Artist Grahame Sydney may have been the first to popularise the Central Otago landscape, but now mountain bikers and walkers are joining art-lovers soaking up the area's wild natural beauty.

The Otago Central Rail Trail, formed along 150km of dis-used railtrack from Clyde to Middlemarch, has made it by popular vote to AA Travel's list of 101 Must Do activities in New Zealand. The gently undulating gravel trail - formed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) and a community trust - can be cycled, walked or ridden on horseback in either direction, with most visitors taking four or five days to make the journey.

Because it follows a railway line, there are no steep climbs and people of most fitness levels can manage it.

Small towns benefit

Rail Trail trust chairwoman Daphne Hull says while this is New Zealand's first sizeable rail trail, the concept is hugely popular overseas. She initially became enthusiastic about a local version after reading a National Geographic article about the Northern Pacific Railroad trail that spans the United States, bringing new life and economic benefits to the communities it passes through.

“I knew (the Otago Trail) would be a great attraction," she says. "But no-one envisaged it would be as popular as it is. We’ve been blown away by it.”

Hull says small towns like Ranfurly and Omakau are booming now, with new motels and Bed and Breakfasts opening and cafes, cycle hire and rail trail guide businesses starting up.

A 2005 economic impact survey confirms the trail has contributed to community pride and increased employment, as well as providing the stimulus for many new and existing accommodation and tourism businesses.

Hull says the countryside is far from stark and dull as some might imagine.

“The valleys are wide expansive areas. There’s always the mountains in the background and at any time of the day they take on a different appearance. We’re known for big blue skies; they make it quite dramatic.”

Fit for families

Aucklander Yvonne Bulte recently mountain-biked the trail in a family group with her husband, 11-year-old daughter and 77-year-old father.

Bulte, 48, says the Central Otago landscape “got under her skin” when she worked in gold exploration there in the 1980s and she enjoyed the contrast to the north of the North Island where she grew up. “It's very different from the green bushy northern landscapes,” she says.

She says the group experienced the four-seasons-in-a-day that the region is notorious for, with 32 degree heat at the start of the leg from Clyde to Alexandra and pouring rain and a temperature of 10 degrees later that day.

Bulte says her daughter struggled with one day's riding on a slight gradient but had a “great sense of achievement” by the trip's end. Bulte's father took the course “slowly and steadily”. All have expressed an interest in returning.

“We were really impressed with the people we met,” Bulte says. "There seemed to be a real pride in the rail trail and showing off their region.”

Access to history and the outdoors

Hull says visitors also enjoy the “huge amount of history” along the trail, from the old railway stations to 12 ganger sheds with newly constructed information panels, to the hand-worked stone culverts.

Coastal Otago DOC area manager Robin Thomas says the trail proposal was considered radical for the Department before it opened in 2000, largely because it was a departure from DOC's traditional involvement in parks and tracks in natural settings.

“It's still access to the outdoors but in a developed setting. The motivation was to provide a non-motorised corridor that would allow people to experience the really expansive landscapes.”

Without power lines, road-works and cars to contend with, the scenery assaults the senses head on, he says.

The rail trail is on public reserve land so there is no charge for use, although donation boxes are sited at station sites to help maintain and upgrade the track.

----------

Article by Christchurch-based freelance journalist Joanna Davis.