First, how to get four adults, five children, eight bikes, a tag-along bike and two cars there and back? After much pondering we'd figured out a cunning plan and booked this months ago. Wally and Mike loaded the two cars - our Corolla and their Kia people-mover - up to the ceilings with bikes and luggage, and in the wee hours of Thursday morning took them over on the ferry and down the 4-5 hour drive to Christchurch. The rest of us flew down to Christchurch on Thursday evening, to meet the boys and the cars...
I left work on Thursday and found Toby very happy and excited after the end of term. It turns out that Aunty Sally and Uncle Andrew were off for an adventure too, and were flying to Nelson around the same time as us, so we caught a taxi together to the airport (we picked them up from the Beehive on the way). But first, some last minute fixing-up. Toby's bike had been left behind, and our new bike rack had turned up from Torpedo7.com a day later than we'd expected (be bought it at the very last minute!). So Toby and I wrapped the bike and ordered the taxi. Worked out perfectly.
Toby and I selected a Wishbone butter chicken meal at the airport and ate that with Sally and Andrew while waiting for the Sampsons to arrive. It was a great idea for a quick meal before the flight. Then Lesley arrived with the kids and they all checked in. We waited to see if Hannah could make the flight, and she did! She was off on camp and coming back into Wellington that same evening - it was going to be very, very tight for her to get to the airport in time. But Lesley's Mum picked her up and dropped her off at the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight.
The flight down went very well - it is only 45 minutes. Mike met us at Christchurch and we drove quickly to Rakaia Gorge to the campsite for the night. Wally and Mike had set up camp for the evening. But, Mike had only pitched the tent inner for the Gilbert Tent! He swore that it couldn't possibly rain in the night and it would be much better like that. I was very dubious. But it worked well enough and we had a good sleep.
Next morning we were off bright and early - well, sort of. Getting nine people out of bed, fed, and packed into cars along with tents and luggage is never quick. The Sampsons' Orienteering competition kicked off in Roxburgh around 3pm, so time was tight, and we were cutting it quite fine by the time we got to Cromwell (we went via Tekapo and had lovely views of Mt Cook). You can imagine our dismay when we were almost to Clyde through the gorge when the Sampson's lovely new car broke down! Aaarrgghh. A quick re-assignment of cars meant Wally drove our car to the event, with me, Hannah, Jessica and Brennan. The others - Mike, Lesley, Toby and Chelsea - all stayed with the big car to wait for the tow truck.
The Corolla made it to the Roxburgh orienteering venue in plenty of time for everyone to compete. This was held in Roxburgh East over the Clutha in the Fulton Hogan quarry. I enjoyed watching everyone head off on their sprints. In spite of being in a quarry, the area was really lovely! By the time we all finished and headed back to Alexandra, Mike and the others had everything sorted in the Alexandra Holiday Park - on the highway out of Alexandra towards the rail trail. The Towie had brought the Sampsons' car right to the Holiday Park, so they had been able to unload it before it went off to the garage. The Sampsons had a cabin and we pitched our tent right outside. Perfect. The place was rammed full of people (but not at capacity yet I suspect) and it was very pleasant - but decidedly odd. The bathroom facilities reminded me of concentration camps! - all concrete block and purely functional. But clean, anyway!
Saturday was another competition day at Bannockburn, and the Gilberts stayed back to put on a clothes wash and buy some provisions for the week. The Kia dealer gave the Sampsons a replacement car for Easter, and they ended up with a Nissan double cab 4WD ute, to Wally's delight! So they were off to their day of competition after getting a lift for Hannah with other competitors (the ute was one seat short of accommodating all the Sampsons). After the washing, we Gilberts went into town to look at the dead rabbits from the Central Otago Easter Bunny shoot! There were hundreds, and boy, were they stinky all lying out there in the park in huge rows. We also saw stoats, possums, turkeys, magpies and one wild pig with the shell casing in its eye and a bleeding ear. Toby was impressed! Mike was more amazed at the vehicles they use to shoot from! All sorts of old vehicles with large chunks of metalwork cut off and extra bits welded on to attach seating on the roof and bars to lean guns on.
This was the only day we got a bit of rain - just in the late evening, and it was all over by the time Mike came to bed in the wee hours, after a marathon card game of 'Five Hundred' with Lesley, Wally and Hannah.
Easter Sunday dawned and we ate a lovely breakfast with an impromptu story about Jesus. We decided everyone would add a sentence to the story starting with the youngest (Toby), then the oldest (Wally - so nice it wasn't me for a change!), then second youngest, then second oldest and so on until the story was done. It seemed to work ok. Then it was all about the chocolate! Another day of competition nearby (Earnscleugh), and the Gilberts took the day to visit Mike's Dad at Dunback for the day. It took us 1.5 hours to drive down SH85 from Alex to Dunback and it was a lovely drive. We ate lunch there (after the obligatory walk to the swing bridge and shop) and headed back in time for tea. Tonight we heard the loudspeaker at the campground being used to sing someone Happy Birthday. And later on, an announcement for people to refrain from removing light bulbs from the toilet block. It was a strange place.
