Makara Peak Mountain bike Park Wellington NZ

Derka Derka

Likes Dirt
I spent just over a week riding the tracks on Makara Peak in Wellington NZ recently and thought that I might try and provide something of a review on this for you. My back ground is in freeride and some dirt jumping around the Sydney area so my review is based on comparisons to this. I found Makara peak to be a total change to the riding that I am used to doing in Sydney. Firstly it was very steep and secondarily the runs are very long. From a technical point of view it has no massive hucks or huge gap jumps so I think it would generally be regarded as XC or even aggressive XC in places. However steep switch backs and roll offs it has plenty of. Leaving my DH bike at home I took my STP0 as the weapon of choice. I was totally happy with this as it worked really well on this type of trail. Being a hardtail & smaller I found that I could really pump the tight bits of the trail hard and move it freely underneath for the techy bits. A really bonus to have for the uphill climb aswell.

Makara Peak is at the end of Wellington’s largest suburb karori and as such is very easily accessible via public transport. So from Wellington CBD is a half hour trip on a bus to a 5 minute ride to the start of the track. The trail head is well sign post and you can easily find it.

The park originally started out as city council land which through the help of volunteers was developed into a mountain bike park. No small task, I remember seeing a sign on “the missing link” track stating that this section took 1500 hours to complete!! I believe that it currently has around 25km of rolling single trail. I pretty impressive feature considering that the park has received minimal funding in comparison to other council projects such as the Karori reservoir. It is a real testimony to the hard work of the mountain biking community in Wellington!

The first part of the trail, the Koru track is a gentle climb across the hill through NZ native bush. It gets you elevated without losing too much sweat. Just on that if you do want to get to the top of the peak quickly there is a direct line that you can take via a fire trail. I have done it a few times I can say that it is a real gut buster! Koru also has a side diversion to a skills area. It has a line of 3 drops a couple of jumps, a seesaw and an elevated line This is good for a quick play although not that challenging if you freeride or dirt jump. It is good to see areas such as this for people that are learning the ropes of mountain biking and would like to progress their technical riding.
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For me one of the most fun sections is next, Sally Alley. The top of the peak itself is 412m and there is a lot of elevation that needs to be gained. The track that Koru joins on to is Sally Alley. This section is really flowing single trail that does not feel like much of a climb at all. Infact I had allot of fun cutting into the corners and pumping the trail for speed. Most of the trails in the park are built side on to the slope so you can be guaranteed to have one side that you can really corner hard into, a great deal of fun. Missing link flows on from Sally Alley and it is fairly similar except it gets a bit faster in sections and also has very steep drops to the side of the trail in places. Extremely flowing single trail!! From a junction you then climb up via Arahiti to the summit. Arahiti really helps you to gain some height without to much pain.
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From the summit the real fun starts. You have a number of excellent single trails in which you can choose to come down on. The park guide refers to Trickle falls as being the most difficult trail in the park to do. So for me I just had to do it first. Ok it is a very steep track in places however also very tight and the track very narrow. Because of this I felt that I was hanging on the breaks way too much. Nice roll offs in places and very good at the start and towards the end. I would rate it however from a freeride point of view there was nothing big just steep and lots of breaking. Another trail that starts fairly close by is Vertigo. I found that this seemed to be a bit more flowing. I didn’t need an iron grip to do this one yet it was challenging. Overall I would say that it is fast with slightly more margin for error with some real fun bits. One of my favourite spot in the park is on this track where you hit a seesaw then straight on to 3 very steep switch backs. Yaah that is nice!!.

Another fun line from the top is to follow Varley’s track over to Karori Pines. Varley’s track is fun as it twists its way down a steep hillside with lots of nice cornering. Karori pines opens up and you can get some good speed with the occasional natural jump and roll off in places.

The classic way down from the summit is the ridgeline track & via swig to the car park. On this you can really cut lose and get some good speed. The track is undulating and is major fun to pump in places. I really like this trail as it is so flowing with great cornering, small drops in places and the odd steep section. Nice. From the top to the bottom it is around 15mins which seems like a long run for a downhill section. Your cornering will definitely improve on this track, very nice.
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The park has a couple of places that you can seek shelter in an emergency or bad weather. It also has 2 caravans placed a different points for exactly this purpose. Interesting to note that these have not been vandalised in the slightest.

Overall some great XC riding that can gets technical in places. The track itself is different to Sydney trails in a few ways. Firstly the soil is generally muddy clay with no sandy bits like we get in Sydney. There are also very few rocky parts of the track. In Sydney we have many solid sandstone features that make dropping on the trail more common place. The trail however gets much steeper and roll offs on to tight corning tend to a real tester. The climbing is also something else, you can really push yourself at whatever level you like with this and there is much opportunity to do a chucker if you want. An average ride for me with once up the peak, once down, a few photos and some mucking around would take around 2 hours. It is however easy to go up the fire trail and down in 40mins.

Well done to the Makara Peak mountain bike guys for developing and maintaining the park. It just goes to show that if a council is prepared to help with land that a group of volunteers can make a huge difference to constructing something that is really positive for the community. I should also point out that the mountain bike community has done a huge amount of planting native bush and turned a baron farmland type of area into beautiful bushland.

If you would like trail maps & info try going to
http://www.mountainbike.co.nz/places/makarapeak/
 

Moggio

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Thanks for the info... sounds great. Got to try and head down there next time I am over there.

NZ just has such a different attitude to MTB than over here. The number of places in NZ to ride that have been either approved or helped by local councils is amazing... I guess they are clever enough to realise that MTB are tourists too and bring in money to the local areas... shame that can't be realised in Aus a bit more.
 

sprocket

Likes Dirt
NZ once again proves its self... every time i go there its almost depressing coming back to aussie.... they are true champs over there.. in all respects
 

Trevor_S

Likes Dirt
I LOVE Makara Peak, got some great ideas for our trails from it, yes the Kiwis definetly have their crap together so much more over there, where all things outdoors are viewed with a positive attitude, and land use is about being pro active and managing areas for everyones use.

I am sure they think they have it tough, they have no idea, until you come over here and see how shitty we get treated by land managers with a let no one in attitude being nearly
ubiquitous.

I was also lucky enough to get to meet and have a chat to a couple of the Kennet brothers, who have a lot to do with Makara Peak (and author the MTB NZ Book !)

Anyway, enough ranting against our lethargic bureaucracy. I was there in Nov for 3 days riding, after doing 4 days in Rotorura

A few pics :)





































 
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Great article and even better photos. They sure bring back some memories.:rolleyes:

I found that the ride to the peak requires a fair amount of fitness. I think that's why nothing gets vandalised.

It also adds some challenge to the higher trails when the cloud cover descends.
And I preferred the less steep downhills, you get more fun per vertical metre of descent instead of wearing out your brakes the whole time.
 

Derka Derka

Likes Dirt
I LOVE Makara Peak, got some great ideas for our trails from it, yes the Kiwis definetly have their crap together so much more over there, where all things outdoors are viewed with a positive attitude, and land use is about being pro active and managing areas for everyones use.

I am sure they think they have it tough, they have no idea, until you come over here and see how shitty we get treated by land managers with a let no one in attitude being nearly
ubiquitous.

Hey Trevor S,

Mate those are some great photos. Looks like you covered a good part of the park!

Regarding your above comments, yeah it is abit of an eye opener. I mean i manly ride in Sydneys Northern Beaches which is great but could be allot better. I mean it is abit annoying when you see hundreds of hours of work going into places like the Old Oxford falls or Grove areas only to get bulldozed or ripped down!!
 
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