Rapaki Vic Park

Rode from Nelson's. interesting route across town, including a new park and and old park to waltham rd then the sweet wee singletrack along the heathcote from Wilson's to Ensors, then round to Rapaki. me on the geared, nelson on his single. for the first time ever, i led all the way up, and nelson was struggling. now he knows how steve etc and i feel when we ride with him... he had some lurgy bug thing that'd had kept him low for a day or three, so was only running on one lung and low energy. anyway, good spin up rapaki, hit the singletrack, had a good run at that, and then bombed it round to vic park. headed down through gums, only to be totally unimpressed with what's going on in there. sure, it'll be fun to ride eventually, but unless they put some drainage in its gonna turn to crap really quick. and i'm gonna miss the tight sweetness that it used to have before they chopped down those several trees, making the trail a fucking highway.

so, we headed west (left) and got out of the gums, rode down some of the really steep shit off there, walked back up another bit to ride it super steep again. steep enough to nearly not be able to walk up, but no worries down, and then into the trees again, eventually getting out on the track just by that wee jump, then bombed the rest of it down then up to the skidder site.
then headed up trail to top of Cool Runnings, rode all of the new bits, sidelines obviously, not the jumps, nearly couldnt see anything in 'the darkness' wearing shades, then out the gulley, round the side, stayed high in the pines all the way to the end, and pieced it down the last steep into the washout drop. then quick bomb down the valley and back across town to nelson's. with a quick detour to ride the Countdown steps... ha.

friday night bottle lake spin

quick spin out at bottle lake with Nelson and a guy called Tony on Friday night. we hung a right, headed out towards the dump hill, hung a left and into that oldskool trail Steve showed us the other month, then got on the usual, spinning quick, singlespeeds... was gonna hit the hills with them last night but missed out cos was enjoying too much wine and food at Peg Bay winery...

Hanmer scorcher

found myself and the switchback in Hanmer for a few days, finally test driving the Thule strap-on rack that i got well over a year ago. worked a treat. just the frame on the rack, seat out, (wheels on top of luggage in the boot - pram, chilli bin, and all baggage for 2 adults a 3.5 year old and a 5 month old, squeezed into the Fiat).

Al came up for Wednesday, to ride and show me a couple of new trails.
So. rode up the start of Jacks Pass Rd, and peeled right onto a dirt track which bombed down for a bit then hung a tight right onto some single that bombed downwards for a bit too, some nice waterbar jumps on the way, crossed a stream and started climbing. few switchbacks, nice climb, spitting us out behind Conical Hill, overlooking the forestry operations which have wiped out Yankee Zephyr... then we headed around an unmade trail to connect to Mahuja or Mahuta or Majuba? majuta?? trail, nice fly down that, pumping and squirrelling, then across behind the 12hr race camp area, and up Timberlands trail to the Joliffe saddle skidder site. then up Joliffe Saddle track, steeper and longer than i remembered, hot sun pounding down on us, and fun descent down to Dog Stream switchbacky rocky fun.

cross the bridge, up the road to Bigfoot. crazy crazy trail, climbing, zigging and zagging, the zigzag switchbacks getting more and more frequent, shorter and shorter between, in tight narrow douglas fir, eventually after i dont know how many switchies you peak and the forest opens up into nice old open country and the descent bombs down, little ups just before corners, beautiful flow, down down down, jumps on roots etc, awesome.

then we poached the nature trail, hung a new left onto the Detox... climbed up there, and bombed down that, reminding me of Hot X buns in vegas. then up the road to the bridge to cross over onto lower dogstream, hoofed it down that, then up Joliffe Rd to the skidder site again, and out Red Rocks, one of my favourites, bombed that, then skirted back across the bottom of the 12 hr paddock, and back into town... nice

Fried eh night...

up to my folks for dinner friday night. got home, messed about a bit then headed out, left home about 5.20pm. quite strong easterly. bombed across to rapaki, hauled up there, hung a right, round summit trail, then down through gum and on out and down to their place. got there at bout 6.20. not too bad going.

