***Long Post Warning***

Day 2 – Queenstown

We spent the day doing a couple of tourist activities. Our apartment is in close walking distance to town, so we walked to the Skyline – Queenstown’s Gondola. It was a quick trip up to the top where we marvelled at the views. There is a mountain range here called The Remarkables (I keep thinking they’re called The Incredibles – which to be fair, they are). Got a few pictures and made our way back down.

Michelle and I had been keep to take a ride on the KJet which is a speedboat trip down the river. It does tricks, such as 360’s, high speed and only requiring 10cm of water to play in. The pilot was the coolest guy we’ve ever seen and Michelle put it correctly when she said, “I bet he doesn’t have any problems getting a date after work”

Slightly drenched, but grinning, we returned to the dock and grabbed some lunch at an Irish Pub. Michelle’s first Kilkenny as per my recommendation. Jacqui met us here and we had a bite to eat before making our way back home.

Later, we met the 4 males on our trip: Klaus, Nick, Peter and Riccardo, at the Atlas Brewery, where we had dinner and talked. This was a good way to break the ice. Interestingly, none us actually knew what time we were getting picked up the next day, it seemed to be either between 0700-0730 OR 0745, as the correspondence differed slightly. We said our goodbyes and Us girls walked home via a tourist shop, where I made a few purchases for my three.

Day 3 – Queenstown to Clyde to Lauder

We were ready at 0700 – we were picked up at 0745. We had a one hour trip to Clyde, where the depot of the Trail Journey’s company is located. Here we would drop our bags, get a briefing, get our bikes and get going.

It rained most of the way to Clyde, but stopped when we got there and it hasn’t looked like rain since. The owner of the company, Simon, suggested we tack another 8km ride onto the start of trip (taking it from a 44km ride to a 52km ride) taking a lovely single track along the river. We thought this seemed like a great idea.

We got matched up with our bikes – I had requested a MTB but it turned out I couldn’t take it because it didn’t have panniers (to carry my stuff) and I hadn’t bought my backpack. No biggie, I was allocated a hybrid TANK which at the start of the day was an easy bike to ride.

We got lost a few times from the Clyde depot to the Clyde coffee shop, but then found our river track and eventually made our way to Alexandra. We got lost again in Alexandra, but then found the rail trail. The trail consists of gravel of various sizes: smooth and small to large and chunky. It is not bitumen, like our rail trails in Victoria – we are spoiled. The first 1/3 of the ride was ok, the 2/3 of the ride had an increasing gradient and the last 1/3 was torture. The weather was HOT (we think low 30’s) there’s not a tree in sight, no clouds and very little breeze. As we pulled off the trail and into our lunch spot, I had been dreaming of a lemonade for the past 5km.

During the last stage of yesterday’s ride the following thoughts were going through my head:

It feels like I haven’t trained at all

Why am I doing this

When will this trail end

I hate this bike

I want my bike from home

I wish I had an e-bike!

And I was not the only one having these thoughts. It was a very, very tough slog. Riccardo said, “If we hadn’t ridden those extra 8km, we’d be there by now!”

After a shower, we were picked up by two lovely guides: Snow & Paddy. Retired farmer and retired School Principal (in order). We had a tour of the region and I fell asleep in the bus, so I probably missed the good bits. They cooked up a BBQ dinner by The Blue Lake (something about a remnant of gold mining) and I had a glass of a very delicious, very cold Pinot Grigio. There was marinated steak and I had two pieces! You know that’s not a usual Belinda go-to meal, but it was incredible and I was tanked.

With the tour over, we headed to our cabins at the Old Lauder School (Michelle and I were in the Drama Room) and had a very restful night. Michelle and I did quite a bit of positive talk about the next day’s ride and how we are actually prepared for this trip! Even though we knew there was more climbing coming up, there was also 20km LESS to look forward to.

Day 4 – Lauder to Wedderburn

We woke up with no signs of body fatigue, no stiffness and no groans to accompany us getting out of bed. We felt fresh and ready. We had breakfast and talked to the host about his life and rugby where I dropped the Crowley name into this conversation Dad. We packed up aiming to hit the trail a bit earlier to give us some reprieved from the sun, as it was to be 28ish degrees today.

Apparently the worst of the climbing was under our belts, but the trail map suggested otherwise. Today I tried to ride as I would at home: I had music in my ears, my quad lock on my bike and settled in. The first 22km went pretty quickly, with a couple of tunnels and more bridges to keep up entertained. The views were gorgeous. We stopped at Hayes Engineering for morning tea, where I just had more hydration and an energy bar (as I would back home) in lieu of coffee and cake.

I had suggested to the quicker riders to wait for everyone at the summit to get a group pic and we all agreed this was a good idea. Some cloud cover and a slight tail wind, but tough cross wind, kept me cool as I ground up the hill. I have never been so pleased to see men in tights (our team mates) and I was grinning as I hit the summit. I took a few pics and walked around, waiting for the rest of the riders to come in. I have to say I was pretty emotional up there as I sent pics home to my family. I am so grateful for their (and your) encouragement and support – it was a bit overwhelming actually.

Once the whole group arrived, we took pics and flew down the last 2km to our accommodation – as the sign says, it’s all downhill from here!

We are staying in a very cool homestead. We unpacked, showered and headed to the Tavern for a late lunch (pizza and Pilsner for me!) and walked back up the hill for a nap. The 9 of us are heading back to the Tavern for dinner soon – there’s actually no other place around, so the Tavern must be making a mint out of hungry cyclists!

That’s it for now – I’ll update the blog when I can.

Love Bel xx