Hidden Cam In Brazilian Wax Room

Discover (No. 2) of the South Island of New Zealand.

- 27 December 2010 to January 17, 2011 -

2 nd party - Two bikes on the Otago Central Rail Trail ...

By Olivier

The province of Central Otago, south of the South Island of New Zealand, is perhaps the region that I prefer in this beautiful country that is not stingy with natural beauty.

You meet majestic landscapes that stretch to infinity, and green hills undulate gracefully to the confines of the year. Sometimes the environment is drier, rougher, the basaltic rocks of ancient cataclysms will match the herbs dry windswept generated by the deep depression of southern Forties south.

The homes are rare, and few souls.

Former villages, built at the time of the epic gold, are now abandoned. Here and there, old rusted machines still resist weathering in this region sometimes semi-desert.

There are many more sheep, cows and red deers (red deer), llamas also in Central Otago, as inhabitants of New Zealand.

The air is very pure, nature is strong, and it's sad to say, but it is a reality that promotes beautiful meetings, away from fireworks The man is rare and has little action on the environment ...

Clearly, it means he has little gradient ...

Everything I love!

Often the distance, snow-capped Alps of New Zealand adorn the skyline of elegant white crest tormented. In the plains sheltered from the wind, the sun knows how generous the orchards and vineyards in Central Otago today retain its agricultural and pastoral.

is the region of large fans spaces, those who love nature, one that does little footprint left by the often questionable human hand.

The visitor looking to reconnect with the authenticity of the country has something on the tracks ("gravel roads ") and hiking trails of Central Otago.

One episode, more than any other, shaped the history of Otago: the gold rush in the 1860s, some twenty years ago after the first waves of immigration.

Since Dunedin Scottish (Dunedin is the Gaelic translation of Edinburgh), the main town of Otago, whose port has greatly contributed to the rapid but relatively transient, region At the end of 19 th century, a single railroad, the Central Otago Railway, penetrates the heart of the country, through gorges and narrow winding roads, lined with numerous iron bridges and tunnels dug into the rock. The discovery of a promising vein of gold near the village of Lawrence in 1861 will cause the arrival mass of emigrants to Port Chalmers. In three years, the population will triple from Dunedin!

The gold fever is gradually subsided, only to disappear in the late 1930s.

However, on approaching Middlemarch, a small town lost the edge of the steppe, a gravel road our Land Rover climbed briskly, leaving a cloud of dust almost Sahara we suddenly discover a breathtaking spectacle: huge gear Caterpillar activated as Ants in the midst of an incredible moonscape. Here, the men broke down the mountain. Major surgery on the surface of the planet!

We are near the gold mine at Macraes Flat open pit, back into operation in 1990, thanks to technological advances that have been able to restore profitability to this gigantic operation: 3 tons gold is extracted annually from this site.

But Barbara and I have time for other concerns, although if ever we fall by chance on a beautiful nugget ...

We want to go cycling the Otago Central Rail Trail.

The track (single) who enters, from Middlemarch, in the heart of Central Otago to Alexandra and Cromwell, was built between 1891 and 1921. It extends an older section, which connected the coastal city of Dunedin to new villages, and sometimes moving, hastily constructed by gold miners and pioneers ( " settlers" ).

It is through this railway, whose construction began in 1879 from Dunedin, what passed countless batches of construction materials, tools, machinery, seed and food came from distant England for decades. Conversely, it was mostly the live stock (mainly sheep, cattle and later), as they say here, that took the path of slaughterhouses in Dunedin, then that of the refrigerated holds of the first refrigerated ships bound for the old continent.

In 1990, the railway history of Central Otago sees its operations stop.

New Zealanders spend in the age of 4 x 4 (especially Japanese, Toyota, Mitsubishi and Isuzu is the market share), and animals are now transported by trucks.

The gravel roads are more and more feasible than before, and the road network in Central Otago, developing, ordered the railroad.

