35
2022-10-20T20:58:37.000Z • Central Otago, New Zealand / Aotearoa
An ode to Ida
A bikepacking trip designed around visiting the wonderful Ida Hut in the Hawkdun Range, with some extra squiggles for the giggles and to make it a loop.
Bike
1
Bike
Naseby to Ida Hut
Naseby to Ida Hut
There's no easy way up to the 1600m Hawkdun tops. From Naseby we were quickly off the pavement and busted a gut up Mt Buster Road – rutted, loose and steep with a fair bit of pushing. It feels like you've arrived when the trail starts to flatten out but things are just getting started. Next you plunge down a wild descent for your troubles, then embark on more relentless climbing to get to the main plateau. Golden tussock, endless vistas, maybe scorching sun or freezing gale, depending on the mood of the day. It's a magnificent place.
The travel is slow with lumpy tracks and patches of snow as we get higher, and naturally we detour to check out every hut on route. Fortunately our goal for the day is modest, and we arrive at Ida with plenty of time to enjoy the surroundings and the changing light through the afternoon and evening.
This was the first weekend the tracks were open again after the winter season, and it was still cold overnight, with ice forming in the drink bottles inside the hut. It was a cosy enough night though, and we happily had the beautiful hut all to ourselves.
2
Bike
Ida Hut to Lake Benmore
Ida Hut to Lake Benmore
Day two brought much more descending than climbing, though the terrain never seemed to let up. The route continues climbing up Walking Spur after Ida Hut, and the tracks were filled with snow at this altitude. The descent is a bone-rattling affair, plenty fun on the right bike, but potentially traumatic on the wrong one!
We squiggled around the convoluted Ida water race trail then joined up with the dirt road that leads to Omarama Saddle, crossing the West Branch of the Manuherikia River no less than 25 times. A bunch of motorbikes passed by with the usual quips and we watched, bemused, as one of their bikes seemed to cough and splutter after one too many rivers. There were a few more great huts to poke our heads into on the way, before pushing up the last steep pinch to the Saddle.
The fun descent and road out to Omarama brought us to our first resupply. Unfortunately we just missed the shop, but popped into the pub for a feed and overheard the group of motorbikers at the next table share stories about a couple of crazy cyclists they saw while out on their ride. Then it was a change of scene entirely from the rough trails, with a gentle cruise along the Alps2Ocean cycle trail in search of somewhere to lie down.
3
Bike
Lake Benmore to Naseby
Lake Benmore to Naseby
The relaxed meandering on the Alps2Ocean trail continued for much of day three, with some great lakeside views and riding, especially around the Lake Benmore area which has some narrower, cliff-edge riding away from the road.
After the Benmore dam, we followed some quiet pavement along the edges of the lakes and passed a bunch of campsites. It's a beautiful area, but the vibes around the camps in this region are always pretty weird, with seemingly lots of permanently parked up caravans.
It was a day of cafe and shop stops, with supplies much more abundant in the little towns of Kurow and Duntroon than the remote sections of the last few days. Our goal for the day started out as the (more normal and nicer looking) campground on the way up the Dansey's Pass road, but a look at the rainy forecast for the following day meant we decided to boost it back to Naseby where a friend's spare room was a more enticing prospect. Riding late treated us to some stunning light on the hills as the sun set, and we pulled in just as the darkness was settling in.
