KERRE MCIVOR

KERRE HAS A WHEELIE FUN TIME – AND AVOIDS BLOWING A GASKET – DOING THE OTAGO RAIL TRAIL ON AN ELECTRIC BIKE

Itake it all back. When a friend suggested we buy electric bikes a couple of years ago, I’m ashamed to say I was a little dismissive. “E-bikes?” I snorted. “For heaven’s sake! They’re for lazy people. Bikes are for transportation and exercise, not for sitting on and being a passenger. No. Not for me.”

So poor Clare shelved the idea. Well, this Christmas I may have to work out how to gift-wrap a bike and present it to her because I am a complete and utter convert. I have just ridden the Otago Rail Trail with three mates and it was one of the best experiences of my life – thanks, in large part, to the fact that Di booked us all on e-bikes.

I’ve always wanted to do the Rail Trail. And I’ve always imagined I’d complete it on a real bike. But this year has been frantic and I haven’t had time to train and besides, the other girls were adamant that e-bikes were the way to go.

They were absolutely right. Although I must admit, I had a few initial wobbles. Before the Rail Trail, Di had booked us on a cycle ride from the Roxburgh Dam to Alexandra. The weather was stunning – cloudless skies and sunshine. We were so lucky as it had been snowing, raining and freezing the week before. But the first part of the ride was a precipitous track that zig-zagged down the side of what to us looked like a sheer cliff.

And we were back in the saddle for the first time in a long time. The e-bikes were like flighty ponies – it felt like they were going to bolt on us at any moment.

Dave, from the bike tours company, spent quite a bit of time trying to get us comfortable on the bikes, and he watched nervously as we pootled off down the hill. Rosie and Vicky got the hang of the bikes first. They were off down the mountain like teenagers while Di and I got off our bikes and wheeled them round the sharp corners. But it was only a matter of time before we were all free-wheeling like we were kids again.

The trail came to an end on the edge of the Clutha River and a jet boat was waiting to take us to the start of the next leg. It really was the most splendid day. We wondered how the rest of the week could possibly match our first day. But each day was as magnificent as the first. We kept stopping to gaze in awe and wonder at the Otago landscape and every night we were fed and watered in fine fashion.

We went go-karting in Cromwell and curling in Naseby, and we talked and laughed long into each night. As a group of novice cyclists, we would never have had as much fun if we’d had to slog the kilometres each day on real bikes. I detected judgement from the hard-core cyclists we met along the track. Just a faint narrowing of the eyes and the merest hint of a curled lip indicating that they thought we were a bunch of middle-aged, namby-pamby softies for taking the easy way out. They could sneer all they liked. I was happy to be judged.

To be able to whiz along at 20km per hour, then flick up the power and crash the hills without blowing a gasket made for a truly enjoyable experience. E-bikes mean many more people will be able to enjoy the Rail Trail than otherwise would and that has to be a good thing.

We finished the trail in Middlemarch, then took the train from Pukerangi to Dunedin and just like that, we were back to reality. And now I’m shopping round for an e-bike for Clare and me. It’s the only way to go.