Day 41 - wheeeeee!
Pureora —-> Camp Epic 35km cycle
I really don’t enjoy cycling, my legs just aren’t built the right way. Add an electric motor into the mix however and it changes everything, I really love an e-bike.
Steph and I had hired e-bikes for the next section - 82km along the timber trail over two days. Epic bikes would drop them to us at the start of the track in Pureora, and they’d be waiting for us at the end in Ongarue to take them back. We’d stay at Camp Epic in the middle where they could charge over night.
I was so excited to get off my feet for two days. Not even because my feet were hurting (although the hole in my shoe was getting worryingly big) but more just for something different: a change of pace, something with a bit more thrill.
Epic met us just down the road from the campsite at 9.30am and after a quick demo and safety briefing we were off!
The first 10km or so was a heavenly flat track through the Pureora forest. Lots of tight corners and turns through the trees that made for fun pedalling.
We stopped to see some old caterpillar tractors, long abandoned in the forest.
The track then became a little harder as we started to climb. A few more tree roots to pedal over, a few more rocks to dodge. We had to work hard on the e-bike to keep up the pace during the ascent but it felt very good to be whizzing past the poor folk on the regular bikes!
Just before lunch we came to the first swingbridge, one of eight we’d be passing over. We stopped before it and discussed whether we would cycle or walk. Steph went first and made the cycling look easy. I followed suit but immediately regretted it. I don’t think I blinked for a whole minute, staring directly ahead of me the entire time. I let out a huge sigh of relief when I got to the end and then burst into laughter, I had no idea why that was so scary!
The afternoon was downhill all the way to camp. I felt like I was flying in places, zooming at almost 30km an hour, through the trees, out through scrub land then back again.
We rolled into camp around 2.30pm - a whole afternoon to spare! With the wonderful facilities at Camp Epic we were grateful to have time to relax in the sunshine. Steph helped me to fix my tent fly - the zip had come off a few days before and it was near impossible to get it back on.
As we weren’t carrying our bags, for the first time the weight of our food was no issue, so both Steph and I had stocked up with treats. As well as that, the other guests at Camp Epic seemed to feel sorry for us eating our hiker dehy meals and everyone gave us their extras from their meals - sausages, eggs, salad - we had about four different dinners! We spent the evening with a wine in hand toasting marshmallows over the fire and watching the sun go down. An absolutely glorious day.
