18th and 19th April (82km cycled)

Day 1

The stags were making awesome roaring sounds last night. It echoed up the valley, and was really spooky. The temperature was a little milder here, so we were cold but not freezing!

Woke up at 7am to the fog, had to get ready for 8.30am for the bus. Loads of people started to arrive to get on the shuttle.

The bus took about an hour (a trip that was going to take 2 days in our future). The driver, Paul, told us all about the ride and the area. Apparently Ongarue was once upon a time quite a booming little town with a cinema, shops, and golf course. When the logging mill closed everyone moved away. They moved their houses too!

We arrived in Pureora and started the ride uphill through the virgin native forest, beautiful.

There was a hike on the trail that took us all the way to the summit, which of course we did. It was about an hour and a half return, stunning views. We could see all the major landmarks of the North Island!

It was beautiful and worth the hike uphill! The way down was tough, I had only just gotten over the Tongariro crossing downhill adventure, oooh the knees!

The next cycling trail section was uphill again, again through forest. Paul said that some was being cleared, and we saw the devastation too. So tragic.

Andy smiling there because we didn’t have our pannier bags, we had left them on the bus and they would meet us at the Piropiro campground, half way along. Such luxury! To be honest I didn’t think there was much difference, the bike still bounced about going downhill, it just made it slightly easier on the gravel sections not to have a heavy back end.

Lots of swing bridges on this trail which were fun to cross by bike. Would have been more scary to get off and walk I am sure!

What’s that post doing? In the way… bloody posts.

We stopped in Piropiro, the sun was nearly down.. we had to attempt to dry our tent in the diminishing sunshine, which didn’t really work, then we hastily put it up where we thought the sun would be rising next day.

A lady (I don’t remember her name. Let’s call her L) came over to us as we were contemplating washing up at the one tap in the site (at these free campgrounds we often just wipe pots and pans and plates down with a cloth, and it’s ok, not mega clean, but not died of food poisoning yet!!) and offered us a hot drink and a sit by the fire. We said that we would be over soon.

We did the washing up, and then wandered over to warm up by the fire. There were 5 in the family and they were so hospitable, welcoming us to take a seat, and they got the kettle on. L and her husband were Dutch but living in NZ for 20+ years, and they had 3 children who were Kiwi. Dylan, Helen and someone else… Ben? such a bad memory. They were very chatty though, all under the age of 13 too. We had a merry time with cups of tea and snuggling by the fire. They offered us some garlic bread cooked over the fire, and roasted marshmallows. We also tried the Feijoa fruit, very tasty, small fruit with a hard green skin (like a lime size) and a white flesh, but like a peach texture and seeds in a jelly like a passion fruit. Almost. It was tasty!

I cheekily asked whether they might have a spare blanket, as the weather forecasted a chilly 1 deg c overnight! The lady came back with a blanket, a picnic blanket and a hat! Amazing! Thank you L, much appreciated.

Day 2

The additional blankets were brilliant and we slept soundly. We returned our warm things back to the Dutch family and L and Dylan (maybe) said they were going to do the cycle to the big bridge. So we said we would meet them there!

The first few kilometres followed a path through the forest again. The path is tricky as there are lots of pot holes and roots and rocks, which if you are going fast, are easy to miss, especially with my eyesight. The glasses I have are transition and don’t change quickly enough for the dappled light and strong contrast. I spent a good portion of the day off the saddle. Though that also gets tiring after a while and my wrists and arms were bearing the brunt. The path should even out soon, surely..

Not to be.

We made it to the biggest swing bridge on the trail. It was 141m long and all hand built, parts and wood were helicoptered in and an English man built it.

We had lunch with a nice view of the land. We had climbed up a fair way.

The rest of the trail was as difficult. Downhill does not equal easy. We were going pretty slowly to make sure we didn’t get bounced off!

There was a tunnel that spiralled downhill, that was fun. Apparently it was the way the logging carts went on the railway, to drop down in height. Fair enough!

We got back to Ongarue at around 2.30 ish, and retrieved our bags from the shuttle. We were accosted by a group of lads, who we had seen on the trail. One of them had shouted something about ‘you’ve got to go faster if you want to be back before dark’ which slightly irked us because of the lack of suspension, we were going as fast as we could!! We were happy to see that we had actually beaten them to the finish line, so ha!

They offered us a beer (which turned out not to be a beer but a cola and bourbon alcopop thing – very sweet and strong – works I suppose) and they joined us on the grass. They were smashed. Hilarious kiwi banter ensued and it was quite nice to sit back and listen to their chatter.

You want some chicken bro? There’s a box of chicken under that car bro. I’m going to get the chicken. No bro, I’m going to do it. Oh look bro, it’s just chips. Does anyone want a chip. Nah bro, they are disgusting. But free food bro!

Lol.

We felt every bit 30 (ok just me) when they told us their age – so so young at 17, 21 and 24. They all worked in a bike/car repair shop and the oldest was ‘the boss’.

They were going to drink and drive! Good lord. The youngest had already had his license taken away.. and that folks, is what driving in NZ is like on a holiday. Glad we were missing out.

A Dutch architect and her Kiwi partner doing the trail the next day joined us in the cabin and we chatted about all sorts; drink driving in NZ, deforestation and farming (cannot get the constant reminder of it out of my system apparently), the wonders of the country and the fun of travelling and meeting new people.

It was a really lovely afternoon, after my arse had regained feeling 😉