a ride of two halves...

popped home at lunchtime, changed and grabbed bike. straight from work headed for Nelson's, he had to take the singlespeed, but we headed up Worlsey's anyway. unbelievably, he cleaned the entire road and trail to within about 20 metres from the top of the Body Bag... i however, flagged, and was munted the whole way up, like i had no power or strength of leg... twas hot too. so, made the top, nice cool breeze to greet us up there. then up marley's/flying nun then down down down, easy careful cos the grass is so overgrown you can hardly see the track ahead. hit the road to the second Thomson's, headed to top of Vic. then into the trees, down through gums and on down out to vic park rd and down to my family picnic. 4 generations from my Nainy, all present from a few corners of the world. nelson headed off. then the boys, Steve, Tony, Andrew and Wayne turned up, chatted a bit and headed off up to skidder site...

then after the picnic (3 grolsche later), i headed up there myself. and bumped into Roly and (name unknown). roly sporting brandnew Fox Float 36s. and (name unknown) riding a brand new Yeti... v'ry nice. we headed off down Dazza's then sideways onto the new trail. mint. on down all of the nat's track, down and out to tracey otis and hugo waiting for me at road end... nice.

sunday morning. rapaktraversthomsobodybagsecret

Matt's Specialized has a cracked suspension pivoty thing, so he borrowed the Singlespeed. picked me up and over to Steve's we went. Pete, steve, tony, wayne and us two. i piloted the single up rapaki, cos i didnt wanna inflict too much pain on the poor guy... tho, he rode it to the first gate. so huffed and chuffed all the way up, walked about 5 metres on that last corner.

above the road, turned right along single. matt struggled up round the first two hairpins and lost it just above the wee water dam, started walking for a bit. i continued on. matt failed to appear for a while, but then eventually we saw him coming. once below the road again, he flew. was right on my tail all the way round to just before sugarloaf, then he took the lead and i was pushin' to keep up. nice one. sorry bout that matt...

then Thomson's to kiwi. flew through there. then up road to top of Worsley's. down body bag, up paddock to 'secret' singletrack. and a nice bomb down it. its getting more and more rideable, smoother and faster, i guess cos we're getting to know it better. cleaned the rocky ass piece below the pylons, and then continued all the way down down down where Nelson and me explored a while back. rode a lot more of that too. then back up 4wd track, and down rest of single, then down road to westmorland zigzags, and home round the river... all good. nice sunny day, but with a good cooling sou'wester blowing a little bit.

happy new craigie-burnin'

after minimal festivities seeing out the end of 2007 (party at Pete's which we took the kids to and left about 10), new year's day 2008 - nelson picked me up in the van (Nissubishi or Mitsubissan) and we headed for the mountains. (last times march07 and may06).

parked up at the Broken River Day shelter carpark (800m) (observing all the hung over travellers waking up and getting into the beers again!), and headed out onto the road for Craigieburn access road at 9.47am. slogged up the access road, gear troubles for me limiting me to big or second cog down on the back, middle or granny up front for the climbing. not to worry, that road pretty much just needs to be tackled in granny most of the way anyway, so's to conserve your energy for later in the ride. made the skifield (1300m), looked about a bit then headed down 'the edge' or 'the wall' depending on which skool (old or nu) you come from. beautiful and dangerous. nearly all down hill, flowing beech forest singletrack sections interspersed with evil drop corners and awe inspiring screeslope crossings... here's me hangin' it out on one... its steeper than it looks, obviously, or i wouldnt be dabbed out.

didnt take long to get down to the right hander(1040m) up to Lyndon Saddle. grunted up there (1140m) and had a feed. then headed down the Luge. flow flow flow, yumpy yump, hello to a total of 4 walkers, all had been warned of our approach by the whooping and the clattering of chains on stays. onto road (860m).

