(Temporary Backup) Day 2 Dunstan Trail 70 kms

20 Feb

The day started at 6.30 am with us up for a shower and pack our bags ahead of taking the van to Ian’s place for breakfast at 7.30am

Breakfast was great with cereal and toast then we were on our way to start the days ride at Smiths Way at 9.45 am. The route today was along lake Dunstan which is a man made lake used to store water for the hydroelectric system . The country was very dry as is most of the central Otago region which does have a lot of wineries… when I say a lot it really is something to behold!

The trip along the lake to Cromwell was delightful with some very expensive holiday houses on the bank of the lake and some beautiful inlets with boats etc.

The properties along the lake are in excess of $1.00 million! The owners live in the bigger cities of NZ and fly to Queenstown and take the short drive to their holiday homes.

The weather started coolish but warmed up as the day went on with it being quite hot on the afternoon! The Garmin was registering temps of 32 degrees centigrade!

At Cromwell we had morning tea at the bakery with good coffee and carrot cake for me.

Then it was on to Coffee Afloat on Lake Dunstan for lunch. This is a cafe located on the lake on board 2 speed boats which are fitted out with expresso machines on one board and a grill on the other for the food which for me was a venison burger… all good EXCEPT after lunch we had a big climb of about a km and about 400 metres….silly me for having the hamburger!

The views as we progressed along the trail were stunning and the track was quite interesting in places with some parts quite narrow and some interesting bridges attached to the rock walls all very interesting engineering!

There was a second quite big climb of about 1.5 kms with several switchbacks and some interesting views again at the top…

The next stop was the Dunstan rowing club for a break to get water in the lake which was a blessing. Ian, the van driver had a swim and advised that the water was quite warm for the first few feet but cooled off as you got deeper!

After a short break we then traveled the last 15 or so kms to Alexandra where we had our accommodation at a caravan park. The cabin we had managed to fit all 8 of us comfortably and the facilities are good.

After cleaning bikes and sorting out washing we had a Mexican dinner in the town which was good.

The day was a good one for us all as discussed at the end of the day and we almost completed 70 kms

My health situation seems okay with the change of dressing on the leg wound

Looking forward to tomorrow on the Central Otago rail trail