Twizel Area: Biking and Walking 12th-13th May

There were 11 of us in all and fortunately 11 made it back.
The day began with a scone at the Wrinkly Ram in Omarama. It fell apart in your mouth and was chokka full of savoury bits and bobs. But it was also where we first met to hatch a plan for the keen and less keen.
We ditched our gear at the Twizel High Country lodge which suited our purposes to a tee. Thank you Karyl for organising this accommodation.
Three of our posse stayed in the town vicinity while eight of us embarked on the Dusky Trail. This is a 23k Grade 2 bike ride and is very do-able. It leaves very near the Pyramid car-park and follows the Fraser stream very slightly up-hill. It was quite an overcast day so the muted palette made the brilliantly diverse textures on the Dusky trail quite noteworthy. After lunch at the Fraser stream crossing, we had a small slog and a couple more opportunities to get the tootsies wet – then it was a fun little downhill – always a great reward after a gradual climb. Perhaps not so rewarding for Mike who was on a hybrid which was possibly 10% mountain bike and 90% town bike. I think he felt every rock on the trail to his core. Note to keen bikers – mountain bike tyres are more forgiving. Apart from Mike’s tyre, the only near fatality on the ride was John who managed to K.O. backwards from a perfectly static position. Really not so sure how he managed it but there was no permanent damage to his person or the dirt road. We lost over half an hour while several of the team endeavoured to change Mike’s tyre. NB It might be a good idea to get Maurice to recap us on bike maintenance again. We biked along the canals to our car and this was a real treat riding into the last of the day’s glorious sun. We’d taken a short-cut through a farm and, all told, we biked 33.3k that day. On return, we regrouped at the pub and discovered the rest of the crew had organised our pot-luck. Thanks ladies, top job ! Prize for best savoury dish was Pete and Kate for their delicious freshly-caught fish and Roz for her banana and limoncello mousse.

The next day, the group split up and Karyl’s team biked and walked – and coffee-ed at every nook and cranny of Twizel and it’s out-skirts. Meanwhile, John, Neville and I tramped up Ben Ohau, which is 1522m above sea level. Even car-racing sounds exhilarating when you need a distraction from a gradual up-hill challenge and the basic tramping knowledge they imparted was also greatly appreciated. One very interesting fact I learnt is that for every 300m you climb, the temperature will drop 2 degrees. Near the top we spotted a couple of chamois so we were pret-ty fortunate ! The view at the top was beautiful – orangey-ochre tussocks were complemented by a bright azure blue sky and lake. There were strips of fluffy white cloud layering the ranges behind Ohau, and in the distance there were some dangerous-looking jagged, snowy mountains. There were three other adventurers having lunch at the top. Due to time constraints we decided to return the same way rather than via Greta Stream. We’ll tots have to do that in future. It took us 2.5hrs up, and we shaved it back to 2hrs down. We hoofed it back to Twizel to get the crew back together and back to Oamaru. Thanks Karyl for all your organisation. Thanks to everyone else for your positivity in the face of the unknown. And great kai. Anna.