Day 12 Duntroon to Oamaru

Today we have a decent ride. The last couple of days have been short and easy. Oamaru is 55 kilometres away and there will be hills. Forecast is for a colder day and a light head wind. As we leave there is no wind at all. Lovely.

I like these big irrigators, they are more capable than one might first think. They can pivot at each joint and the drives can be programmed to fold the structure to accommodate odd field shapes.

We are in limestone country. I always like the bluffs and outcrops.

This feels much more like the North island landscape we rode through earlier this year, with rolling green hills.

Is this Elephant rock? We can imagine a trunk...

No, these are the Elephant rocks

We were riding up the Mareawhenua river valley, a very gentle climb through pretty farmland. I thought we would ride to the end of the valley - but no, our track turned up the side of the valley and took us though the limestone and now is climbing seriously. It does give us some great views - when I pause and look back.

The climb steepens then ends at a hut on a gravel road, I guess we will be riding on it for a while. Another group of riders are here, this is a good time for a chat.

The gravel road turns a corner, and climbs steeply again. I'm glad to get to the top and ride to a farmhouse we join a larger road - but still gravel.

WTF? We are climbing steeply again. This time we reach the real top, there is almost a plateau up here.

Soon the road descends. We pass four of our fellow riders who have stopped for a break and snack. Just past them we come to the Rakis railway tunnel. It looks old and a sign says "Minimize time inside" I wonder where this railway line went, and when it was removed. We will probably follow it to Oamaru so there will be easy gradients for the rest of our ride :-)

A field of barley, a beautiful green

We can now attest to the effectiveness of these irrigators!

Because of the watering troughs I think this huge field is being converted for dairying. They are doing a good job of it. The white piles beside the troughs are stones I think, so the ground around the tank does not become muddy. An excavator is working. The ground has been plowed and is being prepared for sowing. Beside the road is a buffer area fenced off and planted in trees. Around the corner is the irrigator. It must be a massive financial commitment. I can see why farmer are trending towards more intensive farming practices... which I don't really like.

We are at Enfield. Some of the riders we met yesterday continued riding and stayed here overnight. Maybe at this pub? Our first thought is 'lunch'. Our second thought is 'too many people, too long to wait'. We'll have a muesli bar for lunch and carry on.

All the clients are riders of some sort - the motorcyclists being the large majority today

Young cows, curious cows. As often happens Sau Keng draws a crowd!

We've been riding through the outer suburbs, now, nice! Oamaru gardens, they are very good - and we are almost there.

I see the sea! The Pacific ocean. The end of the A2O trail :-) We pose and get a passerby to photograph us. As we are leaving, some of our fellow riders arrive, so back to the picture frame and many more photos are taken. Today has been our most social ride so far. We saw more other riders and most of them we knew to some degree :-), so there was much more talking. It's a pity this is the end for the others and most of them are going home today. I think it's best to have a day to unwind and appreciate something like this.

Oamaru has a nice quirky little 'Victorian' area, dominated by the Steampunk museum. The main road is very wide and lined exclusively with Victorian era buildings. Very nice! It continues for a long way - until the Countdown, in standard, inappropriate corporate green. Sham on you!

The playground is interesting and carries on the steampunk theme

In the evening we ride out to the penguin colony to watch them as they come in from the sea. On the way we pass an old wooden pier with many, many shags resting at the end, this could be an attraction of its own.

The cliffs beside the road are dramatic too.

"No photos during the performance" But the show has not started, this penguin is early coming home.

We enjoyed the show, about 300 penguins arrived and some hopped past us very close. They are really cute. Surprisingly the seals were not mentioned at all!

The church and main street look great at night

Statistics

Distance 60 km

Climbed 537 m

Time 4:40