Day 4 Temuka to Fairlie

Colin Grierson
Nov 23, 2024
3 min read

We are leaving early, on the road at 7:30 because rain is forecast for the afternoon. Now it is overcast and cool, but fine for riding.

10 km takes us to Pleasant Point. We have been here before two years ago. We drove here from Fairlie then rode the cycle track to Timaru and back. Pleasant Point is another tidy little town. The old railway station seems the main feature. There is a kilometre or two of railway lines remaining and an old steam engine they fire up every month or so. There is a bit of quirkiness too. Such as the 'Bike park' we found just out of town.

Amusing handrail near the old railway station

We had heard the cycleway had been extended towards Fairlie, but could not confirm this on the Internet. I see a couple of cyclists heading in the right direction... A local appears on a bicycle. We ask him and are told the cycleway now extends to Fairlie - maybe with a few short gaps. Good. We were planning to take the back road up Middle valley. We will take the cycleway instead.

But first there is cute cafe, with a cycle parked outside. The weather is looking okay, we'll have a coffee. The cyclist is a very fit looking young woman, probably a southerner as she is not wrapped up like us. She turns out to be friendly and chatty. Today she is riding to Tekapo, twice as far as us. She says she has ridden the Awatere valley to Hamner Springs. We have been considering this for our route to complete our tour, filling in the gap between Picton and Christchurch while avoiding all the main roads. She strongly recommends it to us.

It looks like there is snow underneath the tree ahead. Not possible of course... it's a cottonwood tree, I don't think I have seen one with so much 'cotton' beneath it before.

We met up with our cyclist friend again by a large pig farm. These pigs look very comfortable and content.

Colourful lupins :-) The first we have seen this ride. We have seen thousands of ordinary yellow ones in various riverbeds, but these colourful ones are much more spectacular. I wonder why we do not see them further north?

The cycleway is nice, but it's beside the main road. Finally we turn off and ride beside the Tengawai river near Cave. It's so nice to be away from the traffic. This is a smallish braided river, nice and clean with interesting cliffs in the background. Lupins are not the only colourful flowers around, these orange/yellow ones are beautifully intense. One side of the riverbank has been cleared for at least a couple of kilometers. Why? Flood prevention?

The cycleway takes us to Cave, a very small town, tidy but without even a pub or cafe. It does have a very cute old church.

The cycleway ends here, so we are on the road, but it's not too busy. It was misty when we left, with the forecast threatening rain coming, but instead the weather seems to have improved, we are getting some distance views now.

Another pig farm. There are no farrowing cages here. Happy pigs.

We are at Fairlie and hungry. We have to have a pie from the famous and award winning Fairlie Bakehouse. But we are not the only ones with this in mind and have to queue for 20 minutes. The pies are very good, but we are not pie fanatics.

Our Air B&B home was once a hospital, then for a long time a private rest home. Now is being converted to air B&B and community center. The owners are nice and chatty.