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.
