Off The Rails 2023

26/09/2024

Off The Rails now have MOUNTAIN BIKES for hire. These are suitable for use in the Naseby Forest Recreation Area.
We have...
6 x Trek Rail 7 ebikes in Med/Large and XL
2 x Trek Fuel Exe ebikes in Med and Large
10 x Scott Scale Hardtail regular mountain bikes in Small/Med/Large and XL.

Also we have a large selection of Rail Trail bikes for hire including ebikes.

All bikes are avaliable for 1/2 day/ Full day or multi day hire.

Give us a ring or email and book your bikes for the school holidays.

24/09/2024

Also…. We still have spare seats and room for more riders the second week of the school holidays.(8th-11th October). So if you keen to do the whole trail or even a day or 2 why not give us a yell and hop on board.

24/09/2024

Just a reminder that if you or someone you know has ever thought about riding the Otago Central Rail Trail, the cheapest option available is our deal through GrabOne.
Currently still space for
October 18-21st
November 6-9th
December 10-13th
Vouchers need to be purchased directly through the GrabOne site. So what are you waiting for….
https://new.grabone.co.nz/holidays-hotels-travel/other-hotels-accommodation/p/off-the-rails-otago-12?_ga=2.178610278.31245293.1727160297-24280907.1716939694&no_clone_redirect=1

13/09/2024

With bookings coming in for this season, now is the time to plan your trip with Off The Rails.
We are offering a "Spring Special" deal on our 4 day tour package for the 8th-11th of October and the10th-13th November. So get in quick and enquire online or give us a call on 0273633724.
Also, check out our updated website

Off the Rails specialises in premium cycle tours of the Otago Central Rail Trail. Contact us to book your tour today!

28/08/2024

We thank all of our guests from last season for their fabulous reviews. We look forward to providing the same amazing experience for you all this season. Get in touch now to make a booking 🚴‍♀️

24/07/2024

We are starting to get a few bookings in for next season. We have some really good deals on Grabone at the moment for certain dates so if you’re flexible with the time you’d like to ride the trail, this is the cheapest option. Or… if you would like to ride when it suits you.. contact us via email and mention you follow us on FB or Insta and we will give you a deal.
So if you’ve been thinking of riding the Otago Central rail trail or want to ride it again or know of someone who does…. get in touch with us.
Please share this post to anyone you think might be interested 🚴
Please send us an email
[email protected]

06/05/2024

The 2023/24 Season is coming to an end. We have thoroughly enjoyed our first season and have met some absolutely awesome people and made some truly great friends, that hopefully we will see again. We are taking bookings for next season, so if you are keen to ride the rail trail again, or for the first time, make an enquiry and see what we have to offer.

23/03/2024

The Rail Trail finishes (or starts!) in Middlemarch.
Earlier known as Blair Taieri or Strath Tairei. Both Blair and Strath meaning “a valley”.
March is an old meaning for a boundary or border. The name Middlemarch was first used to name the post office in 1876. European settlers first came to the area in search of grazing land for sheep.
First phot is of the Middlemarch station in 1906 (Otago Witness)
Second is of a train arriving at the station from Dunedin in 1911 (Muir and Moodie)

20/03/2024

Ngapuna was originally called “Springs” but in 1910 the Maori translation was adopted. This small siding only had room for 4 wagons until it was lengthened and stock yards were built. Ngapuna was known as an early diarying area.
Photo of station in 1962 (GW Emerson)

20/03/2024

Rock and Pillar station was often known as “Moloneys” after the hotel keeper there who was said to “keep a good house”.
When the hotel closed it became a sanatorium for tb patients from 1907 till 1911.
First photo is of the blossom festival special train passing the railcar at the Rock and Pillar station in 1959. The empty egg crates on the platform are from a nearby poultry farm. (GW Emerson)
Second photo is of the bridge at 5 mile creek showing a F class locomotive piloting a R class Single Fairlie across the bridge. It is believed this photo is of a “special” train for the opening of the line between Rock and Pillar and Hyde in May 1894(EJ McClare)

