Day 8

Day 8: Mangakino-Piropiro. Boiled up a couple of eggs in my pineapple tin this morning. Charged my phone at the Four Square thanks to Ashok. Heading to the centre of NZ. Only 5x Mt Eden to climb. Feeling good.

Ashok and I at the Four Square

447m and 7.9km to the centre of the Island. Psychologically a quarter of the journey done and I'm chuffed. This time last week I was battling wind and never ending margins of surf on Ninety Mile Beach even Dante couldn't have dreamed.

Centre of the North Island

We got to the start of the Timber Trail at 4 o'clock. I teamed up with a guy called Jacko who is from the North Shore and is on the Council in Waitakere. We climbed the 400m to the highest point on the trail in the North Island at just under 1000m. We had intended on getting to Piropiro that night (another 30km). We crossed over the highest bridge. You can see the dusky sky in the photos (no trolls under this bridge Ellie!).

Highest point on the Timber Trail

Didn't make it to Piropiro. Going downhill was tricky and things got dark. I came off just on dark and 100m or so later while I was waiting for Jacko to catch up I decided to camp there. It was too dangerous to go on. As Shackleton said, 'better to be a live donkey than a dead lion'. Jacko and an elderly English couple decided to carry on the 10km to Piropiro but when I saw them the next day the couple didn't arrive until 930 at night and Jacko got lost, had to walk and didn't arrive at the campsite until 1130pm. I was well asleep by then.

Had a can of cold baked beans for dinner last night recommended by Lawrence (another rider) and they were delicious. Had enough water left to clean my teeth.