then headed up the road to top (950m) of Dracophyllum Flat track. flat tack down that seemingly endless descent, ending finally at the river(790m). then tackled the climb out up to the actual 'Flat(850m). cruise down across the Flat then through (830m) bush and the weird clearings with nothing much growing in them(850m-810m)), then bush climb to the cheeseman icerinks(940m). we were still feeling pretty good so we headed up the Cheeseman Access road and did the (1000m) lowest bit of the 'taboggan' track, then headed back for broken river. now, this trail is much better in this direction. loads of beautiful down hill sections, easy climb back up dracophyll-flat, then fun steep techy descent to river, and then the climb. i got cramp in the back of my thigh on the first climb, making me walk for a bit, then rode some, walked some rode some back up to the road.

headed along the road (970m) cos Steve etc had said there was a neat little nature trail starting from the Environmental Education Centre carpark. missed that and got onto the "Hut Creek Track" instead, cos it was heading down. well. it didnt head down for long (940m), and pretty soon we were climbing again, heat of the early afternoon sun sapping our already blown strength. climbing climbing til (1000m) eventually we were looking back and down at where we'd started with a road connecting us to there. so. what the heck, turned round and bombed back down this track. all through spruce and fir and pine, one or two beech bits. it was in here i missed seeing a fallen tree (due to folliage) across the track and took a helluva whallop to my head. >smack!!!<, nearly knocking me off, and jarring my brain somewhat... dazed, continued down and when we got to what would have been the climb back to the Environmental Education Centre, (940m) there's this hardly-used track heading down, so, took it instead. it flowed through gums and weird sloped meadows to some huts and then out to the road (860m). nice... in future we'll just ride up the road to the top of this trail... for one final downhill... then the last descent back to the van cooling us off nicely. altitude grand total of 1280m climbed and descended, back to town by 4pm... not bad for a day's play.

three days of christmas...

so. Sunday the 23rd, met boys at dot com 9.15. Derek and his friend John had biked out making the group pete steve matt wayne tony me and them. good bunch. up capt thomas, and at evans the others decided they needed to just go out godley, whereas derek john and me wanted more, so we spun up the road to top of greenwood and bombed down that. lots of fun. then out godley. missed the first rock up, but cleaned the second. good spin all the way out to end, tail wind back to breeze, then down anaconda and up over down nicholson. 

 boxing day, rainy wet mucky, we were going to G G's for lunch, so i biked across town, up rapaki, which was extremely soggy and power sapping, then left round the summit, first section good, castlerock section awesome, but the hail and wind were mildly off putting. then up road to John Britten reserve, hoofed down it to top of mt pleasant , found Kenton's track round western side of the houses to the stepped trail down to heathcote quarry, i popped up the last steps up to major hornbrook and down through park and down cannon hill cres... 

 cold and wet yesterday, dinner at my folks, so i biked across and up the new oldschool bowenvale, cleaning all of it except the one steep rock bit and the few steep steps just after the fence. then all the switchback 4wd section in one go no stops... then round summit to vic, down through gums, all the way to road, down road, up to slide down next to dog walk areas, to bottom of them, then through the lower of them into the pine trail down round on my favourite secret track onto longhurst... then haul up the road to my folks.

scorchin'!

scorcher of a day. probably already up in mid 20s by 9am when i headed over to Steve's. rocked off, andrew, tony, wayne, matt, english mark and steve, across town to bottom bowenvale. up the recently constructed additions to the singletrack. cleaned all the first bit. new second bit is good, blew a couple of the switchies, but cleaned the rest. then onto the old single. couple spots are really gnarley, but mostly cleanable, and then the real punisher, up the bulldozer zigzags. hefty. rode it all bar one corner. got to the landing strip and there's a bunch of 4wds, one of which was a DOC truck (mitsi L200) which was stuck on this pile of dirt... funny. continued up huntsbury track to summit, then hit the single traverse around to vic park, good spin right across there. the heat was exceptional. stopped in the nice coolish dark shade of the top of vic. while sitting there lots of bikers came through, including one guy who crashed right in front of us! then, a couple of us hit Thomson's track, both bits to kiwi. fixed waynes chain there, grabbed a sarsparilla, water etc, then up summit road to top of worsley's. down body bag, and up paddock to 'secret singletrack'. the boys like it. its come along a bit, some of the berms are better. still a bad bit just past the pylon, good run down to wallride (broken) and then out. then i showed them the switchbacks and new singletrack into that dam park, then back through to road and down, mark peeled off there, then tony peeled off, then i peeled off, grabbed some beans from C1 and home by 1... wiped out. heat stroke material.

