Kaka Point to Alexandra - 170kms

We left Kaka Point and the wind and rain filled the sky. We were followed by a photographer for the newspaper, then were asked questions about our bike ride. They asked us what we liked to eat and how many kms we would like to aim for - mine was Backcountry and I told them I was aiming for a 100km day.

The next day it was a cold and freezing morning - we had some yummy Harraway Oats for breakfast and hit the road. We saw a hedgehog escape death by crossing the road quickly.

We then spotted ourselves in the paper at a pub while using their toilets near Clutha Valley School which was vey cool, we were on the front page! We headed up to Tuapeka where we had a swim in the Clutha River. We missed the Tuapeka punt on that day so decided to camp near the ferry and wait for a ride the next day. But the river was running too low so the ferry wasn't operating. The Roxburgh Dam control the river for power. So after being a bit disappointed we then had to choose a different route to get to Beaumont. This was hard, it was raining while we were going up the hills, after 20kms of going up we then had a 10km downhill. By now the rain was very heavy and the road was gravel, but it was an awesome downhill!

We followed the Clutha Gold Trail into Beaumont and camped along the river. We headed for Pinders Pond and learnt lots of gold mining history along the way. We did 40kms that day.

We woke up for Christmas at Pinders Pond - I saw my presents waiting there for me and I got a big surprise to see so many treats. We then cycled along the Clutha Gold Trail to Roxbugh - only 6kms - we camped at Clutha Gold Cottages.

Boxing day we headed up the river to a massive dam called the Roxbugh Dam. It was amazing. That was the end of the Clutha Gold Trail - next trail was Roxburgh Gorge Trail- the first big hill was hard - I pushed my bike all the way up then saw a wicked downhill - so left Mum and Dad behind and went zooming down. There were more uphills but it was a fun trail. We arrived at Shingle Creek to find an old hunters hut. We played in the hut, the hut had a bar so we pretended to be bar tenders! Dave the jet boat driver from Beaumont Jet arrived at nine in the morning. I was climbing on and up a cliff when I heard him coming in he was really nice to us. When we loaded all our gear on to the jet boat the jet boat driver said it's the fullest he'd seen his boat before. On our way we got to see old mining huts they were from the late eighteen hundreds it's amazing that some are still standing. The man showed us some real gold they were big nuggets. He then dropped us off at Doctors Point where there were more miners huts - we then had 10kms riding to get to Alexandra. The Roxburgh Gorge Trail was nice and smooth with lots of cool turns, I loved it.