New mountain bike trail a hit

The region's mountainbikers have a new playground, thanks to the dedication of a band of enthusiasts. Geoff Collett reports.

When Kiwi mountainbiking guru Jonathan Kennett got his first close-up look at the gnarly old forestry block on the hillside above Kaiteriteri, he could appreciate why it had been sitting unused and largely ignored for the past 20-odd years.

It was covered in old pine trees, weeds and regenerating bush and criss-crossed with deep ravines and steep and unpromising slopes. "I thought, this is really quite difficult terrain," he recalls now, "a little bit like a three-dimensional maze."

But this is mountainbiking we're talking about here, one sport where no challenge is ever too steep, no hillside too gnarly. And so Mr Kennett, called in to assess the site as a consultant, got to work. Alongside him on those initial bush-bashing explorations were Martin Rodd, the Motueka area manager for the Department of Conservation, and Guy Trainor, a Motueka mountainbiking enthusiast, middle-aged but retired after a successful working life overseas.

Despite the obvious difficulties of the Kaiteriteri hillside, all three men could see its potential as a new centre for mountainbiking in the Tasman district – none more so than Mr Trainor, the powerhouse behind the vision. And tomorrow, their foresight is being celebrated with the official opening of the Kaiteriteri Mountain Bike Park – a classic example of how the can-do spirit continues to thrive, if you have the right idea in the right community.

Today, that 3D maze has been turned into 5km of newly formed benched track plus kilometres more of newly accessible firebreaks and spurs, all awaiting the region's mountainbikers, and importantly, visitors to Kaiteriteri who might be looking for other distractions than the traditional sunbaking and showing off on the beach.

The tracks range from relatively sedate runs which Mr Rodd claims to have seen children and 70-year-olds happily trundling along, to heart-stopping, near-vertical slopes high up at the ridgeline, which only the expert or the suicidal would contemplate. There is widespread agreement on at least three points here.

One, its quality – "excellent" is the common adjective.

Two, that it has been a genuinely community-based project.

And three, the speed with which they've managed to tame the hillside and transform it into Kaiteriteri's newest visitor attraction is mind-boggling.

The land used to be the Department of Conservation's and Mr Rodd says that when he first came across an email from Mr Trainor pitching the mountainbike park, he liked the idea but thought it would take three years to realise. That was around June last year.

Mr Rodd's own enthusiasm helped move things along apace; so did the buy-in of the Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve Board which runs the campground and saw the potential for a mountainbike park to attract more visitors outside of the frenetic summer holiday peak.

DOC inherited the land from the old Forest Service but had left it largely untouched. The mountainbike project saw the department transfer the land to the reserve board, which helped underwrite the project. It paid for Mr Kennett to do the initial survey and plot likely tracks. From there, it was over to Mr Trainor and his fellow volunteers.

Despite the magnitude of the job – figuring out the best routes, clearing kilometre after kilometre of scrub, then following through to cut benched-tracks into the hillside – Mr Trainor was confident. He decided to dedicate a year of his own time to the project to make sure it happened.

He built up a core of about 40 volunteers who were willing to sacrifice their Sunday mornings to working bees – an average of 10 people have been toiling on site every Sunday since work started in November last year, he says

"As a concept it rapidly grew from a few local mountainbikers creating something to meet their own needs into a much bigger vision for the whole project, and that's what a lot of people have brought into."

Various businesspeople quickly got in behind it too, none more than Andrew Spittal, the owner of Chings Contracting. It was his support which really lit the fuse on the project and he became the park's leading sponsor, principally through donating hundreds of hours of his own time at the controls of a digger, patiently digging out the trails.

Mr Spittal himself puts his enthusiasm for the project down to a simple philosophy of wanting to put something back into the community – and the way that so many others threw themselves into it.

His company has helped develop other mountainbike tracks around Nelson and he's a recreational mountainbiker, but he was well and truly "bitten by the bug" when he got involved at Kaiteriteri.

Mr Trainor puts such support in part down to mountainbikers wanting to give something back to their sport, but more to the community ethic that's emerged in the project.

Mountainbike parks have mushroomed over the past few years. Mr Kennett – a prominent figure in mountainbiking who lives in Wellington but has land in Golden Bay – estimates that in the past three years, the number nationally has gone from about 10 to 50 and he predicts there will be 70 by the end of next year.

For Nelson mountainbiking mainstay Chris Mildon, a particular beauty of the Kaiteriteri project is its closeness to an established community, including the campground – meaning cyclists can jump on their bikes and be on trail in minutes.

Mountainbikers have been flocking since the tracks have been usable – the first short loop was completed in February. And while the official opening is tomorrow, there is significant scope for more development.

Mr Kennett has identified a second network of tracks higher up the 180ha reserve, which will more than double the current 5km of track. Mr Trainor's record to date makes it certain that they will happen, too.

The Kaiteriteri Mountainbike Park is in Martins Farm Rd, Kaiteriteri, a couple of hundred metres from the main road and beach.

Sixteen tracks feature on the official park map, divided between easy, intermediate, advanced and expert levels. The very toughest, such as Velocity and Rockface, are extremely steep and heavily rutted. More timid souls might want to stick to the likes of Swamp Monster (which winds past a wetland), or Glade Runner, which are suited to anyone looking for a more placid but interesting ride through some attractive scenery. Much of the riding is under the cover of bush, offering shelter on hot days.

There is also a pump track, an area of bare, undulating ground which is designed to be negotiated without pedalling; in time, a skills area will be added. Full details of the tracks and a rundown on the story of the park can be found on the park's blogspot – kaiteriterimtbpark.blogspot.com.

Tomorrow's opening celebrations start at 10.30am with iwi unveiling and blessing a specially commissioned pou (carved post), and DOC's regional conservator, Neil Clifton, Tasman Mayor Richard Kempthorne and Kaiteriteri reserve board chairman Peter King doing the opening honours.

There will be mass rides and walks of the various trails, as well as riding demonstrations, entertainment, competitions and bike shop displays.

- © Fairfax NZ News