By Elliot

Distance: 40km (on a bike)

We are on the timber trail!

We’d arranged to rent bikes a few days ago, so this morning we only had to walk 500m to the start of the timber trail from our campsite to get our bikes from Paul, the guy who brought them in on the back of his van. We took lunch, snacks, and some additional layers with us in daypacks that Paul provided, gave him our big backpacks, and we were off.

Maybe some of you, my dear readers, might already know this, but it really came as a big shock to me: biking is so much faster than walking. In just over an hour, we had biked 11km. Knowing that we were only biking 40km, and not wanting the day to be over too soon, we parked our bikes and hiked to the top of a peak and back in 1.25 hours. At 1165m, this was the highest point we’ve been to so far in NZ.

After the hike and some lunch, the day was mostly downhill biking, and went by really quickly. We went over some great suspension bridges, which were over 100m off the ground in the middle. It really felt like the world dropped away from under me on those bridges.

We arrived at camp today at 3:45pm, even with our hike, and the fact that the day began leisurely at 9:30am. Our camp tonight is a glamping site where we are allowed to pitch our tents in the corner, along the tree line. Still nice though!

This evening, we started planning for our next chunk of trail. We’ve realized that there is quite a bit of road walking, and maybe we want to skip some of those parts. That being said, it feels like we will be getting to the end of the North Island soon and I worry that we are rushing the journey by skipping sections, even if they are road. Luckily, we will be walking a fair share of the day after tomorrow on paved road, so that will give me time and perspective to reassess whether to walk roads or not.