Never seen it, never experienced it, never been there during – and that is………autumn in Arrowtown. Nothing screams autumn more than Arrowtown. “Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.” When Scotty says “you gotta go see the colours in Arrowtown” then it was a no brainer […]
While making Ranfurly our basecamp for a few days, we took the opportunity to explore the Macraes Historic Mine approximately 56km away. We didn’t get the opportunity last time we stayed in the area (click here to read my Waipiata blog) so it was time to tick it off the list. Getting There Following the […]
What’s to do in Waimate? Firstly, Where is Waimate? Located in Canterbury, Waimate is not on the main highway but situated just inland from the eastern coastline. It’s a short detour west of SH1, 45 km south of Timaru. It’s not a large metropolis but this town has many services that meet the needs of […]
Where is Lake Mahinerangi? As there are still a few ‘gaps in our map’, we thought that we would revisit the small Otago township of Lawrence and set about exploring the nearby Lake Mahinerangi and Waipori Falls areas. Lake Mahinerangi lies only 35km west of Dunedin and approximately a 35km drive from our base […]
We don’t ‘do’ cities very often, but we thought it might be a great opportunity to stay and play awhile in Oamaru. We have both visited Oamaru in times past, but we felt that we haven’t really given it the justice it deserves. Where is Oamaru We had been staying at the NZMCA Park in […]
Following on from my Old Dunstan Road – Part One blog, we set off from basecamp at Ranfurly, to continue along on the old wagon and bullock trails of our pioneering forefathers. This time we were covering a greater distance, but by all accounts, it should take us less time. We had already covered the […]
We were still parked up at Ranfurly and it was time for another roadie. We had completed the Danseys Pass a couple of days prior (see my previous blog). This time we had done our research on the best way for us to travel the Old Dunstan Road. We decided we would tackle it in […]
Where is Waipiata? That’s pretty much what I asked when I first heard about Waipiata. Little did I know that I actually cycled past it when we rode the Otago Rail Trail about 8 years ago. Leaving our camping spot after spending 3 days exploring St Bathans (see my previous blog), we headed to the […]
Like the miners in the 1800s, we were lured to St Bathans to discover gold. Well actually, the history surrounding the discovery of gold to be exact. The Creation of St Bathans St Bathans began as a boomtown known as Dunstan Creek way back in 1863. In less than a year, there were 1,000 miners […]
Thomson Gorge Road – Dunstan Mountains The day after we ‘nailed the Nevis Valley’ (click on the previous blog here), the sun was still shining so we thought we’d conquer the Thomson Gorge Road. We decided to travel the road over the Dunstan Mountains from west to east. This meant we joined Thomson Gorge […]