South Island day 20: Otago rail trail, Ranfurly-Kokonga

Kokonga is not that far from Ranfurly – about 18 km. Our first choice of accommodation for the night would have been at Hyde, which is about equidistant from Ranfurly and Middlemarch. But unfortunately everywhere in and near Hyde was booked out when we started planning the trip last August. Naseby is about 14 km from Ranfurly, making it a nice side trip for a day and then a reasonably short ride along the trail to our next stop. So actually it worked out quite well in the end.

Why go to Naseby? Aside from being another picturesque little town, it is home to an all-year indoor curling rink. Basically like bowls, on ice. Raewyn’s parents hired a car from Ranfurly, and her uncle and aunt happened to be on holiday in the area too, so they came and joined us. It was lots of fun, although a bit frustrating at times because you would think that you delivered the stone with about the same amount of force, and one time it wouldn’t get over the line and the next time it would go out the back.

Although it was quite foggy when we were biking up to Naseby, by afternoon the fog had all burned off and we had some very cool cloud formations. Our accommodation at Kokonga was in a homestay with four other people who were also biking the trail.

(Total distance biking: 47.2 km, 224.2 km cumulative)

Riding through the fog to Naseby

Raewyn and her dad showing teamwork in sweeping

The motley curling crew

Back on the trail

Scene between Waipiata and Kokonga