Hopping on the A2O Cycle Trail

Thursday 6 March

Apologies up front for an excess of photos - even by my standards!

Sunrise at the farm was bitingly cold but stunningly beautiful - and an hour or several later it was quite warm if you kept out of the shade or wind! We had a lovely warming breakfast of scrambled eggs from happy hens, as supplied by the wonderful Robbie Hewitt of blue tractor fame.

We set off on our Ebikes to join the Alps2Ocean cycle trail to Duntroon and on to Elephant Rocks - only hampered by a herd of cows, a few adorable dogs and an inability to find the A2O trail itself for the first 10km (turns out it was down by the river at this point and miles from the road)!

The first 4-5km back to the main road was mainly gravel, but not too deep so I coped well. Heading down the hill under the balancing rock was a wee bit scary as my front brake was the only one working - so much for Evo's "gold service" - so we took it easy. Stopping to admire the fancy hen house at the farm we were greeted by a very friendly Jack Russell and a farmer warning us that there were cows on their way soon - we took that to mean we should hurry down the road before they came, but I think she was actually advising us to hold back until the cows passed through... So we set off at full tilt to try and be helpfully out of the way in time, instead around 100 cows came mooching towards us, then stopped abruptly at our presence (we had tried to squoosh into the hedge out of the way) and the farmhand and dogs had to give them some extra encouragement to surge past us and our terrifying bikes! They finally skedaddled past leaving a very slippery protest on the road behind them which we had to negotiate to get out to the main road.

Out on SH82 we looked in vain for the Alps2Ocean trail, accidentally picked up a farm track at Doctor's Creek and had to double back when we spotted our error, but about 10km down the road, the A2O track suddenly appeared to our left and after visiting the Māori rock paintings at Takiroa, we popped onto its smooth limestone gravel trail.

The rock paintings were a little underwhelming in size and visibility but nonetheless quite interesting to see. Some of the art referred to Māori legends like the taniwha, and some seemed to depict the arrival of pakeha ships and traders. The limestone cliffs where the paintings were to be found would have provided shelter to the local iwi, but their very suitability for that, was also a potential downfall as the erosion of the soft limestone not only created caves and crannies, but also landslips and rockfalls. Sadly a swathe of the paintings were removed in the early 1900s with a view to preserving it - but the removal of the rock has also made the cliffs even more unstable

The path of the A2O wound through farm land, then back down to the Waitaki River and through some beautiful groves and wetlands. Prior to the Victorians' arrival in Aotearoa, the Waitaki valley was lush marshland were the local and travelling iwi had their pick of kai from the land and the river, but Western farming drained these wetlands and created large pastures for cattle and sheep and crops. There is an initiative today working with landowners and iwi to reestablish some wetlands through the valley and at one point the A2O pathway bridges the two worlds - with stream, wetland, harakeke and toi toi to one side and flat green irrigated pastures on the other.

We stopped in Duntroon to check out the historical (and hysterical) artefacts, then had lunch at the Flying Pig - along with a large number of other cyclists! The A2O trail is seriously popular.

Duntroon has some cool attractions including the old gaol, the blacksmiths, a funky cave and a tiny community larder/library. Some of the displays were a bit odd - particularly the partially clad prisoner mannequin in the gaol and the pioneer settlers statues on the way into Duntroon!

After replenishing our batteries with burger & chips for him and veggie cheese toastie for her, we followed the A2O up to the Elephant Rocks which were pretty cool.

This plateau, littered with enormous limestone outcrops and boulders was once 100m under the sea, but is now over 200m above mean sea level. Over millennia, the limestone has been scarred and sculpted by the wind & rain creating the fascinating shapes we see today.

We passed on visiting the fossil site a few km further along the road, but stopped in at some more paintings on the way back to Duntroon, at Maerewhenua. Less impressive than Takiroa, they still hold a cultural significance. The fragility of the cliffs here was very apparent and I was relieved to get away before the overhang dropped! We rewards ourselves with a Magnum at the Duntroon hotel then set off back the way we came.

Pedalling home again. I was exhausted - about 50kms round trip and I should have used the E on my bike more!!

Lovely dinner in Banjo then a relatively early night as we had an early start the next day. Next time we stay at Glenmac Farm we’ll stay longer and take Kaye & Keith up on their invitation to join them at dinner.