It’s relatively inexpensive, relaxing, safe and the perfect way to see some of the most beautiful countryside New Zealand has to offer.

Sal and I did the trail a couple of weeks ago. Read on if you’d like to know what we thought were the highlights, lowlights and, most importantly, how not to win at curling.

The cycle trail is a one-way trip (which means you can choose which end to start from), it is 150km long and typically takes four, comfortable days to complete. Most people (70% apparently) start at Clyde and end in Middlemarch. The highest point is on the Clyde side of Wedderburn which means that if you want to get the hardest part over and done with earlier, Clyde is the better end to start from. That said, we did it the opposite way, starting from Middlemarch and cycling from there through to Clyde. Perhaps the reason for the majority starting in Clyde is that the predominant wind is from that direction. We managed to avoid any wind but I could well imagine that the smile would come off your face pretty quickly if you had to contend with a head-wind for hours on end.

The average age of the people doing the trail, we are told, is 58. You don’t have to be particularly fit.

One of the many highlights of the trip was getting to Middlemarch itself which involved taking the Taieri Gorge Railway from Wingatui (although you can start from Dunedin). This journey itself is well worth it and costs $53 per person one way.

From Middlemarch we picked up our bicycles which we’d hired through Trail Journeys for around $40 per bike per day. The cycles were new Giant Sedonas in excellent condition and came with great quality panniers and were also equipped with a cycle computer (which appealed to the inner geek in me).

The trail starts where the train stops and we headed off at around 2pm across the plains toward the foothills of the Rock and Pillar Range which you follow and almost imperceptibly climb to Hyde. This leg of the journey was the shortest at around 28km and we found it easy to dawdle along at a mere 10-15km/h.

Hyde is a small but pleasant place made all the more so by the recent revitalisation of the hotel and some of the surrounding accommodation and businesses. I had a personal interest in Hyde having very recently lost my Grandma who was raised here and finding that pretty much half the town and its cemetery bears her maiden name, Kinney.

We stayed in the Cook’s House which is not quite as romantic as it sounds being a modern prefab affair but which was good quality all the same. We had a cafe-style dinner at the Hyde Hotel although they do offer a $40 per head buffet.

The trip between Hyde and Ranfurly is about 33km and follows a gorge which makes for interesting tunnels and spectacular views. After Waipiata it’s a seemingly endless trek across the plains and into Ranfurly.

Ranfurly was not the highlight of our trip. This was largely due to the accommodation we booked and our hosts. Without wanting to taint this too much I’ll just strongly say that we would never stay at the Moyola art deco guest house again. Not even if you paid us. Instead, we heard very good things about Hawkdunlodge so check them out if you are looking for accommodation.

Naseby however! Naseby is perhaps 15km off the trail from Ranfurly and is New Zealand’s spiritual centre for all things curling as well as a genuinely interesting historic spot in its own right.

In the photo below you will see my lovely wife handing me my arse on a platter in what was quite a humiliating experience. Thankfully, curling is not really an Auckland sport and so, if I pick my sports carefully in the future, I will gradually regain my ego again.

From Ranfurly we trekked across long, gently rising plains up to Wedderburn and, very shortly afterwards, a brief but relatively steep (by railway standards of course) climb to the highest point of the trip. From here we encounter wild apple trees, viaducts, tunnels and yet more, stunning scenery.

The leg from Ranfurly to Lauder is 48km; the longest day but made easy by the fact that the majority of the trip was downhill.

We arrived in Lauder and settled down on the grass outside the Lauder pub with a well-deserved shandy (and then, beer) while we waited for our host to pick us up. We were taken to Lauderdale Estate which was to be, by far, the highlight of our trip as far as hospitality and accommodation goes. We stayed in the Chaff House which is a converted – you guessed it – old stone chaff shed. Whilst you are technically a captive audience having to buy your dinner restaurant-style from them, their prices are reasonable, the food is excellent and the hospitality second-to-none.

The last leg of our trip was from Lauder to Clyde is almost all downhill (gently, of course) and is 44km. Just 7km out from Lauder and slightly off the trail is the historic town of Ophir which we neglected to go to and later regretted having heard various other people raving about it.

The section between Omakau/Tiger Hill and Chatto Creek is possibly the steepest and we had the good fortune to be rolling down it much to the annoyance of those heading in the opposite direction. It seemed we were coasting for hours.

Heading toward Alexandra we were told to look out for the wild thyme growing on the hillsides. In our eagerness we were raising the alarm at random shrubs here and there only to find that on the approach to Alexandra there is absolutely no mistaking the literal endless hillsides that stretch for miles covered in thyme.

We stopped in Alex (now we are locals we feel as though we can use the familiar abbreviation) for a late lunch at the Shaky Bridge Cafe where the food was excellent (my salad was superb and ‘superb’ is not normally a word I use in conjunction with ‘salad’) and we were introduced to Shaky Bridge Rose. There is a hard way and an easy way to get to the cafe. We went the hard way. If you find yourself on a very steep hill you, also, have gone the hard way.

From Alex we departed from the official trail and, instead, took the Anniversary Walkway on the other side of the Clyde River which is more scenic but about 4km longer than the remaining section of the rail trail. The following day we cycled halfway back down the rail trail toward Alex again to visit the William Hill winery, home of the Shaky Bridge Rose we’d enjoyed the day before, and ended up encumbered with six bottles of Pinot Noir, Rose and Pinot Gris.

A note about the wine and beer. I’m a big fan of Otago wines and an even bigger fan of Emerson’s beer (in fact, I’m supping on an Emerson’s Taieri George Seasonal Ale even as we speak… err type… err blog) but it seems that this part of Otago hasn’t quite caught up with the fact and they provide only Speight’s and fumble through the red wines section when asked what they have in the way of Pinot Gris (I’m referring to experiences in pubs here, not the one winery we visited; they were superb). Otago’s got quality winemaking and brewing in spades but the hospitality along the trail doesn’t seem to realise this yet. Give it time.

In Clyde we stayed at the Post Masters [sic] Accommodation, and enjoyed a relaxing day off before leaving for Queenstown the following afternoon. Clyde’s a nice place and somewhere we could see ourselves living someday. Possibly.

As an aside, I’ve been looking for a good-quality pair of pig-skin slippers for years now and I finally managed to find the perfect pair (well, they’re calf-skin but that’s all much of a muchness to me) in Clyde and am greatly looking forward to winter. Perhaps another reason for my rosy view of Clyde.

And that’s about it. Pretty lengthy for a blog post but I hope this is of use for anyone thinking of doing the trail. I thoroughly recommend giving it a go!

After an incredibly busy stretch Sal and I took a week off at the Botaira Resort in the Yasawa Islands in Fiji. No cell phone coverage, warm breezes, amazing snorkelling, plenty of bugs to hunt for and nothing else to do but lay around in a hammock reading books. The perfect holiday.

Just over three years ago we honeymooned in Tonga and I have to say that our Fijian experience was a better one. It may have been the fact that the Tongans were having issues with their royalty at the time but the Fijians just seem more friendly (despite what Frank Bainimarama is doing to the country at the moment) and their civil infrastructure is slightly better.

Botaira is run by the people of the local village which is on the other side of the island and suited us perfectly. No air conditioning or swimming pools but no hoards of backpackers either.

If you’re like us and are happy to live in a bure with geckos in low-tech surroundings and need to get away for a while check out Botaira.