Day 11 Kurow to Duntroon

Leaving Kurow. It's mostly overcast, not too cold, windy - but windy from the right direction :-) Our ride to Duntroon was always going to be short, with this wind, so much wind, right behind us, it's going to be very easy too. Tomorrow unfortunately, the forecast is for the wind to be in the opposite direction - but not nearly as strong.

Soon after leaving we get a view of the Waitaki river. We will be following it all day, but because we will be low, and the river is wide and braided, we probably won't see much of it. There is gorse here, lots of it. Surprisingly this is the first significant patch I have noticed on the A2O course. Blackberry too, and I have not seen much of that either until now. We meet several more of the annoying gates, but these are all mounted on cattle stops, so the height is standard and as designed. So much better :-) Bike and trike pass through them without problem.

The track here is through farmland. Nice but mostly grass and cattle, not so interesting. I am amused and impressed by this field of stones the farmer has cultivated for turnips or brassicas - cattle feed for winter I expect.

We ford a number of little streams. Sau Keng is a bit over-cautious at first, but gains confidence and skill with practice.

The valley closes in, we are in limestone country. An impressive bluff on our right has a carpark and visitor information. Ancient Māori used to use this as a shelter when travelling west or collection food in this area. There were a lot more wetlands around here then - waterfowl, eels, raupo could be collected. There are Māori paintings here - the reason for the carpark and information boards - but now it's closed off. Other cyclists arrive, nice to talk with them.

Duntroon. Pub. Cafe. Serve yourself petrol station. A few houses... And a few interesting things :-)

An excellent old blacksmith shop with the tools and forge looking very authentic.

An impressive church - most small towns have one of these.

Quirky looking toilets

Subterranean water. A small sinkhole has revealed a subterranean stream - divers have explored it for 300 m. The water is very good and is used by the local brewer.

We like the Pink pig cafe, they make an extremely good omelet for my lunch. Unfortunately too busy for us to lurk here and work.

We are staying in the hotel here - as are the others in the Pink Pig. It's still an hour before check in time but the hotel lets us in anyway. We get a bit of work done then come down for dinner. They put on a good meal. All the guests are cyclists, including two Australians we have met earlier several times. We have a good chat with them.

Statistics

Distance 28 km

Climbed 53 m

Time 1:54