After lunch we headed on up the Ida Burn passing the latitude 45 South marker before another detour, this time to see the historic Golden Progress Mine (armed with just the non-SLR camera).

It was then back on the trail to the top of Rough Ridge (618m) and we swing south, recrossing the 45 South latitude and heading down towards Wedderburn. Speeds of over 30km/hr were recorded but I kept my eyes on the trail as some idiot had put rough chip stones in places making for some very dangerous cycling at those speeds!! At those speeds, Wedderburn is reached almost before one realises, although I'm sure I would have noticed the famous rail-shed further on if I had shot past our turn off.

As we had expressed so much interest in the winter sport of curling at our stop at the Idaburn Dam, Shayne decided to take us in to Naseby to see the indoor Curling Rink. We were able to have this wonderful sport explained, have some practice then play a couple of matches. Beats bowling any day as the brushing really controls the speed of the stone.
Dinner at Wedderburn Tavern and overnight at "The Lodge" B&B up the road were both excellent.

Day 4: (Thursday 22nd Feb 2007) We woke to a heavy mist were given a Audio-visual presentation of the Rail Trail and the repossession of the Wedderburn Rail-shed, made famous by Grahame Sydney's 1975 "July on the Maniototo" painting.
Cycling in the mist created a quite unusual disorientation - the eyes saying you were going down hill but the legs were telling you otherwise. Jenny complained that something was wrong with her bike, but we all had a similar sensation.

Cathy was more interested in the animals. Ranfurly had some surprises - a photographic gallery opposite over the "track", interesting stores and the station had a machine for reading memory cards and burning to CD-Rom - YAY! got back heaps of memory (but I kept the very best photos on the card in case the CD-Rom failed!).

At Waipiata Shayne took us on a tour up to the historic Hamilton's Cemetery past the old Orangapai Tb Sanatorium before lunch. It was then on to Daisybank.

Our morning tea break with Shayne gave us time to notice the "crop circles" on the hill. Must have been a stoned alien to park on a slope like that.

The trail continues above the Taieri River, sometimes as a gorge, crossing side streams & gullies with a variety of wooden, steel, stone and concrete bridges. Price's Creek Viaduct is 32m high and Price's or Hyde Tunnel is 152m long.

The Hyde (Price's) tunnel is curved, so the end is not visible. This is bad for some, but it doesn't ruin "night vision" until one is able to see the exit and gives in to temptation to look!

The trail now descends steadily to Hyde and the very pleasant Otago Central Hotel. Excellent food and hosts.