22 December 2020

An early Christmas present for all you shredders - Pōhatu is now officially open for riding! Thanks to everyone who turned up on Sunday to lend a hand and celebrate the opening.

Special thanks to Makara Peak Supporters Trail Crew members Mark, Coops, Clint, Iain & Kerei who were the driving force behind this build. We started way back in February which seems like a lifetime ago!

Plus we had core group of hard working volunteers who turned up regularly including Phil & his sons Lloyd & Myles, Simon H, Ryan, Garth, Patrick, Marty, Leroy, Andrew, Bruce, Dave and many others. Thank you for your time and dedication. Shout out to Mons Royale who donated some of their sick riding gear as a thank you for the hard work.

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17 December 2020

Come along this Sunday (20 December) and help us finish off the latest and greatest Makara Peak grade 4 track. Pōhatu - Te Reo for rocky or stony, due to the massive amount of rock work that went into creating the trail, including armouring the surface, edging the track, creating drops and rock garden features.

Hand built by the Makara Peak Trail Crew and volunteers throughout 2020, the end is in sight! With just a few tidy up jobs to be done this Sunday, we should be able to officially open the trail on Sunday around 4:30pm followed by a celebratory BBQ and beverage at the green container on Snake Charmer.

Meet at the end of Pōhatu, where it meets Smokin just before Snake Charmer from 1pm.

This volunteer, hand built singletrack connects the end of North Face to the end of Smokin, where Starfish crosses Snake Charmer.

It's starts off in a similar style as Starfish, with some small drops, catch berms and a bit of enduro-flow. After exiting the native bush onto an exposed ridge, things start getting steeper, the drops bigger and the fun factor ramps up. An enormous amount of rock was sourced from the surrounding hillside and used to armour and edge the track, build the berms, and create a series of rock garden features in the final 100m of track.

24 March 2020 update

We’ve made some great progress on the new grade 4 track over the last month or so of Sunday afternoon digs. The 3 to 5pm time slot seems to be popular, and the BBQ and beer/soft drink afterwards is proving to be a hit. Work parties are now on hold, along with pretty much everything else, until the COVID-19 lock down is complete.

The trail itself is looking like a slightly harder, slightly steeper, slightly narrower cousin of Starfish. There’s still plenty of roots, a couple of drops, different line options and of course plenty of Makara rock.

Thanks to everyone who has donated their time, with a special thanks to Gary and his crew at Western Builders who donated a day’s labour to work on the project. The smashed through a huge amount of work in one day!

18 February 2020

We're building a new grade 4 (advanced) trail that will connect the end of North Face to Starfish where it meets the 4WD track – it's the badly drawn red line on the map.

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Red line on the map shows roughly where the new trail starts at the end of North Face and links with Starfish

With the blessing of Brooklyn Trail Builders we’re shamelessly ripping off their successful approach of a 2-hour dig on Sunday afternoon followed by beer and sausages on the BBQ.

So drop by between 3 and 5pm each Sunday and check it out. The track starts just down the 4WD track at the end of North Face and Three Brothers.

This track will take the best parts of Starfish and make something even better. The terrain is perfect with just enough steepness, a good Mahoe canopy, and heaps of rock lying around. Think drops, jumps, roots, berms, high speed, alternative lines, and plenty of jank. Once complete, you’ll be able to ride Grade 4 from the summit all the way to the main entrance. Choice!

The conversion of T3 from a grade 4 “technical torture trail”, to a grade 3 (intermediate) climbing trail is complete and was opened late this afternoon.

Given the trail has been completely re-purposed, we also decided a new name is in order. T4 (trail to the top) is a nod to the original idea behind T3, while reflecting the fact it’s now a climbing trail that will eventually link the water tank at the bottom of Varleys with the summit of Makara Peak.

As part of this change, we’re also opening another new section of trail that links the summit to North Face/Trickle Falls, and changing a couple of other trails around the summit. Check out the map below if you prefer a picture, but in summary:

1. Zac’s Track and North Face both start at the summit and share the first 70-odd metres before North Face splits right and back down towards Trickle Falls. This new section of trail, built by Trailpro and paid for by WCC, is a much more direct and interesting way of getting to Trickle Falls, Yeah Gnar or continuing on North Face.

2. Zac’s Track is now one way, downhill only. If you want to get one final climb up Zac’s, just watch out for more riders heading downhill towards T4.