Monday was the last day of competition. It was based around Naseby, which was also going to be our base for the Rail Trail, so we all packed up our stuff and relocated to the Larchview Holiday Park. Us Gilberts checked in first and we pitched our tent. There were people still packing up when we were there, and they were certainly struggling to get all their stuff back in their cars with their kids caterwauling in the background! So we held back on pitching the Sampson's tents, and just left them to it.
We had two sites in a corner of the motor camp on our own. This campground was really pleasant in a way the one in Alex hadn't been. The setting was lovely, if a little cold and shaded at this time of year in the mornings and evenings - when the sun went down we all froze! The showers take a one dollar coin to turn on the water for 7 minutes of bliss (the added benefit of getting clean is sometimes a distant second to being nice and warm).
After putting on another wash and hanging it out on the shadiest clothes line I've seen in a long time, we drove down to find lunch and got waylaid by the lovely pub in town (Royal Hotel, because a royal visitor stayed there once - supposedly. Mike thinks it was someone 63rd in line for the throne!). The Sampsons finished their competition and joined us at the pub. Then we headed back up to the motor camp and finished putting the tents up. A quick walk up the hill showed us the swimming dam and everyone thought it looked lovely (but too cold by that time of the day). The campground was surrounded by kilometres of mountain bike trails and we decided we had to give some of the trails a go before we left. Back down to cook dinner and get some sleep. Because...
Next morning was Rail Trail Day! Hooray! We were a bit slow converting from orienteering brains to biking brains, but eventually we got away and headed to Lauder for our first effort. It was 9 kms from Lauder to Omakau and nice and flat. I thought it made a good first ride so we could see how well the kids did. If they managed that, we could continue on from Omakau to Chatto Creek (another 11 kms further). Due to complicated car arrangements ( we were dropping off a third car for other people we knew doing a longer bike trail day than us) I set off from Lauder with all the kids, and Mike, Wally and Lesley would follow on their bikes after doing the car drops. Toby was on his bike and Chelsea and Brennan shared the tagalong. Hannah and Jessica both hooned along on their bikes without any bother. Turns out we blitzed the pack. We made it to Omakau (where we were scheduled to have lunch) before anyone caught us. We'd been there easily 5 or 10 minutes by the time Mike turned up.
So we had lunch when we were altogether, and rode on to Chatto Creek. This was a lovely long descent into Chatto Creek past many people puffing their way up to Omakau. We picked apples on the wayside and generally had a lot of fun. We did 19 kms on this day. Then Mike and Wally raced back on their bikes (taking only 36 minutes to get back to the car at Omakau and adding another 11 kms to their daily total) and came back with the cars. We drove back to the campground and had a lovely evening.
Next day everyone has sore bottoms (not me!) and we drove to Oturehua and did one of the lovelier stretches of the Rail Trail through to Lauder. We went through two tunnels and one big viaduct. Very lovely. Toby shared the tagalong today but easily did another 15 kms on his bike once more. This was our longest day at 23 kms. We found that 20 kms was about the kids limit. The weather was beautiful once more and the ride through the gorges was superb! I loved this part. Lesley and I waited for the cars at the Lauder pub and we enjoyed Sprite and hot chips. When Wally and Mike arrived, Toby rode his bike out to the front through the narrow gateway and clipped his jaw on the gate post. He has a nice scabby mark under his left jaw now. Must have been quite sore but he didn't fuss. We stopped off at St Bathans and the Blue Lake on the way back. This is where the iconic Vulcan Hotel is and I had never been there before. Wally and the kids paddled in the blue lake and we took lots of photos. Nice diversion.
The tired kids and sore bottoms meant we suggested a day off for Thursday and that was gratefully received. Bright and early, Lesley and Wally took the ute and went off in search of their car! Turns out it was a great idea because as soon as they got into cellphone range (only thing bad about that campground was the lack of cellular coverage) they got messages saying their car was ready for pickup in Queenstown. So off they went. Meanwhile we went to the pub for lunch and then off to the dam for a swim. Toby impressed Brennan by jumping off the diving board into the cold, clear dam - twice! Brennan did it once, just to save some face. Hannah also plucked up the nerve to do it - the cold being the disincentive! No way was I going near it. I rode up so I could check out some nearby MTB trails.