Three years later, the DOC (Department of Conservation "), the all-powerful Ministry of the Environment of New Zealand (hey, we'd probably better get inspiration, with us, rather than ecology as a political party crappy anecdotal and messy, while the ecology, the real, is at the forefront of globalization, so ask what ' it is in the ocean winds, clouds of ash, the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect, the ice Northern or those of the South, or extreme weather events are increasingly the rule ...), bought the railroad between the village of Middlemarch and the Clyde, some 160 km away.

The section between Middlemarch to Dunedin is retained unchanged, and Taieri Gorge Railway becomes a tourist railroad that exclusively today joined the beautiful train station in Dunedin.

Several years of work later (which consisted of removing track, changing the ballast to turn on the track, lay bridges and tunnels for secure, make tags, build small shelters equipped with weather-explanatory plans, toilets and cabins scattered here and there on the course ), the Otago Central Rail Trail is open (in 2000) to the true nature lovers.

It's certainly one of the most beautiful cycling tours on our planet.

The term is actually reserved for hikers, cyclists, and hikers horseback. No vehicles are allowed there. But how far more suited to navigate the Rail Trail is undoubtedly the VTC.

Go, Barbara, you press the pedal?

I looked at the map, and I doubt that most cyclists who come to the OCRT arrive in the town of Queenstown in the west, with an airport. So they roam the Rail Trail from west to east. We're going to attack ... in reverse!

Only potential drawback: the case of the great west wind, but I am informed, and in the coming days, the wind should be low. That said, the weather changes so quickly in these parts ...

In Middlemarch, we rent two bikes (bike paths all) equipped with panniers and helmet, and assemble the tent for the night. These bikes built in Taiwan, are perfectly designed for the Rail Trail: central strut, double disc brake, 3 plates, 6 speed, quality materials. One advantage of the Rail Trail is that having replaced a railroad track (without rack), the slope never exceeds 1.5 to 2 degrees.

But then, what are the 3 trays so the bike?

Answer: to fight against the wind, sometimes packed with vitamins at 45 ° south latitude.

We planned to join the village of Clyde, at the other end of the Rail Trail, four days at a rate of forty miles a day.

The route of the Central Otago Rail Trail skirts a mighty mountains, wild and rugged, the Rough Ridge. It looks like half a circle, walking first to the northeast, and then gradually move toward the north, northwest, west and south-west. The high point of the trail is 618 meters above sea level, near Wedderburn, against 201 meters to Middlemarch, and slightly less in Clyde. In short, whatever the direction chosen to navigate the OCRT, the first part has generally tended to rise, and second down.

Material camping minimum, water bottles, jackets and polar shift, walking shoes, sunglasses and helmets. ... And Iridium satellite phone! For our daily telephone contact with children, remained in the North Island, every night between 8:30 p.m. 8:15 p.m. ET. Small everyday voice communication highly anticipated side in which we exchange information of the day, assuring us that all is well.

We leave the Land-Rover to Middlemarch, we will return with a shuttle .

At dawn on January 2 , we buy food for the day in the grocery store in the hamlet of Middlemarch, "to settle the bikes and helmets, two pairs in hanging bags, and headed towards the beginning of gravel track, I spotted the previous evening.

Gearing Up for the Otago Central Rail Trail!

If someone had told me from our trip to La Rochelle, 18 months ago, it was written somewhere that we will go through the Central Otago Rail Trail on the South Island of New Zealand cycling, some 18 000 nautical miles farther, I would certainly have looked at my interlocutor with some surprise and some practical questions ...

Today we're at it, and helmets strapped on the head, we give the first pedal strokes on a flat stretch amount. The trail follows the first Rock and Pillar Range, a mountain that forces access to Central Otago from the north.

Soon we become familiar with the markings of Commerce, very well done. The average is about 12 km / h, short breaks in all genres included. The gravel runway requires vigilance, and the look will alternate between 15 meters of track above the front wheel of our horses to the fabulous scenery of Otago. An happiness!

few kilometers in the southern village of Hyde, a cairn recalls the derailment of Otago in 1943: 21 dead. It seems that the manufacturer has abused the Speights , the famous beer of South New Zealand, brewed in Dunedin. He allegedly attacked the throat near 120 km / h ... The tiny building of the former station Hyde, built in 1894, is still standing.