3. T4 (previously T3) continues up what used to be the start of North Face.

4. A2Z becomes two way. Riders coming up T4 continue along A2Z to get to the summit via the recently opened final section of Aratihi.

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This has all come together through funding from Wellington City Council and a lot of hard work from our contractors TGL and Trailpro.

TGL and WCC put in a massive surfacing effort on T4 last week with the help of a helicopter to distribute gravel over the length of the trail, which has been setting for the last week. What would normally take a week was done in the better part of a day and a bit.

T3's days as a technical torture trail are over. As part of the 10 year master plan for the park, T3 is being replaced with a new grade 3 climb from the top of Varley's. Most of the hard work has been done by TGL, with surfacing work underway and an opening date to be confirmed in the next few weeks.

Views from Varley’s out towards Makara Beach on a still autumn evening.

This is the first stage of a series of changes and improvements to the northern end of the park. These are designed to increase use, provide riders of varying skill levels and fitness with different options. Ultimately there will be short and long grade 3 loops, with harder tracks for more advanced riders.

Over the next few years, we’ll be working with WCC on the following projects:

1. Zac's being rebuilt and changed to downhill only (winter 2020). Combined with T3 this will create a new short loop in the north end similar to Upper Leaping Lizard which has been super popular since it was opened.

2. A new grade 3 climbing track from the water tank at the bottom of Varley’s up the northern ridge to the bottom of T3 (starting in mid-late 2020).

3. A new bit of track to take riders from Zac's down to Varley’s, and then an overhaul and upgrade of Varley’s (2021)

4. New G4 track from the top of Trickle Falls down to the water tank at the bottom of Varley's (best guess 2022).

Due to a large slip during a storm during the COVID-19 lock down, the end section of Sally Alley is now closed to everyone. The slip is still moving, so it’s not a safe area, so please stay out. We’re working with WCC, but it looks like it could take 6 months to fix it.

Sally Alley is open as far as the drop in from Snake Charmer 4WD where you’ll come across a substantial orange fence. Turn right up the drop in and continue on your way.

Sally Alley is closed from the Snake Charmer connector onwards due to a massive slip.

To make it easier to get to Upswing and the Summit we’ve temporarily reversed Three Brothers Part 1. It’s now a downhill track, just not designed as one so watch out on the corners.

How to get to the summit:

After you exit Sally Alley and trundle up Snake Charmer, keep going up past Tower 18 Connector. Where Three Brothers crosses Snake Charmer you can now head left and down to Upswing.

Once Transpower have finished painting the powerlines you’ll be able to continue down to Missing Link.

If you’re one of the few brave people who ride up Missing Link (yes it’s two way people!) then you’ll have to ride up Tower 18 Connector, hook left onto Snake Charmer and then down to Upswing.

If you’d like a map check out https://www.trailforks.com/trails/three-brothers-part-1/

It’s been another big year at Makara Peak with the park continuing to develop and evolve as the ten-year master plan is implemented and efforts continue to re-establish the native forest and wildlife.

We’re extremely grateful for everyone who volunteers their time, signs up to become a Supporter, or donates when we ask for help funding our major projects. There are thousands of hours given to the park by people planting trees, trapping pests, building track, back office work, and a wide range of other tasks and projects. Thank you one and all.

Thanks to the Supporters management committee for your hard work, dedication and good humour - Andrew Cooper, Clint Brandon, Evan McCarney, Kerei Thompson, Mark Kent, Peter Leman, Simon Kennett and Stewart Glynn. Committee meetings are never boring! We continue to have a great partnership with Wellington City Council and the Parks team in particular. They do a huge amount of work, and keep things ticking over in the park.

There’s still a lot of potential for better engaging park users around our vision for establishing a world class mountain bike park in a restored native forest. This won’t be achieved without the support and input from the community. With track counters estimating around 70,000 park entrances a year, if everyone who used the park became a Supporter (just $30 a year!) then we’d be able to massively speed up the implementation of our plans. Something we’ll be working on in 2020 along with quite a few exciting projects.

Pedal on

Simon O’Brien, Chair, Makara Peak Supporters

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2019 highlights

On the tracks side of things, volunteers completed the rebuild and extension of Starfish which has quickly become a favourite trail for lots of riders. TGL built a new section of SWIGG that weaves through the trees and down to the main entrance, and a short but important section of track was built to connect Aratihi to the summit which cuts out the blustery and boring section of 4WD.

