We woke in our little cabin at Pureoa Camp with rain steadily falling, had tea/coffee and breakfast and donned full rain gear for the day. We were going to start the Timber Trail, an 85km mountain bike trail through forest. It’s one of the jewels of this route, and we were looking forward to it.
Just as we were about to enter the trail, we met a group of 5 similarly aged riders on e-bikes with no gear about to ride to Camp Epic, which was our destination as well. It was great to see other riders, since we had seen so few. They had been shuttled from Camp Epic to the start of the trail, and so we looked forward to seeing them that night. At the time, we had no idea how great it would be to see them that night!
The ride to Camp Epic was pretty short by distance, only 23 miles, but included 3,350 feet of elevation gain, primarily on trails. We have been gauging the difficulty of each days’ rides by elevation gain as much as distance, as well as road/trail surfaces since it takes much longer to ride a trail vs road, and also steeper vs more moderate grades.
The scenery along the trail was amazing! So many greens and such lush vegetation.
Cicadas were deafening at times and the birdsong was strong.
It’s remote up here and there are signs alerting you if that spot has phone reception. FYI, there was no phone reception at the places I stopped and checked! We got some amusement about the warning about an Alpine environment, since we were under 2500 feet elevation when we saw it
The rain was incessant during the day, but we remained dry inside, and enjoyed the insular feeling of being close in the green forest. It somehow added to the experience by seeing the rain drip off mossy trees and branches. We would not have complained if it was sunny, but this was great too.
We crested the high point of the trail at 991 meters (3,250 feet) of elevation.
Along the way, we stopped in one of the small shelters available along the trail and waited out a heavy shower and boiled water and had some hot soup. That was great!
There were two long bridges on this part of the trail, which happily were much more sturdy and wide than the one crossing Mangakino Stream yesterday. We could just ride across them and marvel at the depth of the ravine they were crossing. The Timber Trail is clearly a treasured jewel for NZ, as it took a lot of resources to make this trail and now to maintain it. While we saw few people on it, it’s certainly a destination for people around the world to come ride it.
Our bikes did well too. We shed some weight both times we went through Auckland by sending packages to Katherine in Australia. Bikes/gear are lighter than when we started. I’m cycling in sandals since shoes will just fill with water, as Chris’ have. In the next town with a larger bike store, we’ll see if we can find some cycling sandals for Chris too. No one could have predicted this amount of rain. Kiwis all shake their heads.
As today’s ride was coming to an end, the clouds thinned and we even saw some weak sunshine. We upgraded to glamping at Camp Epic, moving into a cool big tent with 2 real beds. This is delux! Camp Epic is a pretty upscale camp, with lovely showers/bathrooms and kitchen.
Those 5 riders we met earlier had arrived, with one of their party having to be brought in by vehicle due to an accident where he injured his ankle severely enough that he was unable to walk, much less ride. Doctor appointment made for when he gets home, and at least he was having fun just before it happened. In what we were told was typical Kiwi life, the young woman managing the camp was instructed by her boss to just “drive around and see if you can find someone to help.” She did, finding some hunters with a quad runner, who graciously just went and picked Steve up and returned him to camp, refusing any payment for the service. And brought one of his mates to ride Steve’s bike back to camp.
These lovely people invited us to dinner, having brought too much burger meat and accessories to eat themselves. And beer! And wine! God, these people were angels (and we were locusts), and we so enjoyed the social energy that evening. Their adventure started when Doug, from NZ but living in Perth for many years, wanted to do the Timber Trail and everyone else came with. His brother Bruce also lives in Perth, but family is in Hamilton.
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