sunday muggy sunday

picked up Al, and we drove to sumner. met up with the boys, Steve, Andrew, Tony, wayne, Matt and his english mate on a Merida, Mark. we tootled round the corner to Mulgan's Track for their first time up... Al was on his 29r SS with its new 80mm Reba's. so he was hauling on all the ups, or walking. anyway, up to panorama, then up to singletrack. humidity was a killer... up singletrack into mistiness to the pines, then on up road to top of Greenwood, sun starting to shine through. nice cruise to the ruins, where we thought about a food stop, but then steve suggested the macrocarpa at the bottom, so off we flew. i took the lead. kept and put a good distance ahead of Andrew, then when i stopped further round Al was behind, waited. then once we all regrouped, headed on down, again, putting a good distance between me and them all. cleaned everything nicely, flying well. quick break at the mac, then pop down to evans and tackle Godley.

let Al go first, cos he cant do anything but go fast. got a good ways up the nemesis, but didnt clean it, got the next bit tho. then, trying to chase Al i just didnt have it in me. that big gear, those big wheels, he was just flying up the track. regrouped up just before the first of the boardwalks. then Al me and Matt took off first, cos we'd decided there that we'd go further, ie, mechanics bay trail round and back, whereas the others were just gonna head straight down ana. so. i was chasing Al, which was fine til the rutty section then a tad annoying on the downhill to the first of the cols (livingstone, i presume). stuck behind him i definately would've gone faster, and couldnt see trail enough leading to some near rut-catcher stacks... anyway, he got enough distance on me on the next climb, tho i was catching him again on the descent to Breeze Col. then up walking track, nice wee climb round, bomb down to singletrack, then ass-haul back round to breeze. flew it. then excellent run down Anaconda, fantastic berm railing and some very nice air... to meet the boys and observe the massive surf pumping taylors. then the 'tail, nice hoof down there. tired on the climb out of taylors, fun spin down nicholson, trying that new line again, and back to cars 12pm ish... they stopped for coffee but Al and me headed off.

two in a row

Monday night. after O was in bed i drove over and parked on centaurus. headed up rapaki, was about 8.45pm by the 2nd gate. headed up and up, turned right, round mt vernon, crossed the road and turned the light on, 9.15ish. single track round to top of vic, dusky light and headlight dont mix well, so visibility wasnt great. then Thomson's to Kiwi, up road a bit, then tried to turn light on but it wouldnt go so had to stop and tweak it. got it running and didnt wanna risk it again so left it on from then on. up to lower section of Flying Nun, back to kiwi, back up Thomson's, both sections, then down through gums, down dazza's, down into macrocarpas, taking a new line in there, very dusty, poor contrast on trail, then down valley track, cleaned the 'washout' bottom of k2 and then bombed it down to bowenvale, back round to car. home about 10.05... Tuesday night. rode home at lunchtime and grabbed bike gear and mtnbike. left work at 4.30, across town to meet Jo from work at rapaki centaurus corner, got there at 4.45, she turned up at 4.53, headed up, hung a left, along singletrack, then up road to Castlerock. bommmmbed it down there, beautiful run, waited for her after 2nd switchback, before climb. fire at top of bridle path. first of the season. then down bridle path, start of morgans valley track, exit off that down to gunclub/bridlepath road. she peeled off, i headed for GG's.

