The Clutha Gold Trail

After the unfortunate events of the previous day, we were somewhat relieved to find Maggie feeling considerably better this morning. Although she was still lacking any sort of energy, she was at least able to walk short distances and enjoy some conversation with the rest of the group.

After breakfast at the Lake Roxburgh Lodge we loaded back onto the bus for the transfer to the start of the ride. Today we rode alongside the Clutha River on the so called Clutha Gold Trail.

The height of the New Zealand Gold Rush was a little later than the Australian gold rush, hitting its peal in the 1860s. The Clutha Gold Trail was built to follow the Clutha River through the region where the most gold mining took place.

With Maggie feeling better, I was able to resume my place in the peleton, while she travelled in the bus. Our ride started in the Beaumont Gorge, and we quickly enjoyed the smooth flowing character of the trail. With the mighty Clutha River on our right and rugged mountains close by, it was a magical place to enjoy a beautiful ride.

I am not sure if I have already said much about the bikes we are riding on this trip. They are ebikes manufactured for Adventure South by a company called SINCH. The bikes are equipped with Shimano motors (not my favourite), but are speed limited to 32 kph (not the 25 kph we are restricted to in Australia).

It really was exciting to be able to ride without the artificial speed restriction, Since there were very few places were we could exceed 32 kph, to all intents and purposes it felt like they were completely unrestricted. The feeling was exhilarating. They also had plenty of torque for the often very steep gradients we faced. I would have loved to have taken mine home with me, I guess it is a case of the "other man's grass is always greener".

One fascinating place that our guide David took us to was the famous grave of "Someone's Darling". At Horseshoe Bend, near Millers Flat there are two lonely graves. The first was the final resting place of an unknown female whose body was found by a local man. Here is the story:

An anonymous grave at Horseshoe Bend, probably of an 1860s miner, was provided with a headboard by local man William Rigney, who added the words, ‘Somebody’s darling lies buried here.’ A new headstone, reproducing the words, was put in place in 1903. Rigney died in 1912 and was buried next to the earlier grave, his headstone marked with the words ‘The man who buried “Somebody’s Darling”’.

This was a fascinating insight into an act of compassion shown by a man in a bygone time. We stopped by the graves for some time to reminisce on the story, before resuming our ride.

After lunch in the quaint gold rush town of Lawrence, we resumed the ride up to the 440 metre long Big Hill Tunnel. Even with a headlight on the bike, it was almost impossible to discern the way ahead, and at one stage I found myself perilously close to the brick wall on the left had side. I swerved back to the centre of the path and narrowly averted disaster.

Somehow we all managed to emerge uninjured at the other side and were amazed at how cold the air coming out of the tunnel was. It was a welcome natural air conditioner on a hot day.

The Big Hill Tunnel marked the highest point of the ride and it was a gentle downhill the rest of the way to the end of the 60 km ride. We then loaded the bikes back on to the trailer for the transfer to our hotel in Dunedin.

When we arrived at the hotel in Dunedin, I recognised it as the same place we had stayed at for our previous Ghostriders New Zealand Ride. I remember walking the steep street to the stop of the hill. Now, ten years older and with a sick wife, I decided to just look up the hill instead.

We have been warned that a very severe weather change is about to hit during the night, bringing cold wind and rain. That might mean that we have reached the end of the warm weather we have been enjoying up to now.Read more