South Island day 21: Otago rail trail, Kokonga-Middlemarch-Dunedin

The final day of our rail trail journey, and we knew it was going to be a long one distance-wise. However it was also mostly downhill, so we were able to make good progress. The weather looked ominous as we started out, and within half an hour or so it started raining. This was the first rain that we’d really had (apart from some light drizzle on the way out to St Bathans and riding through the fog up to Naseby). But 20 minutes later the sun came out again, again giving us some pretty cool cloud formations. Lunch was at Rock and Pillar Station, and shortly after leaving there we needed our raincoats again. The last 10 km into Middlemarch it started to get quite windy and cold along with the rain which showed no sign of letting up, so it was a case of head down, keep grinding, not far to go now. We all made it, and found the place where our shuttle would depart from without too much difficulty. After some initial concerns by Raewyn’s dad earlier in the week that we might not arrive in time, we actually got there nearly 2 ½ hours early. That gave us plenty of time to change and warm up before all loading up in the ute that was to drive us back to Dunedin.

(Total distance biking: 44.4 km, 268.6 km cumulative)

Raincoats on

The sun coming out

Raincoats off

Awesome sky

Ominous clouds

We made it!

The final stamp

Drying off