Clifton Greenwood Godley Anaconda

Awesome ride with Nelson last night. we drove out to Sumner, parked at bottom of Clifton Hill, rode back round to Moncks Bay and headed up Mulgan's Track. Switchback city, steps on some corners, concrete walking path, steep as. connects two or three times and ends up going round the water tanks and up York's old driveway to Panorama Drive. We then headed over the park to Clifton Tce, tho going up Panorama would lose you less altitude, then up clifton to a trail described by Laurence Mote of Ground Effect in the current Spoke Magazine. blissful rooty rocky singletrack that leads up under pine shelterbelts into tussocky Greenwood Park to the Richmond Hill pines. then up the road to top of Greenwood. Bombed down that. me catching Nelson on all the rocky bits, down to Evans at an awesome pace. then out Godley. Nelson was powering away on all the climbs. but i lead on the first descent and left him behind. reckoning it was the 5 inches travel and its slacker head angle that makes my bike smoother over the rockiest bits. then up last climb and i was on his tail again for the descent to Breeze col. then down anaconda. i took the lead. railing all the berms and flying all the jumps, watching out the cool easterly wasnt blowing us off course in the air too much. by the last leg above the baches to Taylors my back was getting really sore. then the climb out of taylors my seat was too low making the the pedalling inefficient. Down through Nicholson, found a new wee line, then nelson's chain blew apart, so fixed it with my quicklink and we treadled back to the car round the waterfront. awesome ride.

Bottle Lake spin then the Bach

Two thursdays ago went out to Bottle lake, did a quick inner loop spin, then met the boys, Steve, Matt and two friends, and Andrew (i think) at the carpark, and we did a bigger loop. good pace, not stopping too much. Pete was out there too, but he was hanging with his son Alistair who was yumpitty yumping heaps...

next day was show day, so went to little ak. got a ride in on saturday. up the usual Chorlton, then View Hill road. cleaned all the gnarley steep bit, on up the paper road to a point above the old house, then i cut down across a freeflow paddock, down a wee gulch then up to the old house to have a look in. last time i was there would have been with York and Nigel back in about '90. and prior to that with Doug Claridge in 85 (his name is still in charcoal on the wall upstairs). then clambered back up to the paper road and bombed... down down down then down into the bay and back to bach.

have just returned from 7 days at Lake Poteriteri Hut counting birds. spectacular place, as usual, shame about the sandflies...

Vegas, volume 2

(see here for vegas volume 1...)... So. I'm at a conference of fellow GIS geeks for three days in Rotorua... Thursday morning the agenda doesnt look all that interesting, so i turn up in my bike gear, helmet strapped to my pack, pedals inside, and at 9am i walk out and up the road to BikeVegas, where i take possession of a Steel(is real) Jamis hardtail. the frame isnt a bad weight, the brakes are Avid BB7 (cable disks), and the gears are SRAM... unfortunately for me, the forks are Manitou Axels, supposed to have 4 inches of travel, which would be great, but these things were so blown that they sat right down in their travel and at best gave an inch. in short, they sucked... plus, handlebars too flat, and stem too long, putting way too much weight over this screwed up geometry's front wheel...so, i leave the bike shop, head along a gravelled bike track that leads through this scrubby zone between town and the lake where there's all these bubbling mud puddles and fumeroles steaming their sulphur stench and then makes its way following up a creek for a while, across and past the local DOC office (HI!), then on up towards the Redwoods.

