Naseby, Danseys Pass and more Rail Trail

Tuesday 15 July

Forecast was for cloud and fog - but it started off frosty and sunny so we took the opportunity to go exploring under blue skies.

We drove 150m higher into the hills to explore the enchanting village of Naseby. Valued by the Māori as an area rich in water birds & eels, Naseby was founded as a gold town back in 1863, quickly becoming the hub of the area - a title it lost to Ranfurly when the railroad was built lower on the valley. Today it celebrates its history with many old stores and shop fronts, two of its original 24 hotels/inns are still operating and is home to NZ’s only international curling rink.

Previously the area’s capital - but the railroad stuck to the valley and never made it up the hill, leaving Naseby a bit bereft. Now it’s more of a holiday town - population 100 in winter and 2000+ in summer! As a result I could stand in the middle of the main street for a selfie without fear or being run down - there was almost zero traffic!

We enjoyed wandering the empty streets, meeting a rare local (population 100) and his dog Milly (a Border/Jack Russell Terrier cross), browsing the cool StarDust gallery and treating ourselves to coffee and ginger crunch offcuts at Black Forest Cafe. Louis settled in to read the free local paper at the Try-bary - which was a cool section of the local library which allows locals to try out new stuff - packed with DVDs, jigsaws, games and assorted balls as well as a collection of recent newspapers and magazines - such a lovely community initiative.

Phil Flanagan of the StarDust gallery was a lovely dude - his photography was stunning, and he was super trusting - he popped in when we wandered into the gallery, invited us to look around and just call on him over the road if we wanted to buy anything!

Quite excited to see the cushions at the Black Forest Cafe were the same as ours in Banjo!

We left the curling experience for another visit, and set off further into the hills towards Dansey Pass.

The scenery was epic, we encountered a cow traffic jam, paused at Kyeburn Diggings, had a look around the Dansey Pass Hotel (closed for winter) then headed 10km or so further up the track towards the pass which crosses over the range, 50km to the Kurow Valley.

The Kyeburn was named by an early Scottish surveyor - the Scots for CowStream! The diggings of the area extended along an old Maori route used for hunting and searching for pounamu for several kilometres on either side of this cemetery, up to and beyond the Dansey Pass Hotel. It is hard to know now how much of the landscape was formed by these gold diggers, and how much by water & nature.

The Dansey Pass Hotel has a real western aesthetic - with a little modern Footrot Flats thrown in! It was closed for winter, but will be fun to swing by again in season.

Leaving the Dansey Pass Hotel we travelled about 10-15kms up into the hills towards the summit of the pass, but looking at the map it was around 20kms further along and another 20km or more across to Earthquakes in the Waitaki valley.

We turned around, passed the same groups of cows still heading along the road, and took a detour back to Ranfurly. As we hit SH85 we drove into major fog/low cloud for a few kilometres before popping out into sunshine - weird!

After late lunch, a wander into town and a wee siesta we hopped on the bikes again and cycled the Rail Trail about 8km down to Waipiata.

It was not the most exciting part of the track, but we did start by the Sun at Ranfurly and pass several planets along the way, culminating with Jupiter at Waipiata. We also had a cool old bridge to cycle under in one of the cuttings.

Busy busy day - early supper then an early night!