Day 42 - 1000km
Camp Epic —-> Taumaranui
42km cycle + 25km drive
I woke up to the sound of light pitter patter on my tent and groaned. The forecast wasn’t for rain until that afternoon so we’d hoped we’d stay dry for at least the morning but no such luck.
Steph and I packed up our tents, ate a delicious non-oaty breakfast courtesy of Camp Epic (toast!!) and with our raincoats on, set off for day two of the timber trail. I was also sporting gloves, I’d developed blisters on my hands from the handlebars so was hoping they would negate any further aggravation.
The riding was fairly similar to the day before, a big uphill to begin with and then downhill all the way to the end. The rain however added a new layer of complexity to the day. For one - it was freezing. Flying downhill meant little to no pedalling was actually required, so I wasn’t using anywhere near as much energy had I been walking. The cold air felt like it was going right into my bones. Secondly, the ground got very wet, incredibly fast. I gave up dodging the puddles after an hour and just skidded through them - I was already wet from the rain, what would a little more matter!
We tried to not let it dampen our spirits, for today we were passing a giant milestone. 1000km. A third of the trail - done! We’d planned to do some sort of extravagant photo when we reached it, but someone had wonderfully already made a marker for us. Plus it was too cold and wet to be hanging around for too long.
We rode over a lot more swing bridges, none of them getting any less scary than the last.
By mid-morning the rain was relentless and showing no signs of slowing down. We were peddling as fast as we could, counting down the kms until we reached the end. In the lead up to one of the swing bridges, I went over a particularly stubborn tree root and my foot slipped off the bike pedal. The pedal slammed into my shin, the spikes cutting my skin right through to my bone.
In agony, I sat on the floor to let the pain pass and then walked over the swing bridge. I just wanted to get to the end where I could tend to it in the dry! We powered down the last 20km without stopping and were in Ongarue by midday.
We were able to check the forecast for the next couple of days and it looked horrendous. We thought the rain was bad today but tomorrow it was due to be even heavier. Deciding the basic campsite in Ongarue was a pretty dismal place to hang out all afternoon and that the walk into Taumaranui along the road was also a pretty dire option, we instead got a lift with Camp Epic straight into town and checked into a motel for the night. We’d hide from the weather and work out a POA for the next section in the dry :)
