We took a bike ride on the Coach Road Walk to the Hapuawhenua and Toanui viaducts, the only two curved viaducts in the southern hemisphere. The Coach Road, competed in 1886, linked the gap in rail service between Auckland in the north and Wellington in the south. The railroad was completed in 1908 and the road was frozen in time. It is now a hiker/biker trail.
The trail goes mostly uphill through big sky rangeland. Everyone but me rented a bike. With Ivy on my back, I pulled Sawyer’s bike along with my belt. A little nudge is all he needed.
At the top of the hill the trail passes an abandoned railroad tunnel. We rode through the pitch dark tunnel to the gate at the end.
It’s now fenced off so hikers aren’t creamed by trains traveling the new track which passes by the tunnel exit. 
Past the tunnel entrance, the trail winds through a dark forest filled with mighty kauri trees. On the other side of the mountain the trail travels the old viaduct.
We had a nice lunch then pedaled back, going downhill mostly. “Yahoo! I love mountain biking!!!” yelled Sawyer all the way home. He was unaware he was mountain biking until we told him: “I am? I didn’t know I could mountain bike.” Oh well, last year he put “air guitar” on his Christmas list.
Here we are later having ice cream in our big campervan.
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