This morning we woke to a light drizzle which putting our faith in our windy app, we were hoping would pass over during the night… but ah nah. Oh well it was going to be a damp start to today’s ride from Hokitika to Mahinapua (Tree Top Walk).
While Jude plods along with her morning cuppa tea ritual, I get busy getting the bikes off the rack and getting all the gear out… hoping Jude would feel guilty and get a move on, but that’s was just wishful thinking lol.
Eventually we got under way and the bonus of Jude casual morning start was the drizzle had stopped. The ride starts by riding along a back road for approximately 2km before tracking along side the Hokitika golf course. We arrived at the HWY-6 and were concerned that the track had tape across the access with “danger” all over it… however we realised that someone had removed the sign with an alternative route 300m back up the road. On re-entering the track and riding another couple of hundred meters entered an amazing native forest track that was the start of 10km of beautiful native forest.
At the end of the first section of Native forest you enter board walk of approximately 200 meters taking you across the wetlands and it is absolutely stunning… unfortunately there was not much bird life around… must have been too cold for them lol
The ride continues through Native forest for approximately 6kms following an old tramway used by the logging industry back in the early 1900s..
Once exiting the bush there is a 3km road ride to the Westcoast TreeTop cafe where we enjoyed a well deserved lunch before the return ride back to Hokitika all in all a very good 32km ride through some lovely terrain.