; the farm he had required a lot of work to bring it into the kinds of verdant green rolling country you see in that area today.

The chair hasn’t always looked as good as this. We’ve just had it re-covered… which entailed it being completely disassembled and rebuilt with new cushions and covers by some super-skilled upholsterers.

I’m just pleased it’s back.

There’s so much good relaxing and pondering to be had from on it.

The blossoms haven’t been quite as profuse this year, but there’s still plenty of flowers and new leaves for the passing birds… like this kererū this morning:

Though it would probably be for the best if we cut out this cherry tree - the species is somewhat invasive here - it’s hard when in spring through to early December it provides such good forage for kererū and tūī.

I mean, just look at this happy face:

Previous springtimes:

• 21 September 2023
• 26 September 2022
• 9 October 2021
• 20 September 2020
• 27 September 2019
• 27 September 2018
• 19 September 2017
• 2 October 2016
• 27 September 2015
• 27 September 2014
• 22 September 2013
• 16 September 2012
• 25 September 2011
• 22 September 2010
• 4 September 2009
• 21 September 2008
• 22 September 2007
• 10 September 2006
• 11 September 2005
• 29 September 2004
• 2 October 2003
• 22 September 2002

Once again, the weekend dawned sunny and calm after an atrocious wet working week. So yes, I found myself up here again.

The tracks were a bit wet and muddy but hey: the sun was out and there was no wind. It wasn’t cold unless you were in the shade and not moving.

So many people were out and about. Lots of runners, some with dogs; a few other mountain bikers; a couple of horses with their riders, and a group of international students taking in the views.

Everyone had that kind of relieved look to once again see blue sky and feel the sun on their faces.

It’s a great feeling.

A nice calm warm winter’s day, after almost a week of average weather. You can guess what I did in the late afternoon.

So here’s a sunsetting view over the Raukawa sea towards the land where the rivers run with greenstone.

Up on the green plateaus of Kilmister Tops was only a whisper of a southerly, and on that breath the fog was slow walking behind me back into the harbour.

It got colder as the sun went, so I turned the bike around and raced down for home, exercise quota for the day fulfilled.

Nothing James Herbert would write about though. Luckily.

It’s been ebbing and flowing into the inner Harbour; when I got to work it wasn’t so bad…

…but it’s rolled back in now, we’ve lost Mt Victoria, and the ships’ foghorns are sounding.

It’s a slightly eerie vibe for our almost deserted Friday office.

More mid-winter sunshine, finally, so I thought I’d ride to the supermarket as if it were summer again… taking Highbury Fling through the bush of the Waimapihi Reserve across to the top of Brooklyn.

In summer the birds are a little more active and you can often hear or see tīeke (saddlebacks) and hihi (stitchbirds) spilling over from the predator-free sanctuary next door. There was little of that today though, just a few walkers picking their way along the muddy track (and none of them were singing).

Out the other side though I get to whiz down the streets of Brooklyn, taking in the views (but trying not to get too distracted)…

Definitely a good way to get the daily exercise in.

Another calm sunny winter day (after some truly rubbish weather earlier in the week), so off to the top of the nearest hill for me.

So this morning - a Sunday! - was cold and clear, but best of all there was no wind… usually I am far too lazy to take advantage of this but luckily not today.

I decided I wanted to try a new (to me) track up in the Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park called Kārearea - it’s downward pointing without being a downhill track, if you know what I mean. But first I had to get to the top of the hill.

Pretty good view from up there:

Lots of people out and about, and it being still relatively early the crowds skewed older and more sedate (which I liked).

It’s always nice to see the streets far below that I rode on to get to the foot of the hill:

From here I could drop down over a couple of remodelled tracks I hadn’t been on in years to get to Kārearea which was as fun and swoopy as the name suggests without being too advanced for my spectacular lack of actual skill.

I carried on across the ridgelines of the Skyline Track to just above Otari-Wilton’s Bush, where I could look back to our house on the hill opposite…

I need to do more of this.

I posted about my new mountainbike a week or so ago, and on Friday I got to pick it up from Jonty’s shop just in time for the long weekend. It could not have been better timed considering the good weather forecast!

I rode it home but with a little detour up Silversky to take a glamour shot of the clean and shiny. It may never look as nice as this again.

I hadn’t ridden my old Kona Satori much since getting a fat-tired road bike, first the Surly Straggler and more recently a Ritchey Outback. By comparison the dual-suspension Satori increasingly felt heavy and sluggish, with the rear suspension feeling like it was sucking energy from me on every uphill pedal stroke. And for lots of easy mountain bike tracks the fat tired road bikes were just fine.

I still felt there was room for a mountain bike in the shed though, so long as I could be guaranteed to ride it more. So I decided I wanted a nice steel hardtail, and settled on the Ritchey Ultra. I like the bike brand (and love my Outback); and its geometry is pretty much identical to the Satori.

Most steel hardtails seem orientated towards people who like far more exciting terrain than I do, whereas the Ultra seems way more balanced and hopefully won’t make any statements about me being some kind of insane shredder. I’m not breaking any records anymore, and I’m not even breaking any of my own from 5 years ago. I just want to get out into the trees or hills and return tired and happy.

Given the value of the Satori after 10 years was probably about $0 (despite it only having travelled about 3,500km) I figured I could save cost and waste by using as many components as possible off the old bike on the new bike.

Jonty did a whole lot of magic to make this work.

• the fork had to go to Shockcraft for shortening and servicing; and
• the rear wheel needed a new hub and spokes from Roadworks so that it would fit the new Boost standard that was invented after the Satori.

That was probably the easier stuff. Since 2013 lots of small things have changed; a major one causing issues here being the presumption that a mountain bike will only have one cog up front so Jonty had to source a special front derailleur hanger to fit with the one off the Satori.

He was able to reuse all the drivetrain (chain, gears, and cranks; reasonably nice Shimano SLX stuff) and brakes (more SLX stuff). It was a bit tricky to fit the mechanism for the front derailleur into the tiny space between rear wheel and seat post, but he did it and it changes flawlessly.

We had to get a new dropper post as the old one wouldn’t fit, and Jonty advised me I should also get a new wider handlebar and shorter stem so we did that too.

So after all that how does it ride?

I love it. It’s only a kilo lighter than the Satori - using all the same components, especially the old wheels doesn’t help here - but it feels a lot lighter and the uphills seem more fun and direct without the rear suspension.

The short stem and wider bar make it more maneuverable and my longer ride today at Makara Peak, whose twisty downward tracks I haven’t ridden in over 5 years, were lots of fun.

So. Now I just need to get out and make a point of using it more.