i ride in the entrance by the bottom of the Exit trail, up the hill, then up Tokorangi Pa Rd, over GunnaGotta which i took really carefully cos of the bike being new to me and cos of the lack of travel, lotsa new bits in there that weren't there last year... then onto the ATrail, linking into the Tickler to the water tap at the bottom of HotXBuns. from here, i headed up Direct Rd, up up up up up past sidewinder and onto the FrontalLobotomy upon which i snapped the chain (legs are THAT strong, hah), removed the bad link, and replaced it with my quicklink, then continued on up to Tawa Rd taking me to BillyT which TOTALLY ROCKED! it is sooo mint. i loved it. packed in beautifully since we rode it last year, bombed down it and hung a left and headed on into the wilderness to catch SplitEnz (a brand spanker). overtook some soundingly australian chicks who were gunning along good, just before the descent, so made some good time on them and never saw them again... Split Enz leads to PondyDH, which would have been SOOO much fun with some shocks that worked, jarring my gammy thumb all the way down, from there to PondyNew (nice twisty climb and descent) which joins the bottom of the Roller Coaster which leads into the Chinese menu- ChopSuey ChopSuey, Spring Roll SpringRoll finishing with Sweet&Sour. then down the beautiful B-Rude-Not-2, peeling off that and hitting the LionTrail up to Katore Rd, then a quick flit down to the ExitTrail which is always fun. then back downtown to the bikeshop, returning the bike almost exactly 4 hours since i got it... exhausted, sapped, drained... wicked...

Sat Morn Worsley Marley Dyers Vic Runnings

nice wee spin saturday morning. rode across town, up worsley's, hardly a soul around. spotted some guys heading up the body bag as it came into view, so hustled a bit and was catching them. they were mostly walking it, i cleaned the entire thing, tho, i did stop for a rest just before the last slog, where it kinda veers left before the final gut eating ascent.

headed over Marley's, down flying nun, flying. didnt even hit the road, just continued on down below Dyers, all the way out, across road, up into Vic Park, up single track to jumps/skidder site, then up to top of Cool Runnings, the steep left hander just after the wooden structure caught me out, and even with a back up i baulked again. cleaned out the rest of the trail and then headed round sidle trail to the washout at bottom of K2, cleaning it, and bombing the rest of the way out bottom of Bowenvale

at the bottom of the Old Skool, heade up the new trail, rideable in middle ring, then turned and enjoyed it down. chatted to a dude on a new Enduro... cruised across town home by 10.30...

Tuesday spectacular evening, Capt Thom Godley Taylors.

finally got out of the house and over to pick up Nelson. We were supposed to meet the boys in Sumner at 6.15, but was only just collecting Nelson then, so rang and told them to leave without us and we'd see them if we caught them. Got out to Sumner after 6.30, hit Captain Thomas, rocking up it, me blowing near the top, fighting to not puke. Still, made it up before 7. The boys were waiting (hadnt been there long) for us at top, and we continued the rest of the ride with them...

exhausted, blew the first rocky bits of godley trail, but rocked the rest of it. excellent descending to first col, me tight on Nelson's tail, not giving him any leeway, and Pete fast catching me and sitting on mine, clatter clatter. put a bit more distance between us on the descent into Breeze Col tho. then down Anaconda, Pete first, then nelson, then me, and andrew steve and tony following. managed to keep ahead of Andrew and even managed to gain on nelson nearer the bottom... still not used to that final corner, and still not used to 'the tail' down to the end.

tried a new zigzag from carpark up to first road hairpin, not good. showed nelson the Sumnervale track, which we're still to explore, and had an excellent flight down through Nicholson Park and down scarborough. back to DotCom just after 8 or so

Sunny Easterly Sunday Arvo

My parents dropped in, so i grabbed a lift up to their place sunday afternoon 4.30-5ish. biked from there, up through Vic Park, dropped down to Old Dyers Pass Rd Trail, and on the big corner, decided to explore down a 4wd track that heads west. fun wee hoof down that to the end where lies a mattress, a dead bmx and a dead scooter, as well as someone's illegal dump zone... grannied back up out of it back onto the main track (the trees in that wee valley are plenty open now, so some sneaky trails in there might be the go...). on up old dyers, bit of air in the back tire, 5 or so riders coming down, to kiwi, then up road to top of Worsley's, over marleys and down Flying Nun, nice wee new side line been build off just at the top of where it becomes 4wd track half way down, then on below the road fun fun fun. crossed pass below Kiwi, headed up summit rd to upper thomson's, then round summit trail, into the cold cold easterly. bumped into James (angrywadder) just before the Lava Flow, stopped and chatted a bit, then continued round and bombed it down to Rapaki, then bombed it down there. home 6.30-45ish i guess, battling the wind all up Wilson's Nursery and Stanmore Rds...