Entrance upgrades - the entrance on Allington Road was recently upgraded, with a new concrete ramp, retaining wall and safety rails thanks to a grant from Four Winds Foundation and our cash reserves. It’s now much more fit-for-purpose for beginners and new riders who use this entrance as part of the kids loop.

On a totally different scale, a major revamp of the main entrance and carpark on South Karori Road began in Spring, with work scheduled to be completed in late January. This project is being funded and managed by WCC.

Maintenance work is on-going – with such a big trail network we’re always working to ensure tracks don’t degrade too much. Retaining walls have been replaced on Koru, the middle section of Aratihi was rebenched, Peak Flow got some love, rock breaking continues on North Face, bridges have been replaced on Nikau Valley and the Wild at Heart bridge had its regular check-ups.

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The skills park was completely rebuilt by Southstar and opened just before Christmas. This project was only possible thanks to the 238 generous people who donated to our Givealittle campaign, plus grants from Karori Brooklyn Community Charitable Trust, New Zealand Community Trust and Teriwhiti Charitable Trust, and a sizeable contribution from our cash reserves. There’s still some work to be done with seating, signage and generally tidying up the area which will be done in the new year, but judging by the crowds of people testing their skills on the weekend, it’s already proving to be a hit.

Summit project - a team is working away in the background on a project that will see the summit area revamped to tell our story to visitors to the park – including the history of the area, the development of the park and conservation progress to date.

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Kohanga a porokapa – work has begun on clearing land at the south end of the park in preparation for planting a lot of podocarps in 2020. Thanks to Meridian and ACC who donated volunteer days that have helped kick off the project. We’ve received grants from Wellington City Council, Trees That Count, The Greenwood Trust and Wellington Zoo Trust towards the costs of this project.

Zac’s track and surrounds - we received a generous grant from the Ian ‘Zac’ Pearson Endowment Fund which has enabled us to make a good start on upgrading the track and its environs. The fence has been upgraded to make it goat-proof and we have planted 700 shrubs in areas adjacent to the track.

Another 1000 odd trees and shrubs have been planted this year by committed and enthusiastic volunteers. Some were planted alongside new tracks like the new Starfish, others in-filling holes in other areas. We are on track for our commitment to plant a tree for every metre of new track built.

Transpower completed their maintenance on the powerlines, which despite some inconvenience to park users, went as smoothly as could be expected.

Coming up in 2020

Kohanga a porokapa more work will be done to prepare the site for planting, with new access and fences installed to prevent pigs and other pests from eating the podocarps when planting begins next Winter.

T3 will be reborn as a grade 3 intermediate level climb. Expect this to be reopened in late Summer or early Autumn.

Zac’s track will get a refresh and changed to downhill only. When combined with T3, riders will have a short loop option in the Northern end of the park.

Summit to North Face - a short new link track will be built from the summit down to the start of North Face and Trickle Falls. This is scheduled to begin in February and is part of a re-jig of the tracks that link the summit to the tracks in the northern end of the park.

North Face to Starfish - the tracks team have marked out most of a new grade 4 trail that will take riders from the end of North Face, over towards where Starfish meets Snakecharmer. There’s some potential for another outstanding grade 4 trail in a similar vain to Starfish - look out for dig days kicking off in late January.

T3 downhill - one of the next tracks to be built will be the new grade 4 to replace T3. Using the first 50 off metres of T3, it will then branch off and head all the way down to the water tank at the bottom of Varley’s.

Track upgrades - having seen what’s possible with the new section of SWIGG and Starfish, we’d like to look into upgrading and updating some of the existing tracks. Lazy Fern, Smokin and parts of North Face could do with a bit of modernising. Fundraising will dictate what we can achieve.

Southstar have finished the upgrade to the skills park, which is now open for your riding (and jumping!) pleasure. Judging by the crowds on the weekend it’s already proving to be a hit.

This work has been completed thanks to grants from Karori Brooklyn Community Charitable Trust, New Zealand Community Trust and Teriwhiti Charitable Trust, plus a sizeable contribution from our cash reserves.

There’s still some work to be done with seating, signage and generally tidying up the area which will be done in the new year.

Thanks to the NZ Post crew who did an enormous day's mahi on Starfish yesterday, including building two new rock drops to spice up the old section of track below the cellphone tower. They also cleared Magic Carpet of all the ferns. Great stuff!

If your business or organisation is keen to donate a days work in the park, drop us an email. We can tailor something specific to meet your needs, and it’s a great team building activity!

