Tramp 1122 - Trip Report Piro Piro – Timber Trail

The plan for this trip was to walk the second half of the popular Cycle Trail in Pureora, with a camp overnight along the way. Eight keen people had booked in and Mike & Wendy were also driving down and planning on doing a day walk in & out.

We were fortunate enough to have the luxury of staying at John & Debbie’s in Waimiha on the Friday night, this meant we didn’t have to start the day with a damp tent nor get up really early on Saturday morning.

With a dinner stop in Te Kuiti (at Tiffany’s – who did a great job getting our tasty meals out really quickly, even though they were super busy) before heading off the remainder of the way to Waimiha.

An early start in the morning we were on the trail walking just after 08:00 from the Piro Piro campsite. We had 23 km’s to cover on day one so a reasonably big day on hard surfaces.

The Timber trail (particularly the second half) has lots of interesting history or the Ellis & Burnand timber company and the logging history of the area, including settlements ‘camps’ that were big enough to even have schools at one time. It boasts some fantastic suspension bridges, a rail spiral and information boards with all manner of stories and history on them. And of course lots of beautiful bush and scenery along the way.

We made it to “Historic Camp No 10’ around 15:30 so had plenty of time to set up camp and relax prior to it getting dark.

After a nights rest, the aches & pains from the day before had faded and day two was only 16 km’s. Although we had a reasonable shower this didn’t last long and the promised forecast of rain didn’t arrive.  

Anne had walked out yesterday, and this morning driven the wan around to the Bennet Road car-park and walked in to meet us with Debbie. We all arrived back at the van somewhere around 13:00 so it again had made good time – perhaps it was the call of hot food & coffee that spurred us on. A stop at Bosco café certainly was certainly appreciated.