Another trail with some history brings us to the Timber Trail in the Pureora Forest region between Lake Taupo and Te Kuiti. The trail takes advantage of the old logging Ongarue Tramway used to harvest trees of the forest in early 20th century. Rail lines were built to get the trees out, camps were built to house the workers, and some people spent a significant portion of there lives living in this section of forest.

One of the obstacles that had to be overcame for this network of rail lines and roads to exist was crossing the many gorges and bodies of water via bridge. The 84km trail currently boasts 35 bridges, 8 of which are suspension bridges up to 141 meters in length.

Our timber route started off with a shuttle from Ongarue to Pureroa Field Base with a 2 day objective back to Ongarue. We made camp halfway at Piropiro Campsite. With about 40km of biking each day with decent weather and many landmarks to keep the mind busy, the kilometers flew by.

The amount of effort put into trails of this sort cannot be ignored. The trail also does good for the community by providing jobs to a place that does not have a lot of economic opportunities (shuttling, BnB’s, restaurants, etc) since the logging operations ceased.

Enjoy the video below!

Posted by Mitch