It took 42 yrs to complete Otago Rail Trail, it was operating from 1921 and train services stopped operating since 1980s… it is 150km Long, The sceneries are beautiful from wat we saw from the website, it was so hard for us to decide where should we start and where should we end. Normally people will take few days to ride, and there are few accommodations available in the route. We decided to pick parts of the whole trail and ride for a day only.
From Dunedin to Oturehua, The view is beautiful, we slept in the van as i was sleepy + car sick. I woke up occasionally, and was amazed by the beautiful sceneries, i couldn’t help it but take some photos and videos then dozed off.. Catch-a-bus stopped at several locations to pick up other passengers.. halfway thruthe trip, i woke up and saw a wide area with full of rocks and this place is called “Rock and Pillar”, I saw some rocks which look like a huge lions.. other than that, i saw cows, sheeps and snow alps..
Journey to Oturehua, Rock and Pillar, Cows, Sheeps
| At first i planned to ride from Oturehua to Clyde which is 63km, but everyone advice me to think twice, so We picked Oturehua to Lauder (23km) and Alexandra to Clyde (8km). Our package is NZD 155 per person which includes Catch-a-bus from Dunedin to Lauder, Bike Rental, Bike and us transfer from Lauder to Alexandra by Van 36km, Luggage Transfer from Dunedin to Queenstown, Wanaka Connexion Bus Service from Clyde to Queenstown (1hr 10mins). We arrived at Oturehua at 10:30am, they dropped us right in front of T.Gilchrist & Sons Grocery. This grocery is established since 1902, and is a very old and traditional museum like grocery shop which we often see in those late 50s movies. They displaying some old receipts and invoices of 1900s. We bought coffee for $3 each and had Yeen’s Sandwiches. Our bicycles are waiting for us in a small little hut behind the store. The bikes are adjusted according to our height. |
 the 1902 Store, 1906 invoices and inside the store |
| We started our ride at about 11:15am and arrived at Lauder at 2:30pm. During the journey, we only saw 2 families doing the trail, and we didn’t see anyone else except cows, sheeps and one huge rabbit… No Emergency Phone, no farmers..We went thru 1 Viaduct, 1 bridge (Manuherikia 110m), 2 tunnels (Poolburn 1-201m and Poolburn2 -230m), lakes.Poolburn Viaduct (at the Left) took 3 yrs to build 1901-1904, is the highest viaduct on the whole trail 37metre high and 4th longest (108m). |  |
Snail at the beginning of the Ride, Poolburn Tunnel 1 (201metre long)
1. a family stopped halfway and went for a swim
The Short Break in Alexandria – We arrived at Lauder at 2:30. Only saw a few small buildings in Lauder. The Couch driver told us that it was snowing at this area the day before. We arrived at Alexandria at 3pm, it was dizzling and we decided to have KFC. Maybe we were very hungry, we spotted the KFC from far far away. KFC is pretty cheap, less than NZD30 for 5 of us.
23km. Strong Uncle. Welcome Notes 
. KFC
We continued our Journey at 3pm from Alexandra to Clyde. This route is not as beautiful as the previous one, and is just one straight road, no left or right turn. There are vineyards, however all grape trees were dried up, and are closed. We get to see more sheeps, horses and bridges. Chian’s Tyres got punctured, luckily we got one Sifu who can fix it.
fixing the bike, horse, vineyard
By the time we arrived in Clyde, it was 4:30pm, we were late by 30mins, there are quite a lot of pplwaiting for us in the bus already. The Coach Driver is very nice, he fed us with commentary thru’out the 1hr journey.
First we saw many houses in Clyde, the houses are divided by age of the houses. Some areas houses were built in the 19th century, some 1930s, some 1950s and etc. after all the houses, we saw the Clyde Hydro Electric dam. This is the first Dam i ever seen in my life. This place is well developed because it acted as hub between the towns of Wanaka, Queenstown and Alexandra. We arrived at Queenstown at 5:30pm and we were dropped right in front of our hostel.
Clyde Dam and the Brilliant Connexions' Driver
Great pics as always! Keep posting! :p