Tongariro Forest’s 25,000 hectares are strategically wedged between Tongariro National Park and the top of the Erua Forest near National Park.

Gazetted in 1900 as State Forest 42, the forest was systematically logged of its totara, matai, rimu, miro and kahikatea over the following decades. The Dominion Timber Company and the Egmont Box Company built large mills to process the trees with a myriad of tracks and bush tramways slowly penetrating the entire forest. With the millable timber all gone by the 1930s, the slow process of regeneration took over and many of the tracks have disappeared.

Eventually, a collection of some of the remaining trails became the 47km 42 Traverse and in the late 1980s one of the great North Island mountain bike adventure rides. It travels over a mix of gravel road, 4WD and quad bike track and crosses the entire Tongariro Forest. It is best ridden from east to west due to its predominantly downward direction. There are plenty of DOC markers to point riders in the right direction, but the track is so well worn these days it’s hard to go astray. A good bike shuttle service both ways is available from National Park.

The track itself starts 15km east of National Park from the end of Kapoor Road. Here, the trail joins Slab Road heading north, passing beneath the twisted stand of old-growth rimu which tower high above regenerating juveniles. These big trees were fortuitously saved from the saw by their uneconomical shape.

The track descends onto Magazine Road and after about two-kilometres, a right-hand sidetrack leads to Cooee Lookout. This provides views into Echo Canyon and across to the volcanoes of Tongariro National Park. In the canyon, the bush is lush and dense with any remaining patches of gorse disappearing under the progress of native regeneration.

Back on the main track, a 500m undulating descent leads to the ford at the confluence of Bluey’s Creek and Waione Stream. The stream can get high in wet weather and parts of the track can become extremely muddy.