18/03/2024

Next stop after Tiroiti is Hyde.
Originally called Eight Mile, as it was 8 miles south east of the Hamilton’s gold field. Renamed Hyde around 1864, after John Hyde Harris, provincial superintendent of Otago 1863-65. The orginal township was located 1.6km above the present town!
It was estimated Hyde had a population of around 1200 in 1864, 1000 of which were miners.
The railway reached Hyde in July 1894. As there was not a suitable flat area in the town, a new town was built 1.4km away where the station now stands. Called “Newtown”, it was the orginal home of the Otago Central Hotel and adjoining store which burnt down in 1925 effectively ending Newtowns existence. The hotel was rebuilt in 1927 in Hyde itself. The station being situated at Newton caused a serious inconvenience to Hyde residents as they had to leave their horses in Hyde and walk with their luggage to the station.
A passenger “halt” was built near Hyde but it saw little use as the railcar normally stopped at the road crossing instead. Hyde was a major source of high quality pottery clay with 5000 tonnes being loaded out in 1976
First photo is of the station at the Hyde township. (GW Emerson)
Second is of the Hyde station in 1962(GW Emerson)
Third photo show the Hyde station in. 1912 (R Hay)

15/03/2024

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15/03/2024

Back up the train!!!
I forgot Waipiata station. 😳
Waipiata, meaning “Clear Water” was originally called Komako, meaning “Big bird”. The name changed to Waipiata in 1897.
The Waipiata sanatorium opened in
1914 at the Hamilton’s goldfields and was privately owned until the Hospital board took it over in the early 1920s as a sanatorium for tb patients until 1961 when it closed and became a corrective youth centre for the Justice department. I believe the sealed road from Waipiata to the youth centre was the first sealed road in the Maniototo.
A factory, processing rabbits employing 78 people was located at the green bridge in 1901, until a factory was built in Waipiata. The canning factory could process 10000 rabbits a day. When it closed in the 1930s the buildings were used as a concrete works making water troughs, tanks and culverts etc.
One of the last big stock movements on the railway was in November 1973, when my fathers uncle, Eden H**e, drove 1600 head of cattle from “Glensehee” and loaded 3 trains (a total of 120 wagons!) at the Waipiata yards and took them to Burnside freezing works in Dunedin. Hope to get some photos of that!
Photo of Waipiata station in 1962 (C.M Herman)

12/03/2024

Next station down the line is Tiroiti, meaning “Little view”. Originally named Capburn which itself was shortened from Flat Cap Hill Burn and before that, Springfield. Tiroiti was renamed in 1910. Behind the station on the hill was the construction camp including a school.
First photo taken by G W Emerson is of two Dh locomotives loaded to capacity coming out of the Tiroiti Gorge in 1962
Second photo taken by R J Meyer is of people witnessing the last steam passenger train from Ranfurly crossing the new Prices Creek viaduct in 1968.
Third photo taken by S A Rockcliff is of the Tiroiti Station in 1968
Forth photo taken by G W Emerson is of one of the last excursion trains to Clyde crossing the Capburn bridge in 1990

08/03/2024

The Kokonga railway station.
When the railway reached Kokonga in 1896, it was described as “a busy little place”. Known as Ryan’s Crossing it was the easiest place to cross the Taieri river. When the railway reached Ranfurly in 1898, Kokonga was reduced from “her proud position as terminus to a mere flag station”.
In October 1986 the Kokonga station was purchased by the Mt Ida syndicate and Kyeburn station to be used as a musterers hut, and was moved to the bottom of Mt Buster to replace the old corrugated iron Buster huts. The “new” hut was fitted out with bunks the following year.
First photo shows the station as it was in 1976.
Second photo shows it as it is present day at the bottom of Mt Buster.

04/03/2024

Ranfurly, named in 1897 in honour of Lord Ranfurly who named many of the streets after his family. Ranfurly was originally known as “Padanarum” (never knew that!!) and then “Eweburn”.
When the line was surveyed, another station site was reserved 8.5km beyond Ranfurly. In 1890, 14 farmers petitioned to have a siding built there but the railways thought that the wool and rabbit cargo from there wouldn’t warrant the expense.
First photo is of the Ranfurly station around 1900
Second photo from 1910 shows an extension at the far end to house the post office and a fire place to heat the ladies waiting room at this end.
Third photo shows the station after an extensive remodel in 1912. The veranda was added in 1923.
Forth photo shows rabbits being loaded in Ranfurly 1902. Rabbits were carried hanging from a rack in open wagons. A typical days tally would have been around 13000 carcasses weighing around 18tonnes!!!!!! 😳😳
Fifth photo shows the Cromwell train at the Ranfurly station waiting in the loop for its opposite number from Dunedin. Most passengers would be in the dining rooms at the station waiting. The two trains parked together often caused confusion and it wasn’t uncommon for people to board the wrong train and go back where they had just come from!🤣