thursnite rapaki witch vernon old skool...

shortish ride last night. nice to finally get out with the lads again. Nelson andrew tony wayne steve and me left steve's bout 6.15. nelson on his single. cruised up rapaki. bumped into James (angrywad ) on rapaki, and at the top was jeff and roly. nelson and me and them hoofed it round witch hill single and back, then chased steve et al up vernon singletrack. met up with them at the road crossing. huge group of riders were riding at same time, saw them on rapaki a couple times and at the top and along single and where steve etal were waiting. we took off ahead of them, and hung a right down old skool. somehow wayne missed the turnoff and continued, which made andrew go look for him, he didnt find him. meanwhile, i'd bombed down oldskool to the first gate, stopped to see if others were following, they never showed. was about to head back up when i heard a funny voice behind me, which turned out to be my phone (otis saying "doctor foster went to gloucester in the pouring rain, stepped into a puddle right up to his muddle and never went there again")... steve. so, i rode back up to him and nelson. then we decided wayne could find his own way down, and we bombed it. nice trip down the rocky bits, then singletrack beautiful flow. one gorse bush got me bad in the knuckles, yowch! tony flatted near the bottom, then while we were waiting with him Wayne showed up, had realised well round the traverse, and turned back and come down Old Skool... rode home as dark was falling, flashies on.

PFMTBC Inc, WELLINGTON, 2007. junglevision

Mark Hubby, Tony Andrew Steve Pete Nelson and me flew up friday, 12.15 - van, covered trailer, motel downtown with mt vic just up the road. so, put bikes together and headed up Vic. found our way to the top, got a tip from some local riders and started to explore down round singletracks. if you got to know these they'd be a fun wee blast but searching our way round we will have missed out on lots of nice stuff, plus, it'd be raining all week so the tracks were all mucky mucky and rooty slippery...

Saturday, Drove to Makara. Tucked into Koru (gentle and nice), bit of a play in the skills area, then up Sally Ally (cruisy), Missing Link (cool), where i started to hear my pedal doing the crunchy thing. continued grinding up Aratihi eventually stopping nearing the top to decide that it was poked and i's gonna have to give up on it. so, walked up to the top of the peak, howling wind, and we tookoff down the 4wd track to the lower Ridgeline trail, and into Swigg (towards the end of Andrew crashed right behind me (i heard a swish, whump) garking his knee) and starfish (upon which Hubby dismounted right in front of me, garking his shin on this wooden bridge), and me not really enjoying myself much cos of the pedal concern. headed for town to get the fix for the pedal. Mudcycles, no rebuild kit. On ya Bike, no rebuild kit. Penny's... yep. so, got to work trying to get the outer bearing race from the pedal. it proved impossible so i gave the rebuild kit back and got me some Shimanos. much better. So, that afternoon we went back to Makara, and rode to the top of Sally Alley, then up the 4wd track to the peak, then down Aratihi to Leaping Lizard and all the way down that out to the end. Wicked descent, sketchy, techy, rocky. through the stream at the end, and back up the road to the car.

