Ebike Social Riders Hawkes Bay. South Island Tour 2022. Otago Rail Trail: Waipiata to Middlemarch. The final ride of the tour. Please scroll down for the tour wrap-up by Charlie Davey.

“Day 4, final day of the Otago Rail Trail. Waipiata to Middlemarch. A long day so we started early, but it was a smooth easy trail. Various scenes from along the way. And the finishing touches. What a wonderful 4 days it’s been, no rain on any of our rides in the SI.” – Pippi

Video from Mark Davey – Waipiata to Middlemarch

Wrap Up…

2022 South Island Tour

From conception in April 2021 to completion in March 2022 the 2022 South Island Tour presented a unique set of challenges.

We are a social recreational cycling group of mainly retired riders and therefore the planned rides needed not only to complement our collected abilities but also offer challenges so that a sense of achievement was attained.

The tour attracted 35 riders, unfortunately two had to withdraw due to injury and two others were unable to get onward ferry bookings after their original booking was cancelled due to Covid.

This tour turned out to be our biggest and longest in the groups five year history.

Our selected rides included

Tasman Great Taste 3 days

A section of the Alps to Ocean 1 day

Queenstown Trails 2 days

Lake Dunstan Trail 2 days

Roxburgh Gorge 1 day

Otago Rail Trail 4 days

During the tour we experienced no adverse weather nor was the tour group impacted by Covid.

Whilst the planing and execution of the tour was time consuming, the results outweighed the input by some margins.

These tours don’t just happen so thanks to Jenny Garrett for once again organising our accommodation and to Lynda Francis for being our tour banker your joint input is appreciated.

I have enjoyed the chance to organise and lead the tour. Thanks to those that supported not only the tour but each other.

It has been successful tour many have achieved personal goals and have ridden trails they probably would never have ridden without the support of the group.

For me it was a chance to ride with friends and an opportunity to ride once again in Central Otago.

E bike Social Riders Hawkes Bay we nailed it! – Charlie Davey

******* In March 2022, a group from Ebike Social Riders Hawkes Bay, embarked on a tour of New Zealand’s South Island. The tour was devised by Charlie and Robyn Davey, aided by others from the group. Pippi Wells, a rider in the group along with others, have graciously allowed me to use their Facebook posts to recount the trip.