little waipa domain to some where

little waipa domain to some where

From little waipa domain the river trail is a single track leading to arapuni with the odd  boardwalk to cross wet lands.  At arapuni I see the café is open so I decide to stop in for a bit of food (just for a bit of a change to what I been eating day to day) then it's time to full up on water (having come this way on the way north I knew where to get water from and that there would be only a few places to get water from in the next few days)  I took some time to ride across the old big swing bridge high over the river - the bridge dates from 1926 and was built to allow access across the river to the people building the arapuni dam (the bridge is around 50?m High over the river and about 150 long -with one end being 8m higher than the other end - ie the bridge is uphill going from the power house side to the town side of the river ) from arapuni after looking at the ride notes I decide to bypass a bit of the trail taking the road by pass (as i did not want to risk the bike or me on the much harder bit of trail - now that I'm much better at off road riding on trails after riding the tour Aotearoa route I may come back for a ride a long that bit of trail : )  the river trail runs on road with a bit off road riding though Jim Barnett reserve  (where there is a camping area - near there i get talking to someone about the river trails (the person had help set up the trail so I asked about the water taps (yep they are safe to drink from what is good to know)  as im taking a bit of a break I see some  some riders with bike packing setups (after a  bit of a chat I find out there doing a training ride for the tour Aotearoa ie doing the same route as what I'm doing) then it's back on the trail climbing on tarseal roads to a road end when the river trail heads back off road on single track (including passing through some anti- motor bike batters (there are to cut down on moter bikes using the walking /cycle trails but can cause a few issues if you have a bike trailer or gear on a rear panner rack)  from the top of the hill the trail heads down to river level by using lots of switch backs (tight 180% bends) so at the start of the down hill i decide to check my brake pads - end up replacing the front pads also the front brake cable as it was partly wore though (better safe than sorry with little things like brakes : )  that little job over its time for a fun?  Ride down the hill - it's a hill I remember well having come up it on the way north 

The ride from the bottom of the hill is more single track (with some bits  more easily then other bits with some riding on forestry roads in places at one place there is a big swing bridge to ride over then after some more riding there's a long  set of steps to walk the bike down (what's a lot easier then taking the bike up the stairs (what I did on the way north) shortly after getting to wapapa dam where the trail cross's the dam to the other side of the river  - more single track riding including a few places where i get off and walk (hike & bike) riding until it starts getting dark where I find a place to camp for the night