The Timber Trail | Pureora to Piropiro Mountain Bike Trail

The trail starts at the Department of Conservation campsite and car park, well signposted from SH30. It winds its way through the bird-filled, virgin forest of Pikiariki Ecological Area. Not far from the start, a short detour leads to a 1920s Caterpillar crawler tractor, long-since abandoned in the bush and now preserved as a rather peculiar memorial to the area’s logging past. After passing through an open area of regenerating native and exotic trees, it’s a gradual climb up the flanks of Mt Pureora into the ethereal Cloud Forest with its verdant moss, gnarled trees and wafting mist. It’s a good place to get a bit Zen if you’re not in a hurry to get to the top. A ‘whoop’ or two is well deserved at the trail’s highpoint, 971m above sea level. It’s predominantly downhill for the rest of the day as the trail winds down the southern side of Mt Pureora and across the western flanks of the Hauhungaroa Ranges. There is the occasional lookout on the descent. Around the 22km mark is the first of the trail’s amazing suspension bridges, the 115m one over Bog Inn Creek. This is quickly followed by another biggie, the 109m-long span over Orauaka Stream. The trail continues downhill to Piropiro Flats where there’s road/shuttle access and accommodation – a DOC campsite, glamping, the Timber Trail Lodge, and Black Fern Lodge a few kilometres away. In the summer months, Piropiro has a particularly special atmosphere as a stream of bikers, walkers and hunters bring this usually quiet area to life.