03/03/2024

After crossing the 45 parallel twice and the highest point of the rail trail at 618m above sea level we arrive at Wedderburn.
This station is the highest altitude station in Otago and Southland.
Wedderburn was once a coach stop in the goldfield days, on the road to the Dunstan. It was once suggested to change the name to “Muriomato”, the Maori name for the White Sow Valley but the residents objected to any name change.
First photo. Wedderburn station in 1972
Second photo is of a passenger steam train on Labour Day 1964 approaching the highest point at Wedderburn.

03/03/2024

Oturehua was originally called Rough Ridge until 1907. Meaning “the place where the summer star stands still”. ( according to Wikipedia)
Snow was often responsible for delays to trains. When frozen snow packed on the rails it would sometimes derail engines as they rode over the ice rather than break through it. It was a common practice to repeatedly charge a drift and the slipping of the driving wheels sometimes burned corrugations into the lines.
First photo is of “Rough Ridge” station before the name changed just before the big snow of 1908
Second is of the Oturehua station in 1986

02/03/2024

Next stop is the Ida Valley station. Ida Valley and Mt Ida where named by Thompson after one of the towers of Bamburgh Castle on the Northumberland coast.
Originally known by the Pubilc Works Dept as “Blackstone Hills” station. The name changed in 1901 when the NZR took over and appointed a station master.
As in a previous post , the station was shifted to the Mt Ida syndicate around 1976 and the goods shed was shifted to Ranfurly.
First photo is of the Ida Valley station in winter time around 1965
Second photo is of the Craig & Co coach about to leave the Ida Valley railhead bound for Alexandra and beyond in 1903.

28/02/2024

On from Lauder through the Poolburn gorge we arrive at Auripo (meaning “many streams” or “swirling current”)
Originally opened in 1904 as Poolburn, the name changed to Auripo in 1910 because of confusion with the Poolburn post office 13km away.
First photo is of the workers and their horses posing at the eastern end of the no13 tunnel before the stone portal was constructed in the Poolburn gorge
Second photo is a typical workmen’s tent with a mud brick chimney near the Poolburn viaduct
Third photo is of men with their picks, shovels and wheelbarrows showing the magnitude of the work they faced!!
Forth photo is of stonemasons at an outcrop where stone was cut for the Poolburn viaduct
Fifth photo is of a train load of wool emerging from No13 tunnel in 1968
Sixth photo is of the railcar stopping to pick up passengers at the Auripo station in 1968

28/02/2024

Next stop, Lauder. Named by J.T. Thomson after Lauder, Berwickshire, the home of his grandparents.
First photo shows the building of the Manuherikia bridge using compressed air to excavate the holes for the piles. This bridge was the first major use of concrete on the line.
Second photo is of a Q class locomotive crossing the bridge with the Cromwell-Dunedin passenger train on 30/12/1936
Third photo is of the Lauder station in 1962

28/02/2024

Omakau is the next station. Briefly named Ophir! The name changed in 1904. The railway missed Ophir as 2 crossings were needed to cross the river so it was easier to bypass it and build the station on the other side. Hence Omakau was born. As previously stated, the Omakau station was one of the busiest stock loading yards in New Zealand.
The first photo is of the opening day of the station 1904. The goods shed has “Ophir” painted on it! Everyone dressed in their finest
Second photo is of loading sheep in the stock yards . What a cracker photo this is!!
Third photo is of the Omakau station in 1968 showing sheep wagons on the left positioned for direct loading from stock trucks

25/02/2024

Chatto Creek is the next stop after Galloway. Believed to be named by the Shennan brothers after a residence in Scotland.
When the line to Chatto Creek opened in 1906, settlers criticised the spending of money on a station they thought would only have a short life
First photo is a train arriving at the Chatto Creek station in 1953
Second photo is a passenger train about to cross the Manuherikia River (No2 bridge) in April 1990