Cycle: 85km

In our attempt to cycle round the whole of the South Island we decided not to take the scenic railway through the Taieri Gorge, but to cycle the route instead. We started the day with a puncture in Lottie's back wheel - it looked like glass had cut through the tyre while cycling through the city centre.

Luckily our campsite was halfway up three mile hill out of Dunedin. This meant approximately two mile hill wasn't as bad as anticipated. It was stepped and not too steep so we dropped into the plain behind the hill a little less tired than we expected. Mosgiel had a nice New World cafe that we had lunch in, but the cycling shop no longer existed so we'd have to make the Otago Rail Trail with only one spare inner tube!

We were a bit worried about the next hill so stopped at a place called Outram just before the start and tipped water all over our heads to try and cool down in the heat - much to the amusement of the locals in the cafe! The hill was indeed tough. It was a 400m ascent in about 5km! At the top the road then undulated along the top of a rolling plateau for pretty much the rest of the day. We were lucky in that we were anticipating a deep gorge and a big 5km climb out of it, but we lost track of where we were and went over it all without noticing! We must be getting fitter! The final couple of gorges led us into a really surreal landscape. The fields had little vegetation but masses of jaggedy rocks protruding from the grass. This dominated the land for miles and made for a very lunar feeling. Just as we descended onto the last plain Lottie had another puncture (this time with the glass still in the tyre) so we had to make yet another stop!

We finally reached Middlemarch as it was getting dark. This is the beginning of the Otago Rail Trail which is a 150km section of rail line that has been pulled up and turned into a cycle path. It's not sealed but has no cars and no hills.

We checked into Blind Billy's campsite and were too tired for food so showered and went to bed. After the noise from the pub had quietened down we were kept awake by a really unusual sound that we then found out was male stags in the local deer farm! We thought they were cows giving birth or something!