Day 7 - Naseby

With access to power and laundry facilities we have sorted ourselves for the next few days with clean clothes and fully charged batteries.

We headed off to explore the surrounding region including Waipiata which turned out not to be the place Miriam thought we had lunch back in 2016. Then it was off on a 10km dirt road to Kyeburn before heading down the highway to Hyde. I needed to get some diesel and I knew there was a McKeown's truck stop there. This was also where the best cheese scones were had back in 2016. Unfortunately, the Hyde Café was closed; at this time of year there is obviously not enough movement on the Rail Trail to make it worth their while opening.

Then it was back to Ranfurly for lunch. This time we opted for pies at the Fantail Bakery. I had a Steak, Cheese & Bacon while Miriam got the Pork Belly (complete with a piece of crackling on top). Very nice indeed. After a quick shop at the Four Square across the road we then headed back to Naseby.

The town is pretty deserted just now so we had a quick walk around and admired the Lightning Tree. This is a huge Redwood which was struck by lightning in 2019. It has a massive scar all the way down the trunk where the bark exploded off it. Apparently the wet ground around the base was warm for hours afterwards. Four years later it is doing fine.

Then it was back to camp and I decided to explore the mountain bike trails in the forest above the camp. There are a myriad of trails from Grade 1 to Grade 3, 3+ and 4. These numbers meant nothing to me but I now realise that I am no Mountain Biker!!! After 20 minutes struggling in the conditions I felt like a snow-plowing skier trying to tackle a double-black diamond ski run. The main difference being that if I actually did fall off, serious injury was going to result. I also decided that if I wasn't careful I would be totally lost. I back-tracked and then had a nice ride along the Grade 1 roads and returned to base unscathed.

The following photo is the Swimming Dam above the motor camp. Not much swimming at the moment though. It is primarily there as a fire fighting water resource and it was originally used for water storage which they used to sluice for gold.

Tomorrow we will head to Dunedin and then find somewhere to stay tomorrow night just south of there.