This winter a hardy group of passionate volunteers have been toiling away in the southern end of the park working to establish a podocarp forest.

The Kohanga o Porokapa project team has planted hundreds of seedlings, built access tracks and a pig proof fence has started to be erected. Thanks to everyone who has come along and donated their time and did the mahi.

With a couple of sessions left in early August, there’s still time to come along and help this important project. Check out the events page on the main page for all the details.

Also a big thanks to the crew from Z Energy who donated a days work to the park. They expertly planted 170 seedlings, built a little bit of track, and passed the ‘Mega-mesh Team Building” challenge with lots of laughter and interesting banter.

Now that we’re back at COVID alert level 1 , our dig days on the trail that will link North Face to Starfish are back up and running. Every Sunday from 2 - 4pm, followed by a BBQ and beer.

The Kohanga project is also back up and running. Come along and help create a podocarp stronghold at the south end of the park. The aim is to plant a thousand podocarps - Rimu, Totara, Kahikatea, Matai and Miro - in the hectare of retired farmland between the bottom of Leaping Lizard and Karori Stream.

Planting goes from 10am to 12:30pm each Saturday through to the 8th August. Tools and planting tips provided. No experience necessary.

Check out the event listings for more info.

We’re thrilled to announce the Drury Family has decided to make a $50,000 annual donation to the Makara Peak Supporters for the next 3 years.

This funding is going to make a huge difference to the park, and we're stoked that Rod shares our vision for Makara Peak being a world class bike park.

In making the donation Rod Drury said “I’m super impressed by the massive effort put in by countless volunteers over many years to create world class mountain bike tracks uniquely close to the Wellington city.

As part of making Wellington an even better place to work, live and visit, and with the necessary focus on domestic tourism, it feels important to accelerate our plans for biking in Wellington".

Having a trail network that rides well in all conditions has always been important to us. As mountain biking gets more popular we need to invest in maintaining the trails we have, as well as building new and exciting ones.

So we'll be using this money to upgrade our maintenance programme, with high use tracks like Peak Flow, Smokin, SWIGG and Lazy Fern getting resurfaced and in some cases rebuilt with the help of contractors and machines.

This is part of a wider vision for further investment in trails around the region that we've been working on with Wellington Mountain Bike Club, Wellington Trails Trust and Brooklyn Trail Builders.

If any other entities or corporates would like to get involved we’d love to hear from you. Donations of all sizes make a difference. As a registered charity we can provide you with a receipt for your donation, so send us a DM or drop us an email at supporters@makarapeak.org.

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).

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!

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/

Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park is re-opening when we move to alert level 3 at midnight on Monday 27 April.

A very empty carpark on Monday 23 March.

All trails will be open, along with the carpark. The toilets and shower will not be open, and we recommend you don’t use the bike wash.

• Ride by yourself or with other people from your bubble.

• Keep a safe distance from others, particularly in the carpark and at the summit.

• Stay home if you're sick

• Don't stop right at the end of a track - give others space to get past.

• Ride within your limits and avoid taking unnecessary risks. Stick to tracks you’re familiar with.

• Be patient - no passing on singletrack - wait for a wide enough spot.

• Be kind to one another.

We recommend referring to https://covid19.govt.nz and other trusted and accurate sources of information during this challenging time.

Park closure notice: the council are conducting night hunting operations to shoot rabbits this week in the park.

It’s currently scheduled for Tuesday night and the park will be closed between 9pm and 5am. Please respect the signage and don’t enter the park if it’s closed.

Safety is at the forefront of this work and the professional hunting team (GWRC) is taking upmost care in ensuring everyone’s safety.

The hunting team will be using suppressed firearms to ensure the operation is conducted discreetly and the police will be notified of their work on the night.

For any further queries, please call the WCC Call Center on 04 499 4444.

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On Saturday 15 February, Makara Peak hosted the Wellington MTB Club's “Judith Collins Crusher-Duro”, part of the Wellington Enduro Series. The air was warm, the wind was negligible, the trails were in prime condition and the new carpark had just been opened.

Entrants had to post a time on either 3 or 5 stages, for the easy and hard categories respectively. The trails included classic old school lines like Lower Leaping Lizard and Vertigo, as well as some of the newer tracks in the park such as the new SWIGG and Starfish. As the stages could be finished in any order the park showed a sponge-like ability to absorb over 200 riders with minimal queuing throughout the day, and marshals wondering just where everyone was.

Timing was taken care of with WMTBC's chip and transceiver system, giving all riders their stage times as soon as they finished, and overall results as soon as the last rider arrived. In the end Jessie Cseh would take the Men's overall by just two seconds over Eden Cruise, while Khulan Tumen stamped her authority over the female classes. Competitors spoke very highly of the tracks, from old hands to out-of-towners experiencing the park for the first time. Although the figures are yet to be finalised, somewhere in the region of $4000 should be donated back to the park from the entry fees!

