Well after the highlights of Ranfurly where a car passes through once every half hour. We started towards Hyde where we had been warned there was nothing.After another good days/mornings cycle. Look at the scenery, that's Pete and I on the bridge. We arrived at Hyde, and yes it was true there was nothing there. Found our accommodation which was good and clean but the most basic we have had on the trail. No wifi, no TV, no radio, no newspapers. The upside was that...

So after a good dinner last night we all slept well in our luxury lodge and had a good breakfast to start the day. It was very cool this morning so all layers were on again. The scenery had changed from rocky outcrops to very wide shallow valleys and the vistas were huge. Today was always the shortest of the trip and we were looking forward to our coffee stop at Wedderburn. Unfortunately whoever had opened the centre that morning had not turned on the coffee mach...

Up early and on the bikes. Pete and I decided to do a 6km detour to visit another gold mining village. It was a bit nippy on the bike first thing and the layers were all on. Caught up with Bill and Sue and a place called Lauder where there was a great cafe on the trail. The ladies who ran it made some super fresh cakes and sandwiches the sun had broken through by now and it was quite warm. We had coffee in the garden and bought sandwiches for lunch later on. To...

We drove through the village to the cycle place where we were given a thorough briefing on how to put a helmet on and how the panniers fit on the bikes, the gearing and anything else that we needed to know. Then we were off on the Otago Central Rail Trail 150km. The bikes were great specially built for the trail with suspension and 'comfy' saddles. The first day was apparently the hardest, as it had the steepest gradient of the Trail. We cycled 35km amongst the ...

So this morning we decided to go and visit the Botanical Gardens as we only had a short drive today. We spent all morning there and it was great. As we had managed to acquire lunch whilst having breakfast we had a picnic ready made. We stopped about a hour out of Dunedin by a lake to eat this. When we got to Clyde it was about 3.30 and our friends were due at 4.00, by the time our hostess had showed us every room in the hotel, and then given us one in the gard...