Piropiro to Mangakino

 We carried on riding the next 40 km of the Timber Trail which is a great trail to ride - there was again quite a bit of climbing involved but of course .that meant that we had some really great downhill runs as well. Although not a great distance it did kind of take us all day.

Part way through we met "Bill" the fellow who has been building the trail since 2009! Here he was with his small tractor and digger smoothing out the trail and doing a fantastic job - what a man he is he works from 6:30 AM through to 6:30 PM with two 30 minute breaks and of course his chats with the likes of us. I didn't ask but I'm picking he's a volunteer  in his retirement years. He tells us he come sin for 10 days at a time then goes back to his wife etc.! Hats off to you Bill,

I can now say I have put my finger on the centre of the North Island as the pic below shows.

We are now beginning to encounter Kopiko Riders' going in the opposite direction which means at times we stop for a chat.

We needed to get supplies so made our way Mangakino and thought we would stop here the night. The Four Square shop had all we needed and right next door was the fish and chip shop. On the way in I remembered Rob and Ruth have friends with a house here and so a couple of phone calls later we had a great lawn to pitch our tents on with a view of the Lake and Golf Course. A thank you to Jim and Gay.