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For those who don’t know, Zac’s Track is named after Zac Pearson who was a keen mountain biker and highly motivated Supporter. After his premature passing his family set up a trust that offers considerable financial support to the restoration and maintenance of the area of Makara Peak that Zac’s track runs through.

That makes a huge difference to the potential for restoration because it’s a fierce environment out there! It’s the most exposed area of the park with winds pounding the track and vegetation alike. In addition, seedlings get hit hard by goats and bunnies making regeneration a tricky prospect. That said, less palatable plants have been recovering remarkably well after significant early plantings by the Supporters from 1998 to 2008. In 2018 we decided that now that we had resources it was time to make a restoration plan specific to this area of the park.

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 The restoration plan concluded that first off, we need to get rid of the goats. WCC contracts a great professional hunter to come in regularly to cull goats within Makara Peak and many of the surrounding properties. While the goat numbers are quite low at the moment, this is the exception and not the norm. We therefore upgraded the standard farm fence with heavy duty mesh to keep the goats out.

With the Zac's Track area clear of goats we set about preparing gaps in the thick gorse and barberry where 700 seedlings could be planted in their shelter. This is tough work so we received a Conservation Fund grant from WCC to hire contractors to take care of it for us. Even though the exotic scrub offers shelter from the northerlies, the site is currently only suitable for the hardiest species, such as tree hebe. As part of the Conservation Fund we also received two planting days from Conservation Volunteers New Zealand. Conservation Volunteers were lucky with the weather and planted over 500 trees in those two days. The planting was then finished off by contractors using funding from Zac’s Trust. To finish things off we sprayed the seedlings with rabbit repellant to keep their nibbling to a minimum. This is just the first of three phases of the restoration plan. In addition, there will be a significant upgrade to Zac's track (and the northern section of Makara Peak in general). This will be one area of the park to watch change dramatically over the next 10 years.

 Thanks to Ian “Zac” Pearson and his family for their generosity and on-going financial support. Thanks also to the Nikau Foundation who manage the grant process on their behalf. Also thank you to Peter Russell of Aotearoa Biosecurity Co. for helping develop a plan. Thanks to Conservation Volunteers New Zealand for their extreme planting days. Jon Rosemergy did a great job upgrading the fence. Kaitiaki has done fantastic work as the contractor cutting holes in the gorse and finishing off the planting. They are also constantly staying on top of noxious weeds in the park. And last but not least, thanks to WCC for the Conservation Fund grant and their support of Makara Peak as a whole.

20 October update

Southstar have made some great progress on the new skills park - the bottom half is pretty much complete! But the project is on hold while we truck in more dirt and raise some more money.

Thanks to the 160 people who have generously donated almost $9000. But we’re still some way off our target of $25,000 needed to completely finish off the park.

Remember it’s going to have something for riders of all ages and abilities. So if you’re new to mountain biking, or you’re already throwing down sick hucks, hit the link and donate. Every little bit helps.

12 September update

The Southstar team are well into their prep work moving dirt around and planning the new jumps and lines. This is going to be a great resource for the whole riding community and your donation will help make it happen. Donate now at https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/makara-peak-skills-park.

We're building a new skills park at Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park! But we need your help to make it happen.

We’ve raised $25,000 through generous grants from NZ Community Trust and Karori Brooklyn Community Charitable Trust (via Lion Foundation) to get the project off the ground and the work underway. But we need your help to raise $40,000 to fully complete the project. The more money we raise, the more work Southstar can do to bring this plan to life.

Donate now at https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/makara-peak-skills-park.

The current skills area is going to be completely overhauled and rebuilt. With input from our tracks team, WCC, WORD and local elite downhiller Bryn Dickerson, Southstar Trails have put together an amazing plan to build a completely new skills park at Makara Peak.

It's going to be ideal for for kids and beginners right through to seasoned experts. There will be jumps and features of all shapes and sizes, professionally built in a way to help riders safely progress their skills.

If you're keen to get your kids into mountain biking, this will be the first to visit after buying them a bike. Parents and instructors will be able to better supervise kids and beginners, with loops created to enable riders to session lines to improve their skills and build their confidence.

If you're an advanced or expert level rider there's going to be lines with the sort of features you've always wanted at Makara Peak.

Massive thanks to the team from Westpac who did a day of volunteering in the park on Friday. Lots of tweaks and improvements were made to the middle section of Starfish including a new easier drop-in off Snakecharmer.

If you’re a corporate group and would like to do some volunteer work in the park, drop us a line and we’ll sort something out for you - https://makarapeak.bike/contact.

