E noho ra, Aotearoa.

One last morning in New Zealand. We breakfast on a well-stocked buffet at our accommodations, the Hotel de Brett, in Auckland city center. Most of the day is spent shopping — gifts, knickknacks, a new shirt for Eric, a possum tail for Tusker…the day goes quickly, and we soon find ourselves back at Auckland International Airport. There, on the runway, we find a plane decorated nose-to-tail in a Hobbit ad.

If you got it, flaunt it…New Zealand Air, and the country itself, may seem a little overboard with Lord of the Rings / Hobbit-themed advertisements. But there’s a reason Peter Jackson chose this land as a setting for his retelling of Tolkien’s stories (beyond being kiwi himself): New Zealand has it all. Soaring mountains, rolling, welcoming countryside, open ocean, deep caves, warm people, great food.

We’ve had the honeymoon of a lifetime. These islands on the other side of the world from our home have treated us well. E noho rā, Aotearoa.

The Garden of Dunedin

The rain blows over just after we get out our umbrella and head down the hill to the Botanical Gardens of Dunedin. Winding our way through the geographical gardens, we stumble across an aviary, where we see a wide array of New Zealand birds we mostly had not seen elsewhere (no kiwis, though). Among them is Sid, a talking parrot, who regales us with Kiwi-accented questions: “How are you?” “Have a cup of tea?”

We discover the Rhododendron Dell, which is a bit past its prime (late November is bordering on summer in New Zealand), but still magnificent, with towering bushes more petal than leaf. We grab a coffee (Maori-style cappuccino, see photo below) and a crepe in the Croque-O-Dile cafe in the gardens, and make our way out through the rose garden. We stumble across a puddle of napping kitties on our way back to our quirky B&B, then pack up and head off to the airport.

Back in Auckland. Last 24 hours of our trip. Making the most of it, we dine in the O’Connell St. Bistro on a Monday night, joined mainly by banker-types and international businesspeople. We’re in our own world, with one last delicious, hearty New Zealand dinner. (These are the moments that make us city people — we love adventure, but we love a beautifully-executed, wholly delicious meal even more!)

Better Than Disneyland

The last leg of our 160km trip across Central Otago. We awake refreshed from our lazy day yesterday and walk out into a foggy morning. As we ride, the fog quickly burns off, revealing views of the Rock and Pillar Range on the right (west) and the valley stretching down, eventually, to the South Pacific on our left (east).

Many critters pop up along our trail, from the ubiquitous sheep and cows to a billy goat in a box, some beautiful, delicious-looking turkeys (a few days too late for Thanksgiving!), and the occasional alpaca or two. The views get better again, and finally the trail flattens out to a straight 6k run along the base of Rock and Pillar Range to Middlemarch, the end of our journey. We celebrate with Hokey Pokey-flavor ice cream and board a train back to civilization.

The Taieri Gorge Express is easily the most gorgeous (in the Ithaca sense of the word) ride we’ve ever taken, with a sheer drop to the Taieri River on one side and steep slopes thick with yellow wildflowers on the other. We kick back with a Bundaberg ginger beer and an Emerson’s London Porter and enjoy the ride.

Eventually, we arrive in Dunedin, on the southeast coast of the South Island, the southernmost point of our journey. We’re well below the 45th parallel at this point, and the sun stays up until 10pm. We make the most of it by walking around the town and getting tapas and local brews at Inch Bar, then head up the hill to our B&B for some well-earned shuteye.

Ranfurly Rest Stop

Morning in Naseby — quiet, except for birdsong and light rain, which clears up before we finish breakfast. We depart Church Mouse and stroll through the main part of town (about 5 buildings on a single street corner) and head over to the Maniototo Curling Rink for some international curling action.

Entering the spectator section, we’re greeted with hushed conversation among the curling fans, all sitting on the edge of their seats. We hoped to be sitting down by the rink, like with an ice hockey game, but apparently curling takes intense concentration and we’re sealed off in a viewing area perched above one end of the lanes.

Unfortunately, Team Kazakhstan was eliminated early on, as were the Kiwis. We watch matches between the men’s and women’s teams for China vs. Australia and Japan vs. Korea. It’s exciting to see teams from all around this part of the globe, but…curling’s not really an electrifying event. After watching a few ends, we pack up and ride 10k down to Ranfurly.

Today is our “rest day”, so that’s the only biking for today. Not much going on in Ranfurly but a hot tub and a comfy bed, so we take the afternoon easy and then head to St. Bathans for a walk around Blue Lake and dinner at the Vulcan Hotel. St. Bathans is 10k down a gravel road, and while it’s now in the middle of the country, it used to be an important spot for gold mining. Blue Lake is just a watered-down gold quarry, which in its heyday was called the “Glory Hole” by the locals. Really.

