Te Araroa Trail – Day 42

Friday, December 15, 2023
Distance/ Total: 35.7 km / 22.2 mi

I didn’t sleep very well last night, my legs and feet were hurting throughout the night. In addition to the Plantar Fasciitis I’ve been struggling with this whole trip, I’ve strained something in my hip on some of the climbs and it was pretty sore last night too.

I was still up and on the trail by about 7:00am and after the short 0.5 km hike down the road to the trailhead, I was glad to be on a single track trail. The trail for the next 84 km is called the Timber Trail and is a mountain bike / walking trail. It started out through an old growth forest that is representative of what New Zealand looked like before the European settlers arrived. Much of the Pureora Forest has been logged during the late 1800’s to early 1900’s and as the trail progressed it left the old growth forest and entered previously logged Forest that has been allowed to grow back over the last 50-100 years.

The trail did detour off the Timber trail to climb up to the Pureora Peak and then descended down the opposite side. Some of this trail was extremely overgrown and washed out make the descent a little tricky.

Back on the Timber Trail it would alternate between dirt path, gravel path, and gravel access roads. Being primarily a bike path I had several bikers pass me through the day. There were several large suspension bridges on the trail as well as some wooden bridges to cross.

I reached the Piropiro campground after 5pm and setup my camp for the night. My feet, legs, and hip are sore again tonight and I ate and crawled in my tent to rest and recover.