Alice an inspiration on cavalcade (+ video)

Alice Sinclair with her horse, Missy, at Crown Rock yesterday. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery
Alice Sinclair with her horse, Missy, at Crown Rock yesterday. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery

Alice Sinclair is quite simply unstoppable. On the Tussock Creek light wagon trail on the Otago Goldfields Heritage Trust's cavalcade, the adventure-seeking great-grandmother is an inspiration.

Age has failed to slow Mrs Sinclair (80), who has been on all 24 cavalcades and is now adding hiking and cycling trails to her busy schedule.

This year's cavalcade was poignant, as it was the first since the death of her husband, Len, in June last year, following an accident involving a horse on their Taieri property.

The couple were married for 60 years.

When Mrs Sinclair's family asked if she was planning to saddle up for this year's trail, she did not think she would.

But they encouraged her, and daughter Janette Philp, an adventure trek leader who takes groups to the likes of Everest Base Camp, said she would come from her Perth home to provide back-up for her mother.

"So that worked in good. Now, she's planning to be my back-up for next year,'' a smiling Mrs Sinclair said yesterday, during the light wagon trail's rest day at Crown Rock, beside the Pomahaka River.

As a special touch, Mrs Philp was wearing her father's cavalcade hat, adorned with the badges he gained each year for taking part.

In October last year, Mrs Sinclair walked the 73km Camino Salvado trail in Western Australia.

The following month she and Mrs Philp spent five days hiking in the Abel Tasman National Park, followed by a five-day cycle trail.

In two weeks' time, she will aim to cycle the Otago Central Rail Trail in three days. The pair will then head to Queenstown, from where she will walk the Routeburn and Kepler tracks.

"She's a freak ... phenomenal. I just hope the genes run in the family,'' her proud daughter said of her mother's achievements.

Mrs Sinclair did confide that she preferred the saddle of a horse to the seat of a bicycle.

"I've got more control over the horse, I think, than I have over the bicycle. I think I came off three times,'' she said, laughing.

In the past, there had not been much time for such adventures, as Mr and Mrs Sinclair were busy with their business, Len Sinclair Saws and Mowers.

Life did not slow down much in latter years. There were always chores to do on the 14.9ha property she looked after.

"It's always never-ending. I haven't got time to sit around and watch telly. There's not much time to waste, that's for sure,'' she said.

In fact, she did not have much time to get her horse, Missy, fit for the cavalcade.

Fortunately, Mr Sinclair had devised a motorised horse walker, which Missy used for an hour a day, trotting around and getting fit.

Missy was a slow walker, so tended to ‘‘jig-jog'' to keep up with the rest of the trail, sometimes resulting in a bouncy ride.

"I just wish that she would learn to walk out a bit better. I'm always the tail-ender. [But] we get there, don't we?'' she said fondly.

Mrs Sinclair had no plans to retire from the cavalcade, or to slow down.

"I may as well make the most of it while I can,'' she said.

Trail boss Chris Bayne, who described Mrs Sinclair as "more than an inspiration'', said there were 56 participants on this year's light wagon trail, including a trio from the North Island.

The group started at Waikaka and had enjoyed some "amazing'' scenery.

The cavalcade finishes in Roxburgh on Saturday, where all nine trails will converge on the racecourse, which will also be the site of the Mt Benger A&P Show and the Roxburgh Rotary Classic Car Show.

 

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