Thanks to Dan Sharpe (www.visualsby.me) and Lisa Ng (@lisangphoto) for the photos, and the general public for waiting until after the event to enjoy your casual ride, walk or run in the park.

14 February update

It’s taken a bit longer than planned, but we’re stoked that the new entranceway and carpark is now open!

It’s been designed to make it safer for riders, walkers and drivers, with deeper carparks for safer bike loading, and a clear pathway for everyone to use to get to Koru. The facilities are much better and generally more appropriate for a park of this size.

There’s still a little bit of work to do, including connecting the power to the toilet/shower block and general tidying up. There’s a lot of planting planned for this coming winter, but to keep the dust down, grass has been planted around the edges.

Thanks to WCC and Fulton Hogan for making this happen, and the Supporters Committee for their contribution to the planning process. Let us know what your think - feedback welcomed.

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29 December update

Work on the new main entrance and carpark on South Karori Road has wrapped up for the festive season. We’d all hoped it would be finished by now, but the Spring and early ‘Summer’ weather has slowed progress. Work recommences in early January with target completion date of late January.

If you’ve been into the park via the main entrance recently you’ll have spotted the new shower & toilet block, the enormous bike wash facility plus lots of bike parking and a new shelter. It’s going to be fantastic once complete!

28 August update

The fences are up and work has begun on the new park entrance on South Karori Road. To get to Koru, exit the carpark and head down the road towards the overflow car parking. At the end of the fence, hop off your bike and you'll see a temporary access track has been cut into the bush to allow you to walk your bike - it's narrow, rough and there's steps to get up to the Koru bridge. Signage coming soon.

There’s a video available on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/makarapeak/videos/498585130955827/

25 August update

Koru Closed Mon 26 August: work on the new entrance on South Karori Road kicks off tomorrow and the park entrance via Koru bridge will be closed for the day. The contractors will be putting in a temporary access to the Koru bridge and you'll have to walk your bike along it once it's open.

Now's a good time to start parking up on Karori Road and riding into the park. Give the St Albans Ave entrance a try, or for extra Kudos grind up Varley's.

The exit to Lazy Fern, SWIGG and Starfish will be open during this phase of the project, just look out for trucks, diggers moving in and out of the area.

The contractors will be doing their best to keep disruption to a minimum during the project. All we need to do is stay on the right side of the tape and out of their way. Thanks in advance.

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15 August update​

The project has been given the green-light by the lizard expert to remove the vegetation that was cut down around the main entrance and proceed to the construction phase.

WCC and Fulton Hogan are expecting to start work in the next 7-10 days. The project is going to be completed over two stages, and take three to four months to complete.

Stage 1 involves closing the bike wash, shelter and toilet, and area down to the Koru bridge while the work is completed. Once this is complete, work moves to the Northern end of the car park.

You can do your bit by obeying all signs and staying out of the work site for your own safety. The project involves substantial construction work and quite a few trucks going up and down South Karori Road. If possible, leave your car at home and ride to the park, or park up near Karori Park and ride into the park.

We're working with the Council and Fulton Hogan to keep Koru open during stage 1 of the project, with access via a temporary pathway to the Koru bridge. But we can't guarantee it will be open all the time, so to avoid disappointment we recommend you enter the park via St Albans Ave.

If you haven’t entered the park via St Alban’s Ave before, Rimu and Miro are great beginner grade tracks that make for a great change from Koru. Check out the latest park map or Trailforks.

July update

Wellington City Council have announced that they’re upgrading the Makara Peak main carpark on South Karori Road. This will ensure it’s a safe and welcoming hub for visitors, but also to enable growth and support future use of the mountain bike park as a regional destination.

Work is scheduled to begin in August, with the project taking around 3-6 months to complete. While work is underway there will be some disruption to car parking on South Karori Road - so it might be a good idea to park up at Karori Park and cruise down from there.

The scope of the upgrade is to create a safe and welcoming park entrance for all users whilst enhancing the sense of place and natural setting the park sits within. Works planned include; 

• developing an improved spatial layout with safer and additional parking

• creating a wide bypass track through the carpark

• new toilets with two bays and a shower

• a larger bike wash area

• a gathering area next to the entrance bridge to Koru.

For more information visit https://wellington.govt.nz/your-council/projects/makara-peak-main-entrance-car-park

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 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.

We’ll also be auctioning off some old signs at the AGM this week to raise money for the new skills park. Check out the images below - it’s a great chance to get your hands on a piece of Makara Peak history.

If you can’t make it on the night but would like to put in a bid, send us a DM on Facebook or an email.