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!

Next time you’re in the park, check out our amazing new mural at the main entrance - it’s on the back of the shelter. Thanks to the very talented Miro Kennett, who put in many hours of hard work bringing this creation to life!

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.

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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Massive thanks to Meridian Energy for donating a days work in the park on 17 October.

Over 40 of their team cleared fence line for next year's big planting project (more on that later), maintained traps (both Makara Peak's and Capital Kiwi's), planted 50 seedlings, released previous year's seedlings from weeds, and built a temporary bridge to provide for wheelbarrow access to next year's remote planting site.

Not only did they manage all that, they also donated the gloves and tools they bought for the day to the park.

Awesome!

If you business or organisation would like to do a corporate volunteer day at Makara Peak, send us an email - we can tailor something to meet the needs of a variety of levels of fitness and capability.

Thanks to Paul, Jamie, Adam, Evan, Andrew and Simon for supporting the Meridian team to a very productive morning.

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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.

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

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.

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.

The legendary Kennett Bro's have taken their rightful place in the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame!

Their list of achievements covers everything from being a pioneer of the sport in NZ, competing on the world stage, publishing, thinking up and organizing events (the Karapoti Classic and Tour Aotearoa ring bell?!) and, of course, being the driving force behind the establishment of Makara Peak and its development over the 20 years since. From the get go, they have mixed mountain biking with a strong conservation ethos which now a common theme throughout NZ.

They are a modest bunch - but the "Three Brothers" track name is a tip of the hat in their direction. That is the most they have let us do.

Here is the write up:

https://mmbhof.org/kennett_brothers/

Awesome work Paul, Simon and Jonathan!

Tane, God of the Forest, looked over the Makara Peak plant care crew (Evan, Jamie, Sarah, Peter, Andrew, Simon and Don) as they joined ecologist Pete Russell on Somes/Matiu Island today. Pete gave a workshop on the art of releasing podocarp saplings from common, fast growing trees. 

The Supporters aim to get all the native podocarp species - rimu, kahikatea, matai, miro and totara - well established in the park, and we're now at the stage where looking after the ones we've planted is even more important than planting more.

If you'd like to join the crew and adopt an area of saplings, please flick us a Facebook message or email supporters@makarapeak.org.