Alps to Ocean cycle trail: Kurow to Timaru

For some insane reason I had ideas of riding back to Christchurch instead of going to Oamaru. I was due to fly out to Melbourne on the 8th of April at 6:05am, today it is the 6th. According to Google it is 320km to the airport and will take 15 hours in one hit. Ok 10 hours today and 5 tomorrow, why not ? Why not indeed ! Google and reality are two different things.

After turning out of this wonderful river valley you are are on route 1 to Christchurch; that means lots of traffic, trucks travelling at over 100 km/h often on 2 lane roads. I got to Timaru after 8 hours of riding before realising my stupidity and catching the bus into town. On a previous blog entry I lamented not staying a day or so in Aoraki village, it was on this exercise that my brain was telling me all about that wasted opportunity. As pleasant the ride was to Duntroon, because the Alps-to-Ocean ride really wasn’t a mountain bike ride on this section you could have easily finished at Twizel or Ohau depending on which way you did it . Mind you my opinion could change when trail is finished.

Let’s revise the recommendations from the web site to Day 1 to Day 4 yes.

• Day 1 - Aoraki/Mt Cook to Braemar Road (35km) or Lake Tekapo to Twizel (54km)
• Day 2 - Braemar Road to Twizel (42km)
• Day 3 - Twizel to Lake Ohau (38km)
• Day 4 - Lake Ohau to Omarama (45km)
• Day 5 - Omarama to Otematata (24km)
• Day 6 - Otematata to Kurow (40km)
• Day 7 - Kurow to Duntroon (28km)
• Day 8 - Duntroon to Oamaru (54km)

Now make the following changes:

Aoraki for a couple of days and add the paddle and a day hike.
Twizel an extra day and explore the mountain bike trails.
Ohau lodge for another day just to soak in the fabulous scenery.

Anyway it is what it is, to put up with the odd busy road - deal with it ! No denying it though, ignore the noise of vehicles, I rode through some beautiful pastoral scenery.

Duntroon was a very tidy historical village and held a a smattering of interest for me. It is more of a pleasant photo stop. Focus was on the villains of society where the gaol had a prominent position.

On crossing the Waitiki bridge towards Timaru I realised the folly of my plan change. I am not going to be safe riding on the highway to Christchurch.

I had a dilemma and tossed a coin - head to Oamaru or Timaru bus terminal ? Oamaru probably would have been the better choice, but logic doesn’t prevail at times – I just wanted to get closer to my end point.

The map below shows how much shorter Oamaru would have been, and I could of had a more interesting country ride taking the northern route from Kurow across the river to Timaru.

The wait and anxiety over catching a bus was over and I am in Christchurch. Evidence of the earth quake is every where with buildings clad in scaffolding and street closures. I had a great time on this adventure, it will be fantastic once the work is complete on the Alps 2 Ocean trail.