Sunday. parked-up in the Karori Sanctuary carpark. headed down to creek and began walking up the switchback trail to the fenceline, up the fence track to scoutden, then up to top of wrights hill. riding and walking. riding at the top. a chance meeting with a guy Nick who i somehow knew (we'd ridden somewhere sometime) convinced us we needed to do Deliverance and Salvation. so, down deliverance, proving too techy for some, relished by others, then lovely pedal back up salvation, and back to the fenceline track. i was the only one to ride up the grunty steep to the top, then me and nelson got talking to some other locals who suggested Carparts. the others had continued on ahead and didnt bother to wait, so missed out on what i would say is one of the best little sections of singletrack around. starting from the windturbine carpark, it goes not that far below the road for a while... twisty, fun. then crossed the road and back onto the fenceline track, which diverged at that point and had a jumpy section next to it all the way down, then a couple of weird downs and ups and then into a little singletrack section which ended up on the concreted switchbacky stepped in places walking trakc back down to the carpark.
later on, Mark, Nelson and me, went back to the sanctuary carpark, and rode/walked up again. over and down Salvation, back up it, and back down to sanctuary... nuts. down salvation was fantastic. slogging back up it wasnt so bad, down the top section to the scout den was cool, and so was the fenceline, but once it enters the tight ass trees again, yowch, i just lost my flow and had to dab around nearly every hairpin. then one last little climb to the van.

Monday, we headed back to Makara. barely anything left in the legs. rode round to and up Salvation (again) just cos it is so nice, to carpark, then back down we went (mark took Deliverance), awesome descent, pete filming it, then back into the park, huffed up Koru, messed about in skills, on up sally alley, Tony Andrew Steve and Pete all deciding to bail and just do the lower ridgeline etc etc down (then on into town on their bikes), Nelson Mark Hubby and me continuing to missing link, then up 4wd road, into a gale, then down aratihi, upper leaping lizard, Nikau, upon which i crashed, let it go a bit trying to go faster and just lost the frontwheel and over i went onto some rocks, jumped straight back on, hammered, and on up to missinglink. bit of a break there and a local guy (on a Switchback!) showed up. ended up seeing him over and over again, whenever he caught us up stopped, wondering which way to go, kinda..., anyway, up missinglink back to sally alley, blasted down it to the swigg/starfish intersection, down to magic carpet ride, then down livewires and back to van. hussin' it down livewires nearly caught me out too, i was so exhausted i was starting to make mistakes, and i was just about over the bars into a tree, dunno how i saved it... cleaned the stream crossing tho.

Saturday Climby Solo.

Got my jobs done (painting deck, vege shop and bikeride with Otis - Tagalong Spencerpark loop) so was allowed out for an afternoon ride. Drove across and parked bottom of Rapaki/Vernon Tce. Realised as soon as i set off that my (new) rear tire was a bit low in the air department and that i'd left my pump at home...(d'oh!), and how heavy and hard work the Nevegal is to push along... still, climbed farm track, middle ring to first gate, then granny 2nd/3rd rest of way. hit the road, turned right, up to top of Huntsbury track - spotted a guy on a white bike, white rims, white fork, looked like a Cycleway sign on the hillside, asked him if i could borrow his pump, put more air in my back tire... then i got onto Vernon singletrack, back towards Rapaki. Blitzed it, new tires gripping nice, me getting some good flow on and going really fast on the fast bits. past all the riders stopped at top of rapaki, on round the witch hill singletrack, up road to Castle Rock, beautiful flow on down to Bridle Path where i stopped for a OneSquareMeal bar. while sitting there, 4 supermotard style big bikes came FLYING round the summit road, one pulling a huge wheely as they passed the top of Bridle, nice.

Headed back up Castle Rock track, cleaning all but a small spin out just near the top, then onwards down summit road back to Witch Hill, past rapaki and all the bikers stopped there, up vernon single track, deciding to bail to the road at top of Farm Track, road to Huntsbury, round summit traverse to Old Skool Bowenvale descent, blitzed and cleaned all, tires gripping a beaut. then onto the newly made section at the bottom, which will (when finished) be pretty cool. then back round bottom of hill to car. beautiful day too.
Sunday, Otis and me tagalonged to Andrew's place and back... quite a number of kms for a wee fella, and he did really well. howling norwester, heavy headwind home.