This morning we had a side trip in the bus to an indoor curling rink in a tiny town called Naseby.
We were shown a video instructing us on the finer points of curling, then set loose on the rink with an instructor to help us. What a great game! Very similar to lawn bowls in scoring, but with a big target under the ice to aim at. Getting the right weight to get the stones to stop in the right place was the difficult part.
We played boys against girls and The girls won, but they cheated, I think. There was a terrific rainstorm while we were indoor curling. The weather was dry by the time we returned to the cycling trail and we set off for Ranfurly – just 14k. The track was a bit wet and muddy, but we made good progress until about 4k out of our destination when the rain came down. We made it to the station without getting too wet, but then it started to pour down.
We had our picnic lunch in the shelter of the old statio
n. It was still pouring down, so we abandoned our next leg and got on the bus to head for our overnight stop at Waipiata. We’re in the pub, very pleasant place with a good evening meal.
These settlements are tiny and very remote, certainly a change from Sydney – but the Otago Pino Noir is lovely!
