Southern Rider Escapade Part 1

The Southern Rider group each year organise a ride with a difference. They set a route of between 800 and 1200 km around the diffrent parts of the South Island incorporating touristy areas and roads less travelled. All roads are sealed to cater for the cruisers and weekend riders, but take you to places that you may normally just ride past. The route sheet includes a list of questions about the places you go past, and most of these require you to actually get off your bike and stretch the legs. The ride can be done at any time from the beginning of September to the end of November, and can be done in a single day, or spread over a number of days, or even as sections at different times. This year's route goes within 3 km of my gate so of course I had no excuse not to enter it, the only question was "When?"

Well today proved to be a beautifull day after a light snowfall last night, and I had an optician's appointment in Queenstown , 85 km away, at mid-day, so I looked at the southern part of the route. 643 km would make a nice afternoon ride and all going well I should arrive home in time for dinner if I'm on the road by 11:00 am.

First stop was Clyde for fuel and check the tyre pressures and a view of the Clyde Power Station:

I'm pretty familiar with this place as that long window just to the right of the pylons is my office. The dam flooded one of New Zealands' most spectacular and inaccessable wild rivers and replaced it with Lake Dunstan that supports fishing, boating, swimming and rowing.

Looking up Lake Dunstan with the Dunstan Range behind:


25 km north is the meeting of the waters. The silty Kawerau River flows in from the west to meet the clear water of the Clutha River. When the lake was raised it flooded part of an historic town at Cromwell, but part of it is still standing as a memorial:


Into the Kawerau Gorge and I stopped for the first Escapade Question at the Goldfieds Mining Center. There is still plenty of gold in them thar hills, just not enough to be economical to recover. Instead tourists are shown how the old gold miners lived and get to experience panning for gold themselves. Looking back along the gold mining reserve a working water sluice can be seen spraying a jet across the river:


Closer to Queenstown is the wine growing area of Gibston Valley. The wines here are very good indeed, but priced accordingly. For the price of one bottle of wine from this region I can get happy with 6 bottles of Australian wine. (One of which I'm happily drinking while I type this):

Most visitors to Queenstown only see the tourist shops in the town center. Locals prefer to shop at their own shopping center with New Zealand prices rather than Tokyo prices, and that is where I saw the optician. The remarkables are looking really good with a fresh touch of snow:

By 1:00 pm I was heading south once again. Across the old Kawerau Bridge which is due to be replaced soon:


The road from Queenstown to Frankton is full of twists and bends, and enough scenery to make you take your eyes off the road. The only down side to this part of the ride is that when fibre optic cable replaced the old copper wires the new cable was layed in a trench right in the middle of of the southbound lane. the road repair that followed was less than perfect, so the whole way to Frankton the lane has either a hollow or a ridge right in the middle. Looking south along Lake Wakatipu to Frankton:

Once I found out who sponsors the Frankton Volunteer Fire Brigade I left Otago and headed into Northern Southland. Crossing Littles Pass I could see right across the plains to the Mountains east of Manapouri. It hard to imagine that I am currently 1400 fett above sea level and those mountains 80 km away in the distance are over 6000 feet:


All the way to Lumsden I only saw two other vehicles. For this road that is deserted. Even Lumsden itself was very quiet, but then, not much happens around here. It is a farming based community and the tourist traffic tends to bypass it:


Some of the questions require a bit of detective work. But I did learn that the school pupils at Otama planted this Southland Beech Tree in memorial of a local resident. I could have spent much longer talking to lovely young school teacher who told me where to find it :




The sun continued to shine and the bike was just purring along. The strong tail wind made it feel like it had double the horsepower and I had trouble staying anywhere near the speed limit. Untill I found a cross wind rather than a tail wind. Suddenly the bike was getting harder and harder to ride and once I got home I discovered that the wind was gusting at over 100 km/h while I was riding through there. Its hard to take a photo of wind, but these daffys gives some idea:



Through the back roads to Kelso. This was a thriving town with a stock and station agent, railway yards, hotels, school etc. untill it got washed away in a major flood. Now all that remains is this information board and a single railway shed:


I filled up in Tapanui before heading on to Waipahi. Well I was supposed to go to Waipahi, but I was daydreaming about a school teacher at Otama and went right past the turn off. Never mind, I knew another way to get there and only added 20 minutes to my riding time. Waipahi is famous as being in the middle of the American Presidential Highway. Mid way between Gore and Clinton:

:watch:

The back road from Clinton to Clydevale started off with lots of nice twisty bits then became as straight as a die. Well make that straight in direction, but not vertically. On some of those crests it is possible to get airborne at speeds just above the legal limit and in todays wind that was not a good idea:



Cute scenes like this one show that spring has finally arrived. However before the Aussies get too excited I should mention that sheep prices have increased by $1 per hour:



At Clydevale is one of New Zealand's famous "one way" bridges. That's OK, I'm only ever going one way when I cross them. The river is the mighty Clutha, the same one that the Clyde Dam is on:


From Clydevale I follow the Clutha River all the way to Balclutha. this is one of my favourite roads. 24 km of bends like this:


At Balclutha is the "New" bridge which replaced the previous one in the 1930s. Its time for another "New" bridge:



From here it was northeast towards Milton then turn northwest into the Manuka Gorge, another of my favourite roads at times of no traffic. There are many places in new Zealand where the local councils provide rest areas. Most of these are just somewhere that the council has a bit of waste land next to a road, but some are real gems and lead on to recreation or consrvation areas. This one is at Mount Stuart near the start of the Manuka Gorge:


On to Lawrence which is the gateway to Central Otago. This was a fuel stop. I didn't really need fuel at this time, but I knew that the only other place on the way home with fuel would be closed by the time I got there. Once out of Lawrence I turned left towards Tuapeka Mouth. This is another lovely road, but the sun strike reminded me time was getting on and I still had quite some distance to go.

Looking back along the Tuapeka Road:


At this point I started looking at time and distance. 185 km to go, 5 questions still to be answered, 1 hour till sunset and effective daylight for 40 miutes after that. It meant I needed to step up the pace a little and fewer stops for photos. On through Tuapkea where there is a punt to take vehicles across the Clutha River. But no punt ride for me today as it was on to Clydevale. Yes I crossed the bridge here less than 2 hours previously in the opposite direction. This time I turned north and through the magnficent Rongahere Gorge. No photos as I was moving a bit quick and the light was not good among the trees. Onto Beaumont, then up to Raes Junction, all the time calculating time and distance. Most questions can only be answered in daylight.

At Raes Junction I once again headed west towards Edievale then onto Moa Flat. I don't know how this place got its name; the Moa is extinct, and as far as being flat, its at the top of a bloody mountain 1800 feet high. However I did get there for a beautiful sunset:


Down the hill to Ettrick, and I was tempted to stop for more photos of the changing light, but that would mean I wouldn't finish task in daylight. Down to Millars Flat, it is flat this time and a look at another of our one way bridges. I knew the light was fading when my flash operated while taking a pic:


I estimated about 20 minutes of usable daylight left, and 25 km to the next question. It would be close.

I made it. The last question was by the Roxburgh Dam and lights of the Roxburgh Village are starting to show up:


Home just after 7:00 pm, and still not quite fully dark. After my missed turn it was 660 km in 8 hours with an optometrist appointment thrown in as well.

Yes, a very enjoyable afternoon ride. Part 2 of the Escapade in a couple of weeks.

Nicep pics. The weather looks fantastic. I still have fond memories of my first trip to NZ. I hopped off the plane in Queenstown and rode out of town and up over Crown Range on a F650Dakar in early August on a beautiful sunny day with snow on all of the mountain peaks. That area around Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu is probably the most picturesque are of NZ.

Jantar said:

I'm pretty familiar with this place as that long window just to the right of the pylons is my office.

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That's one hell of an office. You live in a beautiful part of the world. I was there in July -


Looking forward to part 2

fantastic, I can only dream of riding those roads.

Jantar said:

The wines here are very good indeed, but priced accordingly. For the price of one bottle of wine from this region I can get happy with 6 bottles of Australian wine.

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Isn't it ironic ...it's exactly the same with the local plonk over here and "cheap" NZ-wines on permanent "specials" everywhere.
Found the same in the US...a bottle of Aus-stuff for under 4-5 bux, what's selling for A$18 "on special" at home.

Jantar said:

The remarkables are looking really good with a fresh touch of snow:

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Oh boy...do they ever!!


Would LOVE to see the place with a white coat...one of those years we'll make it happen. It just looks stunning!
Thanks for all those pics....you certainly know how to make those travel-feet itch.

Haven't done the Escapade yet but some riding buddies are heading down for it at some stage.

Yesterday's track.