The Long-White-Cloud Spectacular__SI 2012

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:35

Guess, to you guys, this is just another rave by a bunch of Aussies.

Anyway....2 weeks, 8 mates including one local, some backroads and 1100pics later, here it is.

Lots of unfinished business

...so, we'll be back. ASAP!!

The complete yarns and loads....LOADS!!!... of extra pics here:

http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3990

Below is a one-day sampler.

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:36

Maaan, what a cracker of a morning!!

Rob’s out for another peek at that loooong singlelane bridge across the Waitaki River....just look at that water!!

Screw that cholesterol-bomb...got a whole day ahead of us. That bird at the servo was on the money, they don’t skimp on anything here that jam-packs those calories.

Heading east, downriver, into the morning fog.

Sadly, the Maori Rock Paintings are so faded, there’s hardly anything left to see....but it’s a gorgeous morning, crisp and typical late summer.

Those micro-caves are full of a colony of pigeons, their whirring wings all around us.

Something to see where ever you look!!

Duntroon is just down the road, the turn off to Danseys Pass is well signed.

Up them hills we go!!....and the tar doesn’t last long.

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:36

You pick your own favourite...I just can’t make up my mind. Once more, it’s BIG SKY COUNTRY...and the golden morning sheen is a gobstopper!

Near the top...

...and it’s just as incredible down the other side...

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:37

Then, out from no-where, there’s the Danseys Hotel....a Pub, by itself, in the middle of woopwoop.

But man....what a pub!!

And the pass-road goes right by their tables out the front.

Some former stables

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:38

Ohhh yeahhh, this place just oozes history.

Lots of bums have been sliding around on that one...and I bet there were a few well-known ones amongst it.

Some absolutely choice carpentry and workmanship, where ever one looks....this is stunning, just look at that joinery....built for eternity, not today’s Lego and Ikea junk.
Bloody awesome!!

Locally dangled copper cisterns...I haven’t seen stuff like that for decades.

Note...no roll of paper towels here, oh no!!

What an awesome place...I bet there’s heaps more to be found if one would stay a night here...it might well be worth the beefy asking price.

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:38

It’s a fairly short and gentle downhill run into historic, little Naseby...and right at the outskirts of town, the BM decides it had enough of the coarse gravel for a while...of course, it had to be the rear, as usual.

Jo wobbles into town and it’s time to get the tools and spare tubes out. Thankfully we’ve got all that’s needed to fix things...but boy, that sun’s got some punch!!

Popping the bead with the side-stand of the DR....

....and some drongo has previously used some black mounting gunk...and shitloads of it, it’s just running out everywhere.

Naseby’s Athenaeum is today’s library...and as the external appearance suggests, started life as a church in the 1800’s.
No bar-codes and self-checkout here!

Right next to it, this little surprise...

Chain going back on, nip up a few bolts and bits and we’ll be ready to roll again.
In hindsight, this turned out to be the only flat of the whole trip...8 bikes, 4000k’s each, lots of gravel roads....that’s 32.000k’s with a single flat, no bloody complaints, sir!!

It’s still fairly early, despite the flat...checking the maps, we could turn south and have a nibble at the Old Dunstan Rd, eh?

Fuel first, though...and there sure’s nothing in Naseby. It’s the weekend, too....nothing in Ranfurly either.
Let’s tack south and try to pick up some juice somewhere along the way...Wedderburn, no... Idaburn, zilch.... Oturehua’s got a single bowser, but it’s locked...Ida Valley? nope....Poolburn? nada...Omakau? outta luck again, the servo is locked...and for sale.

Another 20k’s into Alexandra then...and right next to the bowser is a bike-shop, which opens the door for us to grab a couple of spare tubes...just in case! Makes the 40 extra-k’s only half as bad...it’s a good feeling to have fresh stock.
A big thanks to the kid behind the counter of the servo for unlocking the bike-shop, thanks buddy!

The locals are out in force, it’s a bewdy of a day, some air force trainers are flying some great formation-loops over the valleys and hillsides, and life seems good and settled in this little pocket of the world.

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:39

While having lunch in the park, the maps reveal a shortcut through he hills from just out of town to the start of the Old Dunstan Road...and the Crawford Hills Road into the back of Moa Creek proves a little gem of its own!!

Poolburn Dam...that’s us!! Let the good times roll...

And things are getting weirder and weirder...the road rockier and rougher as we climb the gentle hills.

The rock-clumps in those paddocks are strange, weird shapes of ragged, volcanic lumps just laying there. In between, the views are stumping, the valleys wide-open and the next line of hills far away.
Again, it’s strange and intimidating.

Some of the rocks seem to poke out of the ground like the blade of a knife, others seem to rest on the ground like a giant turd, the rock twisted and layered and played with by the earth when it was magma.

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:40

Poolburn Dam...and the colour of the water is for real.

The road deteriorates from here....gone are the rocky ledges, replaced by soft earth and clay with soggy patches... deep, clumpy grass which feels spongy and bouncy when walked over. Put a wheel in it and watch it get it gobbled up in no time flat.

Bernard’s doing the scouting...the lil’ XT is the lightest of the bunch.
If that sucker sinks...we’ll just turn around and go home, leaving Bernard to deal with it.:bt:guff

Next!

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:40

More Old Dunstan Road...

Orrite then...that was the first part of the Dunstan...and the Linnburn Runs Rd. turns out to be one rutted, washed out track, that isn’t much fun to ride....even though the countryside is simply stunning.

There’s also the gnawing feeling of possibly being wrong, the maps don’t show a great deal of detail and things are a bit wishy-washy, we’re heading too far south.... not south-east, as we should.

The Loganburn Ford Rd. is a good dirt road again...and cuts straight east.
Shortly after, the Old Dunstan continues towards the south-east again and all’s good....sorta.
It’s getting late and we better don’t have any breakdowns, otherwise things could get quite messy.
Taieri River down below.

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:41

The afternoon is getting old, shadows growing long, and it’s getting nippy in those bare, brown hills.

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:41

Coming off the High Plains and back into farming country...we can’t be that far off.

Not long after, we’re on tar again...and pop out onto a main road at Clarks Junction, the standalone-pub on Hwy87.

If they can cope with the 8 of us, we’ll pull the pin here.

“Sure, we’ve got 8 beds...that’s all we’ve got, but it’ll do! But there's only one bathroom, our own, if that's....and we'll have to make up the beds, didn't get around to it yet...”

The tired, grubby old pub becomes home for a night. It sure isn’t flash, or even “comfortably worn”, but hell, it’s a roof over the head, the deep-fryer tries to punch out something edible and the beer’s cold. And with the Danseys and the Old Dunstan under the belt in one day, who the hell’s complaining?

Do it all over again??

YEE-BLOODY—HAA!!!

**glitch_oz** · 16th May 2012, 19:47

Not that the next morning started any less exciting....

The morning dawns with an UNBELIEVABLE display of a sunrise.

Nature is putting on a BIG ONE, a feast for the eyes that doesn’t come around often.

Just scrape your bum out of the dead, folded-up excuse of a mattress

AND HAVE A LOOK AT THIS!!

.....as for the rest of the trip, please follow the link in the first post.

**paturoa** · 16th May 2012, 19:52

Stunning adventure - recommend everyone follows the link in first post.

Can I come on your next trip?

**FJRider** · 16th May 2012, 20:06

There IS 24 hour fuel in Ranfurly ... if you had bothered to ask (any shop or the information center), you would have been told where the card pump was. There is a 7-day service station there too. Depending how "early" you were ... if it was open.