TA Day 94

TA Day 94: Saturday 22 March 2025

Bennett Road Campsite - Piropiro Campsite

The alarm went off early, and despite being tired, we immediately got up. We could still hear that weird sound that we heard yesterday. Already yesterday, when Kim had seen some high fence, she had contemplated that it might be coming from deer. Apparently this was the case, as it was "The roar" and the bucks were really noisy.

We now started the Timber Trail, a trail that pretty much everyone bikes, usually from north to south, and most TA walkers rent bikes and bike it SOBO. We wanted to walk.

This trail is based on the old logging roads and tramlines in the Pureora Forest Park, and there are a lot of interesting signs about the history along the trail.

We divided our long day into smaller pieces, and did our best to stop every 8 km for a short break, and that every section like this would take 2 hours. Worked quite well on this nice trail.

As the day went on, the clouds cleared and a warm and bright sun shone. Halfway through we stopped for a lunch, and lay down on the ground without shirts on. Really nice. We also met some friendly bikers.

We also passed some really cool, gigantic suspension bridges. One of them, the Maramataha Bridge is 141 m long and 53 m high, and one of the longest and highest suspension bridges in New Zealand!

Surprisingly enough we arrived at Piropiro Campsite while there was still daylight. We walked over to the little creek going under the gravel road for a cold evening wash, before going to bed.

Today's:

Distance: 41.45 km

Ascent: 752 m

Descent: 531 m

Tent nights: 48/94

Weather: Overcast morning, sunny afternoon