One of the original reasons we chose to visit Central Otago was to explore part of the Central Otago Rail Trail. The 152 kilometre cycleway follows the route of the former Otago Central railway, a branch line that ran from Dunedin on the coast to Cromwell high on the Central Otago plateau. Although construction of the railway began in 1877, it progressed slowly and the final sections to Clyde and Cromwell weren’t finished until 1921. The line was decommissioned in the 1980’s and more recently has been turned into a multi-day bicycle ride.
With our original plans to ride some sections of the trail thwarted by various injuries, we decided to pick a short section to walk to get a feel for the area. We intercepted the Rail Trail at a rural spot, where the track hugged a hillside high above the Ida Valley.
Not long after leaving Auripo and the Ida Valley, the Rail Trail started to turn to cross the Raggedy Range. As we rounded the corner, we caught sight of the Poolburn Viaduct, the first of a couple of bridges that were required to traverse this area. The Poolburn Viaduct is the highest bridge on the Rail Trail at 37 metres high, and is the fourth longest, spanning 108 metres across Ida Burn. It took three years to build, despite the rock for the piers coming from local outcrops.
After crossing the Poolburn Viaduct the track entered the Poolburn gorge, where a series of tunnels helped ensure a steady grade as the railway dropped through the gorge into the Manuherikia River valley beyond. The tunnels were cut through the schist rock, and then just the ends were lined with brick. Guides were used to form the brick lining and once the bricks were complete the guides were removed and any gaps between the bricks and the rock were filled with rubble. Although we only had small torches with us it was easy to see the different construction techniques used in the tunnels.
We exited the second tunnel and passed through a series of cuttings before gradually descending down into the Manuherikia Valley. We crossed a final curved bridge before reaching the small town of Lauder. Although we had only managed a very short ten kilometer (just over six mile) section of the Rail Trail, the journey across the Raggedy Range had been really interesting and made me keen to explore more of the Rail Trail in the future.