TGL are building a short new section of trail near the summit. Riders climbing up Aratihi will be able to go under the Upper Leaping Lizard bridge and then up to the summit on singletrack, avoiding that nasty bit of 4WD.

Riders climbing up Zac’s will also use this new section to reach the summit, reducing the chances of a head on crashes on the high speed two way section of trail from the summit down to North Face.

To make it easier to navigate the park, and given they're very similar style trails, we're combining Ridgeline Extension and Starfish into one trail: Starfish.

New signs and mapboards will be installed around the park over the next few weeks which include the new SWIGG and Starfish trails.

Check out the latest trail info at https://www.trailforks.com/trails/starfish/

The new bit of Starfish is now open.  This completes 2 years of volunteer track building so that we have a grade 4 run from the bottom of Ridgeline all the way to the carpark. 

It is going to get pretty trashed over winter, but that should just bring out its character.  Let us know what you think.

The entry to the new start to Starfish, opposite the end of Smokin and Ridgeline Extension

Trailforks map showing Starfish line

May 2019 update​

A keen group of volunteers have continued to carve out some awesome new singletrack over the last few months.

​A new rock garden was concreted in thanks to about ​30 volunteers who donated some of their Saturday to help with the build. A bridge has been built and a big reversal was completed.

 Many hands have made a big job much easier. Thanks everyone who came out  

The tracks team are pretty stoked with the new track. They’ve made the most of what is a pretty flat bit of land. There’s lots of natural features retained (roots roots and more roots) plus a few rollable jumps and drops.

There’s some surfacing to be done to stop it turning into a bog over winter, and will be opened once the new SWIGG line is complete. Look out for details in early June.

29 January update

2019 dig days at Makara Peak have kicked off in fine style with progress continuing on the new section of Starfish. Around 250 metres of fresh new grade 4 trail is pretty much now complete, plus we’ve been fine tuning corners, and adding a wall ride and berm to the line. It’s shaping up nicely as a fast but challenging bit of trail.

We’re nearing one of the major features, that will see the new trail drop down steeply into a dry stream bed before exiting via a wall ride/step up/appropriate feature of some sort.

Thanks to everyone who’s turned out - what’s really exciting is seeing all the families and kids coming along to lend a hand on what we’re sure will be a favourite with the young pinners.

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8 December update

Great progress with 20 keen men, women and children on the tools. Most of the digging was in the shade of a section of mature regenerating bush. Just a bit of benching and shaping with plenty of roots left in place to reflect the grade 4 conditions. 

Thanks to:
Margaret,Hannah, Clint, Ross, Steve, Jonathan, Stanley, Wyatt, Phil, Lloyd, Myles, Sebastian, Austin, Clinton, Demelza, Ryan 1, Ryan 2, Ben, Oliver, Andrew

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6 December update

A team from the Commerce Commission were on site this week donating some of their work time to help progress the Starfish build. With help from Ranger Frank from Wellington City Council, the team did a couple of hours of hard work roughing out another 10m of trail and clearing some trees - despite some damp weather. A huge thanks!

1 December update

We got through another 25 hard fought metres on Saturday. We’re now back into some nice forest which provides more cover from the relentless Wellington summer sun (!).

A big thanks to Caerwyn, Wyatt, Phil, Rebeca, Miles and LLyod, Johnny, Ryan, Austin, Nick, Garth and Iain for putting in the hard yards so everyone can enjoy more advanced (grade 4) singletrack goodness at Makara Peak.

We’re back next Saturday from 10am. Only two more sessions to go in 2018 before a well-earned break over Christmas.

18 November update

Despite the weather gods continuing to not place nicely, good progress has been made on the new “Starfish Extension” line which starts at the end of Ridgeline Extension (so many extensions…).

We’ve cleared about 200 metres which is about the equivalent of the length of Big Tom’s Wheelie. We’re focussing on building it to complete standard before progressing on - there’s quite a lot of water run-off from SWIGG and Big Tom’s so we’re working hard to find the right balance of leaving roots and rocks while making the trail surface sustainable (i.e. not a bog).

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27 October update

Quick dig today before the rain hit - the first berm is coming together nicely thanks to the large rocks provided by Horokiwi Quarry and delivered by Rapid Earthworks.

This section will get a rock garden added before the track is opened.

