Day 30 - Saturday 27 March 2010
Dist: 91 km. Av. Speed: 15.3 km/hr. Cal: 1248. Ride Time: 5 hours 54 min
A tough day in the saddle! Note the average speed - the calories are nonsense. Today was all about persevering several long climbs, it’s the longest I’ve spent (by far) in the small chain ring and the time I spent in the granny gear would be quadruple what I’ve spent in it for all the rest of the tour combined.
The trip down from Kurow to Duntroon was uneventful, apart from seeing two other cycle tourists - dressed in black and riding two abreast - bloody mad. I stopped and looked at some Maori rock art, the first time I’ve done anything ’touristy’. Duntroon has several historic buildings and one café, The Flying Pig, where they “don’t make fluffies any more due to the amount of breakages and the mess”, and they charge city prices.
There’s a lot of new dairy in this area with massive irrigation schemes that have turned the normally parched brown terrain into what looks like the Waikato.
Duntroon is the turnoff to Dansey’s Pass which is the route over the ranges to the Maniototo, and curling country. It’s a popular drive on weekends for those who want to ‘drive a road less travelled’. I saw about six vehicles in four hours.
The pass starts at around 150m ASL and gradually climbs via a series of false flats up to a camping ground. After the camp, the gravel and the fun starts. It quickly rises to 440m, drops to 350, rises to 500, drops to 340 then just when you’re feeling a wee bit jaded the real climb starts, a 40 minute continuous grind in bottom gear up to the saddle at 900m.
There was no view to enjoy at the summit because I was up in the clouds but it was too cold to linger anyway and there was a brilliant 300m drop down to the Dansey’s Pass Hotel to enjoy. The dampness made the road surface very predictable and the bike tracked perfectly in the corners so it was 15 minutes of big fun until I rounded a corner and had to brake to enter the 30km/h speed limit approaching the pub.
Dansey’s Pass Hotel has the equal best (with Mangatoroto) green tea and their infamous open fire was hard to get away from but I had another up and down 18km to get to Naseby for the night.
The temperature can’t have reached double figures today, especially on the south side of the ranges and the Birchview Campground in Naseby feels like a Canadian ski area campground. Naseby has put itself on the map by marketing itself as New Zealand curling capital and is also one of the most popular mountain biking areas in the South Island. The Royal Hotel was chokka!
My legs are getting a bit weary with all the climbing over the last two days and my ‘pressure points’ are starting to show the early signs of wear and tear so I’m looking forward to a ‘flat’ day tomorrow on the Otago Central Rail Trail. The section I’m doing from Wedderburn to Clyde drops about 500m over 50ish km but I think I’ll carry on the extra 20km to Cromwell if I make good progress so that I have a shorter day on Monday over the Nevis Pass, the final big climb of Le Tour.
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