Today was one of those days that felt pretty simple as we took off this morning. Bypassing the twisty trail to leave Mangakino, we took the very lightly trafficked main road for a couple miles, then turning onto a succession of smaller paved and gravel roads, seeing basically no one along the way. It was quiet and seemed like a day of climbing on paved roads. Had we remembered what we had read in the guidebook we would have known that only 8.4 miles of the 32 miles we would be riding today are on paved roads.
At Arataki, the gravel road ended abruptly and a questionable track turned sharp left. It looked like it had not been used for a while, but was signposted Arataki Track, and our GPS maps showed it was the right way. So, we proceeded to where a narrow wire suspension bridge crosses Mangakino Stream.
I had read about some narrow bridges, but this one was pretty daunting. It crossed a deep ravine over a rushing stream. It was so narrow that the only way to get the bikes across was set the bike up on the rear wheel only, after removing all the bags and pedals (the pedals caught on the side mesh of the bridge). The bridge swayed underfoot, and the footbed was mesh so looking down was kinda scary!
But, we made it across the bridge, reassembled all the bikes and went on. The Arataki Track was sometimes narrow, muddy and steep, but otherwise lovely. We intersected a larger gravel road at some point and climbed our way up towards the center of North Island.
At some point, on a gravel road, Chris’ bike got tangled up in a vine hanging down across the road and she went down. I was close enough behind to witness the whole thing, horrified. But after the initial shock wore off, it seemed that Chris had gotten scratched up and would probably be sporting some bruises, but was not seriously injured. Crisis averted.
We headed on to the Center of North Island, having a little snack before taking the trail offshoot to the marker. From our raingear, I guess it had started sprinkling again.
Our next stop was to see the famous Caterpillar tractor, which was marked on the map and had been described to us by Grant Rennie, the father of the group that we had been traveling with. It was kind of funny, since both Chris and I were expecting some giant mechanical beast stuck in some swamp, but it was instead the relic of an 100-year old mini tractor that had failed and was left in place until someone decided to erect a shelter over it. It was kind of cool to read the history!
And then finally, we made the final miles to Pureoa Camp Cabins, where we ran into a couple guys on bikes carrying no gear being met by a motor home. Smart guys! We got into our sparse cabin, again the only people in the whole place. The hot showers were wonderful and we set up our camping clothesline to get our clothes to dry. With no one in around, I’m glad we are traveling together, since it would be kind of lonely to do this trip all by yourself!
Chris got a chance to properly wash her scratches and assess the damage. Some scratches on her hip and upper arm/shoulder and a small tear in her shorts. Pain meds tonight to make sure she gets some good sleep.
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