(Photographs -Spoon hill on the upper rocks ridge with great views of wellington harbour and the Orongoronga's. Jungle Gym down in the gully of switchbacks)
Ok, a bit of a catch up and a bit of long overdue background to the WTP.
In brief it all started back in Sept 2004 when I went walkabout with a machete off the side of the Wainuiomata hill during the September school holidays.
I kind of sketched out a line for what was to become 'beeline' and pointed out the track to a few kids in my school mtb club (Wainuiomata High School). A team of kids got busy one weekend while I was away surfing and I returned to a salvo of text messages asking me to come look at what they had done!
Finishing Beeline took about 3 months, Dave Blake put in a wooden bridge, Jordan Blake and Ben Hudson finished off the top entry berm and our first downhill track was born..
Anyway, we approached Hutt City Council, told them we had done a bad thing, they were really understanding and we began to discuss future plans, and what was to become jungle gym..
I guess the WTP was officially established in 2006 - Neil Hickford and I started digging track together mid week, Jim Long joined us building switchbacks below the old road knuckle low down on Jungles and Paula Umbers stepped up as camp mum and the best secretary any organisation could dream of having!
We have since been allocated $250,000 of council money to get the project pumping, now have 4 tracks completed and have many more in the pipeline and planning stage.
We have been lucky to have so much support - volunteers who come help dig are our life blood. We are grateful to Hutt City Council for their continuing trust and support.
Riding good single-track is something like surfing. Surfers drive miles and chase weather systems in search of perfect waves. We are lucky enough to have a huge blank canvas of beautiful native bush to seek out our own lines of perfection. For those of us that live in the valley it's quite literally single-track right out the back door..
Building trails is primal - you change the land forever, and it feels good. Volunteers get the chance to build something that feels sweet as you move through it with a bike beneath you.
I hope our park one day becomes a listed recreation / conservation area with rich biodiversity and bird life. I hope visitors to the park leave having experienced a taste of something special and wild so close to Wellington.
Our trails allow that loose yourself and find yourself again feeling while watching the sun set over Wellington harbour or while finding good rhythm at speed between the trees on one last run down that favourite trail.
If you haven’t been to Wainuiomata in a while - perhaps you should..!
Tryfan Ephraim - President WTP
In brief it all started back in Sept 2004 when I went walkabout with a machete off the side of the Wainuiomata hill during the September school holidays.
I kind of sketched out a line for what was to become 'beeline' and pointed out the track to a few kids in my school mtb club (Wainuiomata High School). A team of kids got busy one weekend while I was away surfing and I returned to a salvo of text messages asking me to come look at what they had done!
Finishing Beeline took about 3 months, Dave Blake put in a wooden bridge, Jordan Blake and Ben Hudson finished off the top entry berm and our first downhill track was born..
Anyway, we approached Hutt City Council, told them we had done a bad thing, they were really understanding and we began to discuss future plans, and what was to become jungle gym..
I guess the WTP was officially established in 2006 - Neil Hickford and I started digging track together mid week, Jim Long joined us building switchbacks below the old road knuckle low down on Jungles and Paula Umbers stepped up as camp mum and the best secretary any organisation could dream of having!
We have since been allocated $250,000 of council money to get the project pumping, now have 4 tracks completed and have many more in the pipeline and planning stage.
We have been lucky to have so much support - volunteers who come help dig are our life blood. We are grateful to Hutt City Council for their continuing trust and support.
Riding good single-track is something like surfing. Surfers drive miles and chase weather systems in search of perfect waves. We are lucky enough to have a huge blank canvas of beautiful native bush to seek out our own lines of perfection. For those of us that live in the valley it's quite literally single-track right out the back door..
Building trails is primal - you change the land forever, and it feels good. Volunteers get the chance to build something that feels sweet as you move through it with a bike beneath you.
I hope our park one day becomes a listed recreation / conservation area with rich biodiversity and bird life. I hope visitors to the park leave having experienced a taste of something special and wild so close to Wellington.
Our trails allow that loose yourself and find yourself again feeling while watching the sun set over Wellington harbour or while finding good rhythm at speed between the trees on one last run down that favourite trail.
If you haven’t been to Wainuiomata in a while - perhaps you should..!
Tryfan Ephraim - President WTP
