Once again, our fellow camp mates failed to understand hut etiquette and trying to be as quiet as possible whilst everyone else is sleeping. Same goes for boiling some water in a whistle kettle, then just leave it whistling away. Having someone shine a 500 lumen light in your face is enough to wake you, so up I got, earlier than planned.

The evening before, we had joked with Boo and Peter about how terrible we are at getting up in the mornings. So when they saw we were both up early, we had a laugh and James joked that it was going to rain now because everything was back to front.

We make a cuppa tea, and bowl of porridge each and start the day.

Whilst packing up our bikes, we feel spots of rain. Apparently James has super powers now.

The 17km out of the trail was mostly downhill with a few steeper ups, as we clung to the rock face. With a sheer drop off to the right, I was grateful to have some wire fence between me and the drop off.

We made it to a pretty cool looking swing bridge which ran alongside the river, we decided it was worth turning our phones on to take a picture and use some of the remaining 17% of battery we had to document it! Then quickly turn the phone off again to preserve the final bit of battery for a picture at the end!

Up and down, along the rock face we went, eventually bumping into another rider heading in the opposite direction who was out for a spin on the trails, at one point we flew down about 2km of dense mossy woodland, with thick moss on either side of the straight trail. It was like something out of a movie, and even better when you’re flying down doing over 30kph!

We come across a sign saying ‘steep climb 400m’ and straight ahead is a fairly steep, thinking ‘what’s this all about’ as we climb steeper on a daily basis to get home, so we start to go up, only to turn the corner to be greeted with the steeper section, which was like a wall of trail ahead. One to wake up the quads for sure!

Back on more flowy descents and the track becomes wider, and everything started to feel more open. The track was sadly coming to an end. Sure enough, before too long we saw an arrow ‘1km to start / end point’ racing through the forest, we make it to the end. And that was that. We have completed Old Ghost Road.

With the help of a road cone, a stick and a pebble, we took the obligatory finish pictures

Before entering Old Ghost, James had done some googling, and there was a post shop in Seddonville alongside a cafe. So the plan was, head there, ditch some of our kit that wouldn’t be needed for the rest of the trip, have a pie then crack on.

The thought of a pie was enough for me and I was OFF! Now, when we were thinking of a Seddonville, we thought, small town with a few shops. Nah, one run down pub that was closed. Behind that was the post shop with a sign in the window ‘be back at 2pm on 2 Apr’ well considering it was 11am on the 3rd of April and it was supposed to be open from 10am, things didn’t look hopeful for the pie, or posting some bits home.

We decide to cut our losses and carry on. Without our phones we were pretty useless, however I had the end destination for the day loaded into our bike computers, so we could follow that to navigate out of the rural town.

We pass a sign to Mokihinui, with a glorious blue sign under it with food, accommodation and toilets. Could it be, I could get a pie. We turn off, and head in search for the pie. Nah, it’s 11am, of course everything is shut and nobody is around. Bugger. Back we go, and follow the route to Westport.

As we are flying along, we see a flag saying ‘Open’ and we peel off the road. Ngakawau bringing us the goods. A post shop and dairy selling pies all in one.

James pops in, as I sort out what things we want to post, and get eaten alive by sandflies, not necessarily in that order.

We pack up the sleeping bags and saucepan and mange to send it home, and get two pies. Success!

We carry on the long straight and boring road. Cruising along at 30kph means the KMs tick off quickly, even if they are boring.

The monotony gets boring, then we start to get sore, and want it to be over. Sadly still 35km to go before we were done for the day. Eventually, we pass a sign ‘Coffee and Pies 100m’ yes please!

Just as we stop and lean the bikes up outside, it starts to rain. Bugger. Welcome to the West Coast! A couple of pies and hot chocolates later, we get going again. Hoods up, sunglasses on for rain protection and carry on.

The Garmin turns us off left, but we aren’t 100% sure it’s where we need to go. Fear not, we’re on the West Coast now, with the most friendly people you’ll come across in all of Aotearoa. An old guy opens his door to talk to us, only to realise it’s pissing down so he closes his door and opens his window and has a little chat.

He tells us to ignore the route, and carry on the way we were going as it’s more direct. Another car pulls up behind him, so we thank him and part ways.

We enter the town, but we’re not really too sure where we are. There are a lot of houses, so it could be Westport, but there are no signs. We see some red flags in the distance, so think that must be a sign of something happening. Get there, only to find they’re signs for a playground. However, there’s a lot more happening in this town so we carry on. Eventually making it to a junction, we are on the hunt for a supermarket to pick up supplies for the next few days. Do we turn left or right – we decide on right and we both comment how familiar the place feels – turns out we went through the town 3 years prior. The number of shops starts to slow up, and it looks like the edge of the town. We stop and ask a guy which way the supermarket is, turns out it’s the other direction (course it was!!) and back we go. Thankfully by this time, it had stopped raining and we were starting to dry out a bit.

Eventually we find a supermarket and James is parked outside with the bikes and a doggo to pat, and I head in to find some vegetables and goodness to fill us up for dinner. And snacks. Always snacks!

We pack away the goodies, apparently I failed the rule of ‘never go to the supermarket when you’re hungry’ as there were a lot of snacks! And we once again follow the Garmin to get to our accommodation for the evening.

One final hill of the day made our legs feel like lead, but after 80km, we made it to our gorgeous cabin for the evening. The kind host even offered to do a load of washing for us, which was much needed after 3 days offline.

Our random dinner of a head of broccoli, carrots, tuna and 2 minute noodles did the trick, and after a couple of hours relaxing, it was time to head off to sleep.

Day 7 complete.

It’s good to be adventuring again!