The Vulcan, like the Ancient Briton last night in Naseby, is full of locals and locals only, and serves up a great plate of meat and veggies. We explore the tiny town, check out the old church, cemetery, and school ruins, and drive home to Ranfurly alongside a beautiful sunset in the “Big Sky” land of central Otago.

Riders of Rohan

From Lauder Store, we get back on the trail to wind around the north end of the Rock and Pillar Range. According to the locals, this promises to be the most scenic part of the journey. The trail quickly makes good on the promise, with broad vistas of the three adjacent mountain ranges, a couple of tunnels to ride through, and of course more sheep (dead and alive!). This also happens to be the location Peter Jackson used to depict Rohan, with rolling hills and rocky crags.

We break for lunch in the shade next to a pasture and watch the sheep and clouds float by, and a while later stop at Oturehua for a cold one and a seat without a gel cover. Bustling Oturehua has around five or six buildings in total, but our favorite is the general store. It’s been operating continuously since 1902, longer than any other general store in New Zealand, and doubles as a museum of random old stuff (including Fagg’s Beef Tea — see photo below).

We summit the trail and see a sign that reads “It’s all downhill from here!” After riding through a couple other one-horse towns, we find that that was a little misleading, particularly when we branch off the main trail to head up to Naseby for the night.

After some ups and downs, we eventually get into town. We drop our bags at the Church Mouse, an old church building renovated into spacious accommodations, and walk down the hill to the Ancient Briton for dinner. Our host there, also named Eric, tells us about the Asia-Pacific Curling Competition happening in town.

Of particular interest is the Kazakhstan team, which is participating for the first time (we *really* wanted a Kazakhstan Curling Association t-shirt but alas, couldn’t find one). The coach is a Korean immigrant who fled the Japanese in WWII, and his daughter, one of the team members, was born to a Korean father and Kazakhstani mother in America. Fancy meeting another Korean-American in a town of maybe 300 people on the other side of the world! Unfortunately, we ran out of energy before the Kazakhstan team showed up for “tea” (dinner), so decided to try to find them tomorrow.

Wild Thymes in Central Otago

We wake up at the crack of dawn today, drop off our rental car, and hop on a bus headed to Clyde — the start of the Central Otago Rail Trail. The Rail Trail was an active railroad until the middle of the 1900’s, and in 1990 work began to remove the tracks and turn it into a trail for hiking, cycling, and horseback riding. The trail opened in 2001, and has increasingly become a draw for the region.

We start the trail from the easternmost point, with 160 km in front of us until we get to Middlemarch where we’ll board a train to Dunedin. Hopping on our mountain bikes, we ride for a km or two when Eric spots a sign for…a hedge maze! We make a necessary detour, and run through the tall, green, well-maintained and difficult hedge maze. It takes a few tries until we finally make our way to the center, with Eric leading the way after Gloriane gets lost and ends up at the beginning.

Back on the trail, we pass through tiny hamlets with populations of a few hundred, and we take in the idyllic scenery. Sheep and cows everywhere, wandering through fields purple with wild thyme. The countryside with its unhurried pace is serene and bucolic, entirely quiet save the occasional bleating of sheep and the continuous crunching of the gravel under our tires.

After lunching at Chatto Creek Tavern, we meet up with Trail Treks, the outfit providing us with horses to do 15 kms to our next stop. Our guide is Kelly, a native Kiwi who has been riding horses since the age of 5. Saddled up English style, we slowly mosey down the trail at a pace of 5 km/hr. Gloriane and Kelly have fun coming up with a list of idioms having to do with riding horses:

• champing at the bit
• rearing to go
• handing the reins over
• free rein
• putting the cart before the horse
• hold your horses
• home James and don’t spare the horses!
• neck and neck
• pee like a race horse

Eric lags a few yards behind because his horse, Dougie, likes to take it easy and make stops for mouthfuls of grass. Dougie seems to be a donkey trapped in a horse’s body, and it’s not until Eric learns how to make Dougie trot with a little kick that he manages to catch up to the rest of the group. Gloriane’s horse Charla, on the other hand, breaks into a canter at one point, and Kelly keeps having to head her off to keep her in check.

After the horses, we bike another 7 km to Lauder Store, our accommodations for the night. Finding out our dinner reservations are 15 km away, Pam, the friendly proprietor, generously offers us a ride to Ophir. There, in Pitches Store, we have a beautiful meal — much better than we imagined was possible so far off the beaten track. Our first day on the trail ends with a magnificent sunset.