In Taieri Gorge, we take our first viaducts of metal, and our first tunnel 152 meters in light of the headlamp. Better to dismount and walk on foot, pushing his precious machine: the sense of balance is seriously undermined by the total absence of visual cues in the tunnel, where there is darkness Total!

The route of the Rail Trail in the Taieri River gorge is breathtaking.

We have crossed a few bikes in the morning, all coming in the opposite direction. The sheep outnumber hikers, by far. Some come to encourage us along the track. The birds are flying in the sky, and creatures with large ears, innumerable, and usually the disgraced Captain, are here because they could do better tolerated ...

After thirty miles of track, lunch break is welcome: the west wind rose, supported, and we must fight against him to rise slowly in the relief of Otago.

We will walk even a dozen miles before pitching the tent near the hamlet of Waipiata.

The headwind is now muscular, the sky was clouded, and soon it rains.

I moored our little tent in an old wooden barracks, which protects and inhibits its potential off night ... We let our little camp in the inconvenience of bad weather, and will take refuge in the tavern of the place. We take off our jackets watch us descend a Speights well fresh, and end up ordering a steak!

the wall in front of us, signed rugby All Blacks national team. The owner of the property is a strong supporter.

Throughout the night, it will rain, and the tent flapping in the wind. We will have to wait well into the next morning to be able to point out a nose.

We resume the track wet, until the stop of Ranfurly, 8 km away.

hot tea for Barbara, cappuccino for me and cakes with nuts, honey and almonds for everyone. Water supplies and food for the day.

The sun reappears gradually dry the runway as the hours, the weather will leave us more to Clyde.

Near the town of Wedderburn, we cross the parallel 45 ° South, and soon we reach the highest point of the trail.

down to us!

We'll Oturehua with her Gilchrist's general store, the oldest general store in New Zealand and small lakes Ida Valley. Between Auripo and Lauder, we enter the gorge Poolburn a rocky passage to perfection, glazed metal viaducts and tunnels. Above our heads in the sun of midday, the käreärea (hawks) spin on the lookout for some prey distracted. In the Dunstan Mountains, which rise over 1600 meters above sea level, they are at home.

Today, despite our late start this morning, we shot 62 km of track.

Not bad! We stopped rolling about 18 hours.

We choose the small town to the campsite for the night Omakau.

unlimited hot shower, laundry and small ...

We are left only 37 km to go the next day to reach the end of the Rail Trail!

dawn the following day, we drive under a bright blue sky.

Sunscreen mandatory, the ozone layer is thin over New Zealand, and the sun's rays are dangerous here quickly. (The country has the dubious record for most number of skin cancer per head ...) The track runs a flat stretch down to Alexandra, and we enclenchons on derailleurs speeds previously unknown ...

We were hungry this morning, when we come round a landscape Far West on Chatto Creek Tavern! A hearty breakfast of your dreams is waiting for us, that we had not thought one second ... Outside, a few tables of thick wood. And a large sign marked " Chatto Creek Tavern Historic , Established 1886" , which shows a rider walking alone in the rugged Central Otago.

Inside trophy hunting (deer, wild boar, mouflon), old Winchester and Remington rifles, and more old pop-guns, and ammunition of all kinds. The proprietress of the tavern we assoit a wood buffet where we find plenty to dream jams, cereals, milk, butter and bread guaranteed organic, dried fruit and honey in the region.

In fact, I have lunch before the hour, I guzzler serious calories ...

What a good breakfast to remember that this Chatto Creek!

After that, I crush the pedals on my bikes ...

The trail descends to Alexandra, then turns north-west to Clyde.

This quiet little village marks the end of the Otago Central Rail Trail. We do this before noon to recreated our bikes, and expect the shuttle to take us back to Middlemarch, by the way this time.

We won a day on our initial program, and decide to join Dunedin, on the southeast coast of South Island, before returning to Christchurch to welcome our friends Emma and Oliver.

We leave the Central Otago Rail Trail with regret: a souvenir of days spent in the South Island.