AT THE CENTRAL CYCLE Trail store in the historic district of Clyde, Central Otago, New Zealand: Bikes, trails, and Christine White.

“Biking is ‘huge’ in New Zealand,” so says Christine White, general manager of Central Cycle Trails in Clyde, one afternoon weeks ago as we talked while the signs of winter began to roll in. Central Cycle Trails is one of the five bike companies operating in Clyde.

CHRISTINE WHITE Central Cycle Trail Co.general manager.

“Huge” is not an exaggeration to describe the following of biking there. On the road and outside residences, you see about one in every three vehicles with bike racks.  In the town of Clyde (population 1,200) in Central Otago, people of all ages – locals and visitors – are on bikes.  Outside coffee shops and restaurants, there are bike parking racks.  At the gelato ice cream shop, I stood outside with a woman in her 80s, holding a cone of ice cream with one hand, and clutching her bike with the other.

They come to Clyde for the trails.  It is nothing I have ever seen or experienced. To a Filipino like me, who had walked through many bike trails here, those in Clyde not only reflects government initiative to spur tourism, but its concern for its citizens to have healthy leisure activities.

The trails there offer an extraordinary element – adventure from the stillness of a stunning landscape.

CENTRAL CYCLE TRAIL ladies who know bikes well: Christine White, general manager of Central Cycle Trail Co., Sonia Keogh, Lyn Brown, and Sue Attwood.

The two cycling and walking trails, one winding through stone mountains along a lake, and the other following an old rail corridor, continue to attract locals and lately, Australians, to this town in the South Island. The two popular bike trails are the 42-km Lake Dunstan Trail from Clyde to Cromwell, and the 152-km Otago Central Rail Trail from Clyde to Middlemarch.

Exceeding expectations in popularity

A year after the Lake Dunstan Trail opened in May 2021, it attracted 85,000, far exceeding the 7,500 bikers that its builders had forecast. Recently, as the summer of 2023 drew to a close, locals said the numbers were higher, estimating about 500 people on the trail each day. (The trail is two-way, from the historic district of Clyde to the heritage precinct of Cromwell.)

FROM CLYDE, the Lake Dunstan Trail is mostly flat and follows the curve the water's edge.

“Stunning” and “desolate” describe the Dunstan Trail’s terrain of rock mountain trails that create a panorama of stillness defined by winding gravel trails mostly along the edge of the lake. Where the gravel ends, steel boardwalks have been secured on rock cliffs skirting the mountains. The highlight is the 85.5-meter Hugo Bridge connecting two cliffs, a feature that tests one’s boldness for adventure with heights.

Central Cycle Trails

“Many don’t know it yet, but they are here to make memories,” Christine remarked on a slow afternoon at the CCT store in the historic district of Clyde. But even the cold air did not keep the customers away. Many times, we had to pause as she attended to walk-in’s renting a bike.

Weeks ago, Christine said a group of 11, led by a great grandfather, 88 years old, came to rent e-bikes. With him were his three sons, seven grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. Incidentally, the 88-year-old did not choose an e-bike.

STEEL BOARDWALK attached to the stone cliff forms part of the 42-kilometer Lake Dunstan Trail.

“Lovely sight,” she said. They cycled to Lake Dunstan (the trail head of the famous Dunstan Trail) and back to the town center, took longer than usual, but they were great. “They were making memories.”

In her job, she’s met people of all ages, and from all walks of life, who came just to ride a trail, many of them attracted by the Lake Dunstan Trail, which she calls “the diamond of trails.”

“It takes some ability to ride that trail. It’s not for someone who says ‘I’ve not been on a bike for three decades and here I am now on my way to Dunstan’,” she said. “We advise them to ride the Rail Trail, or part of it, first.” (The Rail Trail is listed as “grade one or the easiest trail” in guidebooks. It can be done in four to five days for bikers and seven days for hikers. There are motels and bed-and-breakfast accommodations along the way.) Guidebooks encourage those who ride or walk the trail to take it slow and “enjoy the stillness.”

THE HUGO BRIDGE connecting two cliffs is part of Lake Dunstan Trail.

Last month, she recalled a couple in their sixties booking a ride on the Roxburg Gorge Trail in the town of Alexandra. The woman, who was disabled. was riding a specially-designed three-wheel bike. “I was worried that some parts of the trail may be too narrow for that bike, but when they said they had done the Dunstan Trail, I said there would be no problem.”

ANDREW DALTON, owner of Dunstan Explorer, a speedboat that brings bikers and tourists from clyde to Cromwell, makes the ride interesting with his stories about the Dunstan Trail, the lake, and the gold rush.

‘Truly inspiring image’

Christine was impressed by the couple’s love for biking, and the outdoors. She called the image they made that day in the trail as “truly inspiring” – seniors, one of them disabled, on bikes at one of the famous trails.

She said there are many inspiring stories told by the presence of people who come to Clyde.

“Many of them come to relieve something they wanted to do when they were young, to ride the trail. The e-bike has transformed cycling; it has made it possible for people in their senior years to go back to the saddle, and even to ride the Rail Trail, the Dunstan or the Roxburg Gorge Trail,” she said.

E-bikes

“The popularity of the bike trails came with the e-bikes which became very popular during the pandemic. After the lockdown restrictions were lifted, yet travel out of the country was not yet allowed, e-bikes became popular vehicles for leisure activities. People sought out bike trails,” Christine related.

AT THE CENTRAL CYCLE Trails store at the Historical District, Christine White attends to walk-in customers who were asking information about bikes to ride the trails.

Central Cycle Trails, whose showroom sits in one of the repurposed buildings at the middle of the Clyde Heritage District, offers bike rentals and is known for organizing tours for groups who come for a bike holiday.

Dunstan Explorer

Those who can’t physically try the 42-km trail can view it from the lake, on the Dunstan Explorer, a speedboat that ferries mostly bikers and a few tourists from Clyde to Cromwell. The ride comes with interesting stories related by skipper Andrew Dalton on the history of the lake and the gold rush at the Clutha River in the 1870s.

A MINER'S PICKAXE is embedded in the stone bank of the Clutha river from the days of the gold rush in the late 1800s.

A pitch axe from the gold miners stuck on the stone mountain cliff, now under the steel boardwalk of the trail, is a strong reminder of the days of the gold rush. Somewhere in the lake still stands the miner’s stone house, where thick bushes of thyme emitted a lovely scent.

Government initiative

The Lake Dunstan Trail, whose construction started in 2020, is part of the New Zealand Cycle Trail Project, and is funded by the government, the Central Lakes Trust and the Otago Community Trust.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation built the Rail Trail after it took over the old rail corridor in 1993. According to the guide book, “Otago Central Rail Trail” written by Brian and Diane Miller, “people laughed at the idea,” saying: “Who is going to ride a bike along this desolate countryside?” The critics have long been proven wrong.