10 April 2018
Beyond the twin set and pearls of Alexandra lies the badlands. It's dry, it's dusty and features an 11 metre clock surrounded by thyme. It's on the wrong side of the 'Otago Rail Trail' tracks, Manuherikia River and derelict water race, and receives less rainfall per year than Fiordland often gets in a day.
Ditte and I discovered a network of magic trails flowing up and down these rocky ridges, hidden gullies and through the box canyons the local rabbits call home. Recent rain had transformed the area beyond recognition, greening up the more fertile slopes, filling the usually dry ponds and providing fuel for some evil looking toadstools. We found a couple of awesome downhills and somehow made our way to the Manuherikia Dam for a fun ride back on the old gold mining water race track into town.
For details ask the friendly lawn mower wielding trail builders at Altitude bikes. They did the graveyard zombie killing stunts in one of Peter Jacksons early Brain Dead movies.
Badlands
Reward
Bannockburn, mined and sluiced its way into history via the gold rush that gripped Otago in the late 1800s. A pub, a post office and a nice cafe seem to have survived the inevitable decline, plus the old motor camp. These are now surrounded by windmills and grapes on the cusp of harvesting, and a new wave of liquid gold.
Carric-kature building.
Clutha, Cromwell and grapes.
Look still turns.
More quartz rock vicar.
Don't believe all you read on a safety yellow sign.
Fish & Chips, the camping version, Butchers Dam.
Cairnmuir Mountains.
Rustic inside.
and out.
Old Women Range, tracks for getting lost on.
Hut stop.
Nevis Valley homestead.
Lonely graves, Nevis Valley.
Nice crib.
Busville.
A curve too far.
First ever farmer with a plasma cutter.
Show us your map then, no we're not lost.
Manorburn revealed.
Wagon wheel meets water wheel, nothing like biking into work.
It was Sunday.
Graham Sydney could have painted this.
A gravity warping sunrise.
One Tree missed the cut.
The Black Forest of Naseby.
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