Hey! my first time in a bed was good but my tent is cool :-). It’s 7am, I wake up and I’m hungry! I take all my stuff quickly and discretely to not wake up the others… Today I’m going to come back to Thames. I will have the afternoon to find an internet point :-).
I start the day with a visit of a dam. That barrage use to use by men to move the kauri trunk along the river.
Dancing Camp Kauri Dam, built by Jim Angel in 1924, was the second largest in Kauaeranga Valley. More than 100 dams were built across most streams in the valley between 1871 and 1925. They were the only way of getting timber out of steeper country. Water stored behind them and released in a flood drove felled logs downstream.
Clever people but disastrous for the environment…
A last picture of pinnacles before I leave. It was great yesterday :-).
Is rain coming?
Yesterday the woman of the DOC visitor center told me that the rain should arrive this afternoon. “Take your time, it will rain at 8:16pm only. That’s precise 🙂
I’m not taking exactly the same path as yesterday to discover something else. Now, what I know for sure is that I’m in the bush.
That path is cool too.
Nice tracks but it’s way more beautiful in real, obviously.
There is a good view from here. Perfect for a panoramic shoot.
Sometimes the path is totally rough. Trees, big rocks, water are coming through.
Ah, at least I’m not lost but, where is the track? Ah ok there, I was going too fast.
A little bird was trying to hide but I got it hehe.
Finally I arrive to the Billy Goat Bassin Campsite. It’s totally crowded here…
The long trestle was the largest of three timber bridges built on the top section of the Billygoat Tramline in 1923. Made from pitswan kauri, the bridge was 160 metres long and up to 11 metres high. The trestles survived the end of the logging in 1926 but their remains were demolished during an army exercice on the early 1960s.
Yes, I’m still on a track!
Pinnacles hut is at 3h from here. It took me a bit more than 2h and I took many pictures… I like walking fast and eat slowly :-).
Let’s have a look to the panel.
Billygoat incline Hauler
Steam haulers were used in the later period of kauri logging from the early 1900s. A steam hauler was a stationary steam engine driving a winch which could pull logs by steel cable for a distance of over a kilometre. The Billygoat Incline hauler was used instead to lower two sets of rail trucks at a time down to the log skids at Billy Landing.
A little further down
The rails that they built and use to transport timber.
That’s a deep forest.
Above it’s normally green and underneath totally white. This is the plant which represent the black flag of the “all blacks”. I saw this plant everywhere in New Zealand.
The last checkpoint and I will find my bike soon or not…
Back to the visitor center
That’s the famous DOC visitor center from where I started yesterday.
Cycling back to Thames
After 22km, I’ve joined Thames for the second time. A good meal is waiting for me so, see ya tomorrow!