Day 8: Ranfurly

We left under gloomy skies and light drizzle this morning and yet in no time at all my heart soared. I had placed a waypoint at the start of Gardiners track on the gps which said go left and in 12km we would be there. Dave Lear was navigating with his own system and confidently stated we must go a different way. So we followed him and rode a long way without seeming to get there or in fact anywhere. The longer we rode the happier I was. This is purely because every day I watch my mates every move waiting for them to make a micro error that I can tear apart on the blog. Today it was becoming clear that I wouldn’t have to look for very long as Dave Lear had clearly made a decent navigational cock up and was taking us there via Dunedin. By the time we regrouped I had, with great glee, constructed several hundred words of blog savaging. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Dave was correct and so we do not speak of this again. 

We entered the Papanui Conservation Reserve which lies on the Lammermoor range. This is named after the Lammermuir hills (lambs moor) in southern Scotland. With this essential information we headed onwards. The weather was perfect for traversing anything with “moor” in its name. Bleak, dark moody skies with clouds scudding across and a howling wind flattening the tussock. It was as it should be. We weaved along the hills on a track that forever disappeared in the distance. 

Eventually it did end and we turned north into the old Dunstan Road crossing the Rock and Pillar range where the wind really was howling. I was at the back of the pack and came across Bernie taking some photos of a windswept Loganburn dam. It was only when he didn’t answer on the helmet comms that I realised he was some random fucker who must have wondered why I stopped next to him to chat into my helmet. He had a high viz rain jacket like Bernie but the different bike was a clue. Humiliation meant I didn’t take any photos. 

I eventually caught my mates at the Taieri river and the random dude joined us for a chat. I pretended I had never seen him before. 

He went east and we went west and latched onto the northern part of the Old Dunstan road which is the best bit. Interesting rock features and fun double track. We stopped for a bite at the Poolburn reservoir which is another Lord of the rings site. It was still windy but the sun had come out so we enjoyed the view in the lee of a rock massif until I looked around the back of it and saw the sky was black with an incoming storm. So off we rushed, somehow the rain never came but the clouds delivered mood in spades. 

Oil changed in Ranfurly, ready for Oteake conservation reserve tomorrow and the high mountains of the Hawksdun range.