Today 45km by mountain bike from Piropiro to end of the Timber Trail

Total 1006 km

Hit the big 1000km mark today!

We left the lodge after more food than we could possibly eat, and prepared for the undulating climb ahead of us this morning. It was good to stretch the legs a few times, and we had plenty of breaks.

I really enjoyed stopping lots to see all the scenery and read the small information boards about the history of the area.

The forest was alive again after some moisture overnight, and the trail ducked in and out of the cover of the trees.

We met a family who unfortunately one member had taken a fall and helped them with some minor first aid and directions to get back off trail.

We continued on, the kms melting away as we did some beautiful trail and started our long descent.

Again, a highlight was the huge impressive swing bridges and we stopped to get a good look at them.

We also went through a spiral tunnel which we employed good use of our bike lights.

Really neat mixture of terrain today, both open and in the forest, and then riverside farmland for the last couple of kms.

Stopped at the 1000km mark to celebrate having walked [ and biked a small part] of one third of NZ! Woohoo!

Pretty cool.

Thanks Dad for joining me and organising a wonderful 2 days on the bike. It was really cool to have you join me for this part of my journey.

I’m pretty pleased at achieving one third of the Te Araroa so far, and a big one for me is actually completing two days on the bike. Years ago now, I had an accident in the backcountry on my Mountain Bike which resulted in a helicopter evacuation. Since then, without realizing it I have not really done a huge amount of biking. This was a big step getting back into it and bodes well for a future full of more bike adventures!