The first section of the line

Big old pile of rocks

Pile of rocks - now a berm

The first berm

14 October 2018

We’re building some awesome new grade 4 single track from the end of Ridgeline Extension down to the start of Starfish. It will be a similar style to Ridgeline Extension with rollable drops and jumps, optional hard lines and plenty of stoke. 

We’ve scoped the line and it’s looking pretty sweet. Check out https://www.trailforks.com/trails/starfish-extension/ for a rough map and line.

Map showing roughly where the new Starfish will run from the end of Ridgeline Extension through to near the transmitter at the end of SWIGG/start of Starfish

The new section of SWIGG is being opened today! Starting from near the bottom of SWIGG (before it changes to Starfish), this new bit of grade 3 (intermediate) goodness weaves its way through some fantastic native bush, all the way down to the main carpark.

It features some of the biggest berms in the park, and is a great option for riders who have mastered Lazy Fern, and more advanced riders looking for a different way to end their ride.

Thanks to Wellington City Council for funding this work, and TGL Contracting Limited for their track building genius.

Check out https://www.trailforks.com/trails/swigg/ for an up-to-date trail map.

January 19 update

TGL are continuing to make good progress on the new bit of SWIGG - they’re about half way down, but have reached a series of switchbacks that need a bit more time and construction to get just right.

It’s on track for a late Summer/early Autumn opening. Check out the photos below - it’s going to be an fantastic addition to the park and offer something really fun for riders of all skills levels.

November 18 update

2018 must be one of the busiest years in the park’s history in terms of new trail being built, and it’s not over yet! TGL are weaving their magic on our latest new trail, which will see Swigg extended across and down to near the bottom of Lazy Fern. 

The intermediate grade trail is being built in part by digger and part by hand and goes through some amazing native bush.  

This complements the new Advanced trail currently being built by the Supporters which goes from the end of Ridgeline Extension to Starfish. 

26 October update

The final piece of the Upper Leaping Lizard puzzle was tidied up this week by Ricky, who widened, tweaked, and finished off the short link between the new (upper upper?) and lower (original/lower upper) bits of track. So you can now avoid the pinch climb all the way up to the 4WD track.

14 October update

TGL have been busy upgrading the lower section of Upper Leaping Lizard over the last few weeks, which has been paid for by WCC. They’ve been widening some narrow sections, removing ruts, improving the drainage, berming up some corners, and building an intermediate bypass of the advanced steep rocky section - which is being kept open for those who prefer a steeper line. The best of both worlds!

They’ve done a great job retaining as much of the natural, rugged feel of the track, while giving it an update as it hasn’t seen any major maintenance in quite a few years. This is a key section of track that all riders will use to access the south west corner of the park, where we’ll be building a lot of new intermediate and advanced grade tracks. So getting it back to intermediate grade was a priority.

There are some great views from the track over Cook Strait and the South Island, plus looking back to the swing bridge and the Peak. Once it’s complete, there’s going to be a great intermediate loop in the South West from the summit down Upper Leaping Lizard, into the easy section of Leaping Lizard and then back along Supa Kanuka and Aratihi. Advanced riders have got a bit more choice with Nikau Valley or Leaping Lizard into Bail Out or back up via Possum.

We’ll post something on Facebook as soon as it’s open - only a couple of weeks of finishing and surfacing to go.

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A little bit new

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Multiple lines

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A little bit old

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Natural has been retained where possible

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All the views

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Some new berms

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The old line still intact for your grade 4 riding pleasure

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The intermediate line

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New switchback

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On down the hill

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Old meets new

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Ruts fixed

Ricky, Scotty and Red Dawg made some tweaks to the bottom corner on Ridgeline on the weekend. The big ruts are gone, now replaced with some rock ledges which provide hard or harder lines. If you haven’t ridden Ridgeline recently - get into it. It’s pretty sweet at the moment.

There was a good trail building session on the Upper Leaping Lizard bypass on Saturday, with about 30 metres scratched out by a keen group of volunteers.

This short section of new trail will bypass that nasty pinch climb and create better flow between the new section of Upper Leaping Lizard and the old bit (which is currently being upgraded).

One more session this Saturday and we should have it completed.

Spotted some Puawhananga in flower as well.

The good folk from Westpac took a day off work and fixed up Ridgeline Extension after you guys and gals spent all winter doing skids on it. When they finished that, they planted some trees and built this sweet jump!

Ricky has been tweaking, rock breaking and armouring on the top (older) section of Ridgeline Extension. It’s looking pretty mint! Designed to improve flow and drainage, we’ll continue to increase the fun factor and incorporate new features.