From Queenstown we first drove to Cromwell to a holiday park to set up our tent. Then we headed to Alexandra to rent bikes for the day. We wanted to bike a part of the Central Otago rail trail. The trail goes along an old railway track covering in total 152km from Clyde to Rock and Pillar. Our plan was to ride 37km to Omakau and then back to Alexandra. But soon we realized that was not going to happen. It was a bit windy when we started biking from Alexandra but we thought it would not be a problem. When we got to an open field the wind hit us really hard. The head wind was so strong that we could barely move forward even at pedestrian speed. After biking 15 km we were totally beaten. So we decided to stop at Chatto Creek to have lunch and head back. 

Beside the wind the scenery was excellent. The trail went along a pleasant countryside passing fields, different rock formations and old bridges. The tavern in Chatto Creek where we had lunch had a lot of character. 

When we started to head back the wind that just half an hour ago was our worst enemy turned into our closest friend and on the way back we could enjoy the scenery even more. 

When we reached Alexandra once more, we had some time before we had to return the bikes so we decided to ride to the start of the trail, to Clyde. The wind was against us and it was again a real struggle to get there. So we just stopped at an old railway bridge close to Clyde and rode back.

After returning the bikes we wanted to see more of the town Clyde so we decided to stop by before going back to camp. Clyde is a historic old mining town and they have preserved a lot of old buildings from the gold mining era.