Old Coach Road

Even though we had done quite a bit of adventuring, Jeremy and I didn't feel like we were done yet.  After lunch, we drove back down to Tongariro National Park to go mountain biking.  We had planned on catching a shuttle so that we'd only do one way of the ride.  We weren't looking to blow out our legs, but rather have them spin and move to work out what we had done to them the day before.  Unfortunately we missed our shuttle by about five minutes.  The store employee had another option ready for us-we could rent e-bikes instead and then ride up and back down the trail.  Well, why not?  I have never ridden a fat bike before, and I have never ridden an e-bike before.  It was unlike anything I had experienced.  First of all, the bike couldn't corner like I was used to and I fell at least four times.  Jeremy laughed every time.  Secondly, it matched my power.  So if I started to push hard, it would kick in hard.  If I was riding easy, it would let up.  It was very weird to get used to and I ended up going into some corners way too fast.  The upside was that the uphills felt just as easy as the downhills!  

We started riding straight from the shop and took the roads to a gravel path, which led to a dirt path, which led to the forest trails.  

The trails were amazing.  Once I mostly felt comfortable on my bike, I was really getting into it.  I don't think I'll ever actually get into mountain biking as I don't like falling on rocks, for this experience it was great.  The forest was so green and lush, and when we didn't have that, we had views.  

There were a couple of ancient aqueducts that this trail passed by.  Visually they were just stunning.  Riding across the one that was still safe, was wild.  The wooden slates gave us a really bumpy ride.  I really, really didn't want to drop my phone.  

The whole ride took us about two hours.  We had to rush a bit to get back to the shop before it closed, or else I would have spent some more time out there.  However, our saddle sore rumps were probably very grateful for the time crunch.  I have a completely different opinion of e-bikes now.  Who new that a ride in New Zealand would change that?