Timber Trail: 85 kilometres through Pureora Forest Park
The Timber Trail runs 85 km between the settlements of Pureora and Ongarue, through the podocarp forest of Pureora Forest Park in the central North Island. It is graded 3 (intermediate) along its whole length — the only Wave-1 route on this site that is not a rail trail, and the only one that asks something of you.
The route follows old logging roads and bush tramlines, stitched together with purpose-built singletrack and a remarkable amount of bridging. Thirty-five new bridges were built to complete it. Eight are suspension bridges, three of those are more than 100 metres long, and the Maramataha is 141 metres long and 53 metres above the river.
The forest is the point as much as the riding. Pureora is one of the great surviving stands of North Island podocarp — rimu, mataī, tōtara — and it survives because of a tree-sitting protest in 1978 that stopped the logging and changed how New Zealand treats its native forest.
Two days, two legs
NZCT publishes the trail as two days: Pureora to Piropiro Flats, 40 km, Grade 3, 4–7 hours, then Piropiro Flats to Ongarue, 45 km, Grade 3, 4–7 hours.
Ride it north to south, starting at Pureora. That is the registry’s recommendation and it is the right one: the first day takes the climb over the shoulder of Mt Pureora early while you are fresh, and the second day runs generally downhill through the bridges and the old Ongarue Spiral, a piece of tramway that loops back over itself through a tunnel to lose height.
The four-to-seven hour range on each leg is wide for a reason. Grade 3 means roots, narrow benching and some exposure, and a rider who is comfortable on singletrack will be at the fast end while someone on their first backcountry ride will not.
The 40 km with nothing on it
This is the practical fact that shapes the whole trip: there is no shop, no cafe and no resupply between Pureora and Piropiro — 40 km and up to seven hours. There is nothing between Piropiro and Ongarue either. Water can be topped up where the trail signage indicates, and that is the extent of the support.
Carry the day’s food and more water than you think. If you are staying at the lodge at Piropiro, arrange your evening meal when you book the bed; there is nowhere to buy one.
