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.