Cycling Central Otago- Part Two

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We were off to a dismal start.

My crash course as a bicycle instructor had clearly been a failure, and my mother was pushing her bike uphill within ten minutes of commencing our journey. I was shouting words of encouragement downhill, but I was wondering to myself if walking without a pushbike would be faster. Big K, my yoga-wise Mum was huffing and puffing her way upwards at an astoundingly slow rate.

My technical words of advice didn't seem to be doing much good, as each successive effort to go uphill was stopped abruptly by a combination of gravity and lacking momentum. My explanations evidently became more and more confusing.

Gear 6 was high or low? What were the gears on the left handlebar for then?

At the peak of one particularly spectacular hill, I threw my bike into the ditch and scurried up a monumental rock for a traditional victory shot. Perhaps it was the summit of Pukerangi Peak that swelled Big K with pride and inspiration, or maybe it was the exhilaration of flying down her first steep hill, but she managed to teeter all the way up one shortly thereafter. Her success was accompanied by shouts of joy resounding through the desolate valley.

Not only did we manage to arrive unscathed, we pedalled into Blind Billy's Backpackers nearly half an hour before the other

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Photos

Pushing Uphill
Big K's first hills

Victory at Pukerangi Peak
Sophia's inspirational summit

Sheep Country
Big K on the Rail Trail

Victory
Rail Trail Summit Point