After the kids swam for a while, we wandered back to the campground. Chelsea and Toby decided to come on a trail with me. So we set off. Chelsea was unsure where we were headed so stopped on the trail. Toby rode right at her, over-corrected and headed straight for the water race! I was sure he wasn't going to stop in time (braking isn't a strong point of Toby's riding yet) and Chelsea was yelling "Stop Toby!". Toby was making "uh oh" sounds and just managed to stop with his front wheel hanging over the edge. I thought even then he was going in the drink, but he kept it all under control. His wee heart was going flat out though! We continued on the trail with the kids loving the muddy puddles. We rode for about 4 minutes and then turned around. Unfortunately Toby spotted a great trail heading off to our left with muddy puddles and just stopped to ask if we could go down there (you have to be joking - it was too scary for me let alone Chelsea and Toby!). Chelsea rode right into him and clipped Toby's leg and elbow and she then fell off her bike onto her bottom. Manic! We all dusted ourselves off and rode back to the campground.
Then Mike, Hannah and I went for a wee ride ourselves. That was great fun but being clipped into cleats off road is another thing entirely! I was scared! We got back and started tea. Lesley and Wally got back and also had tea and then off to bed.
Next morning was the last rail trail day and we went from Wedderburn to Oturehua. Unfortunately this was a steep uphill (as far as a rail trail goes) and was single track, with large rocks and deep gravel and Toby got cross with his lack of progress. So it was slow alternating between Chelsea on the taglong and then Toby when he was too cross. But we got up to the high point on the trail, took photos and Toby rode the rest of the way. This was our shortest day as I didn't realise it was only 11 or 12 kms from Wedderburn to Oturehua. Hannah, Lesley and I added 4 kms on to complete the wee section from Oturehua to the Idaburn Dam where we started on Wednesday.
So now we have done Wedderburn to Chatto Creek. http://www.otagorailtrail.co.nz/ All good fun and we'll do it again when Toby is 10 years old and up to an adult bike size. I felt sorry for him on the steep uphill out of Wedderburn. He has to pedal like mad to get his wee wheels up the hills. And even coming down the other side, he pedalled the whole way. Whereas I had to only pedal occasionally to keep up with him. But he did very well.
Instead of staying Friday night in Naseby, Mike's parents suggested we stay at Dunback to make it easier for getting away Saturday morning and for them to collect Toby easily. So we took up that offer and struck the tents in record time (1 hour) and headed off to Dunback. We stopped off to see the Dead Horse Pinch plaque with a photo of oxen wagons on the same spot as the current SH85. Then back in the car to Dunback and time to cook tea and sleep in the warmth! We all crashed in our sleeping bags on the floor and on top of beds. Thank you, Nana and Granddad! Such a pleasant way to spend our last night with Toby for a week!
Up the next morning to pack up. Toby took everyone to see the swing bridge and to the general store to buy lollies. Mike's parents had arrived to collect Toby. We all waved goodbye to the Sampsons as they headed north at 10.45am and we packed up our car and said our goodbyes to Toby and Mike's parents. By this stage (as Mike had correctly guessed) Toby was happier to be staying in Dunedin without the lure of the Sampson children to distract him. He didn't even bother coming down to wave goodbye to us. He was content with shouting goodbye to his Dad from the lounge! Fortunately his Dad went in for a goodbye hug!
We caught up with the Sampsons at Moeraki and then drove in convoy to Ashburton, staying at Coronation Park in two cabins with ensuites and soft beds! Luxury! Room for 8 in each cabin, and yet it only cost $208 for the two of them. Bargain!
Up early Sunday for the drive to the airport and a text from Granddad saying Toby had a serene morning eating pears and toast. Mike and Wally dropped us off and we caught an easy flight to Wellington. Mike and Wally headed straight to Picton and just managed to get on the earlier 3pm sailing rather than their scheduled 7pm sailing so they got in nice and early Sunday night! Hooray.
What a fabulous week. Economically, the Rail Trail has done wonders for the region. No wonder the business leaders wanted to create a nation-wide cycle path. They see it working miracles down here and assume (rightly or wrongly) that it'll do the same in other places. Well, maybe. Time will tell. But the towns and pubs and accommodation down here are doing a booming trade. There were cars with bikes on the back all over the place. There were many tour operators driving people and bikes around. All the pubs and shops on the route were full of cyclists supping coffee. Naseby is not the derelict town I remember from 15 years ago. There are mountain bikers all over the place and the pubs are busy. And we had the best weather you could imagine. No rain. Lots of sun. Not too hot though. Perfect conditions.
Wee Toby is now quite good at cycling. We need to get out to the Hutt River trail when we visit Aunty Sally and Uncle Andrew and perhaps do the Rimutaka Incline with Toby too. He needs to be able to stand up on his pedals and change gear when he needs to. Yes - he did the riding on the trail in 2nd gear the whole way. We can't get his bike into 1st gear very often. So 2nd it is. Always. So Toby does have to get better at it all. But now we know he can do it, and I think he quite likes it.
We've put some more photos up for you to have a look at, too:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mrgilbe1/EasterOtagoRailTrail#
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