Local Info

July was a month of celebrations at Makara peak, with the opening of the mural, planting of 25 trees to celebrate 25 years of the park’s existence, the Makara peak supporters being recognised for their amazing efforts by winning the Wellington airport Heritage and environment category award, awesome effort and well deserved.  

As always, the past two months have seen a ton of trail maintenance smashed out, and hundreds of plants making their way into the ground across the park, continuing the incredible journey of enhancing our parks tree diversity.

A personal park highlight for me over the past few weeks, was coming across two of our resident Kiwi. one on Koru and the other on upswing, so awesome to see Kiwi making Makara peak their home.

 Have you checked out the highest mural in Wellington yet?

The official opening of the mural was a huge success. We had a great turn out to celebrate the achievement with great sausages hot chocolate and brownies, the day could not have been better. The good folk from Capital kiwi came to support the event, topped off by a great speeches and article in the Post. The project has been so successful we are talking with Kordia about extending the mural to the front side of the building.   Massive shout out to the supporters for funding this project with the support of Wellington City Council and Kordia for the use of their building.

Don’t forget to snap a selfie with the mural 😊.  

 5 Star accommodation on the summit of Makara peak

 Our new shelter is being put to good use with the change in the weather. Mike from Trail build

has put the finishing touches to the shelter, which is situated at the start of Zacs track. The supporters have been busy planting Tussock around the shelter which will give the area nice alpine feal once they take off. We have received lots of great feedback so far about the new park asset. Cheers WCC for the shelter funding.

Don’t forget the shelter is equipped with a flash new park tool trailhead repair station, that will hopefully get you out of a jam when you have forgotten those alan keys.

A massive shout out to Ross and the team from Mud cycles for sponsoring the trail head repair station. Don't forget that Mud cycles is only a stone’s throw away from Makara peak for any of those last-minute purchases you need to make before heading into the park.

 25 trees for 25 years

Great initiative by Simon from the supporters, who hatch the plan to plant 25 trees along the edge of snake charmer. The group of super keen MPS volunteer planters help to plant the fantastic range of our native podocarp trees chosen for the event. There not hard to miss with their pink stakes, great to think these trees will provide shelter and shade for years to come. They may make it into the next tree trail event later this year. 

Our dedicated conservation volunteers are currently in full planting mode, planting hundreds of

trees across the park over the past couple of months. This includes Track side planting on Zacs & T4 , the Kohanga in the southern end of the park .

Well established track side planting provides great food source for our birds it also provides shade and shelter for our trails, limiting the effects of erosion from the elements. As we look for more areas to boost plant diversity across the park the Vertigo valley and valley below Zacs track have had a couple of planting work parties to do just that, fantastic job team your efforts are greatly appreciated.

If planting is your thing or your keen to learn more about the park’s biodiversity, your welcome to join one of our planting work parties. Keep an eye out on the Mākara peak supporters Facebook page for scheduled work parties. 

 Need a Chopper?  

We’re not thinking of Helli biking on the peak, however If your unlucky enough to need a

helicopter rescue by the awesome life flight crew and the Westpac helicopter it’s just about to get a little bit easier. Starting this week our contactor Andrew from total trail solutions will be clearing a helicopter landing site next to the Whā out saddle jumps. This will enable the chopper crew to land in the park safely while they perform a rescue. Currently the nearest landing site is Karori park which is not ideal when a game of soccer or cricket is in play.

Helping hand from the corporates BNZ & Veolia

We were super stoked to host two corporate groups In July. Ever wondered what the massive back body bags that are dotted around the park contain? Well-read on, the team from BNZ spent a morning working at

the main park entrance to remove the pesky tradescantia from the stream side, stuffing it into the massive black body bags to decompose. Which takes about 2 years. If the trad is left to its own devises, it will smother the forest floor making it impossible for native seedlings to grow. Big shout out to the BNZ crew, your amazing weed busters.  

Veolia teamed up with our Thursday volunteer tracks crew to give Rimu a spruce up. The Team

powered through widening the stretch of trail from the Allington road entrance to the Miro Junction. This has made a huge difference and a added confidence booster for our beginner riders.

Smashing work Veolia.      

 Trail Maintenance

Mākara peak is incredibly fortunate to have a super star crew of volunteers and dedicated tracks team out in force to keep our trail network humming over the year.

Our trail crews focus over the past 8 weeks has been nailing the vegetation growth clearing drains raking the trails and smashing out those pesky puddles. With a bit of trail refurbishment   thrown in for good measure

for your riding pleasure our team strive to keep the trails running mint during the winter months, we do however need your help to keep on top of our trail maintenance, you can do this by donating $$$$$$$ to the Makara peak supporters to help fund more contractor maintenance hours, winter riding only increases our maintenance workload, and we would love your cash support😊

The nitty gritty of trail maintenance

Upswing

If you have had the chance to spin your wheels up Upswing lately, you may have noticed the improved drainage on the second half of the trail past the bridge. Our Thursday maintenance crew Anna, Wayne, with the help of Martin and Ricky from slack trails spent 3 sessions on installing drainage channels, new capture drains, and sumps to keep the water and mud at bay. The crew smashed out the bits of rock that limit the track width and ride line.  Big shout out to our Thursday crew for their mahi, Upswing should now run mint for the winter.

Wha out drained

The Thursday maintenance crew managed to give Wha out a bit of attention with the addition

of a big sump and pipe to drain a small lake forming on the ride line.  

Slip on snake charmer!  

We had a decent size slip on Snake charmer, the upside of the slip was we were able to quarry a reasonable amount of the rock form the slip site. Which with the help of the supporters we have stockpiled for armouring and building rock features on our trails. Some of the  rock was relocated and spread to improve the parks access roads. We took the opportunity to use the diggers to clear out the road drains. This did require Martin and Wayne having to install a new pipe and sump on the trail exit of Smokin on to the road.   

Middle Pōhatu made even better.

How could we make the most popular trail in the park even better, the heroic MPS volunteer trail crew have come up with a plan to fix the blowen out corners and adjust a couple of the jumps to limit the need to drag the breaks into these features.

We employed the help of Andrew and his massive digger from Total trail

solutions to recraft.

the first 5 corners to save our backs. Such was the success of this work we asked Andrew to extend the scope of the job and fix the last left-hand switch back on upper Pōhutu, which was suffering the same fate as the corners on middle Pōhutu. They look epic, hold fire don’t be tempted to ride the teams work until the track is reopened. If your keen to lend a hand, come and join our Sunday afternoon digs, these kick off at 2,30pm followed by a BBQ and beer. Keep an eye out on the Supporters Face book page.

Behind the scenes

Bark in the Park.

Duane, Angus, and Rob from Bark have been instrumental at keeping overgrown veg and puddles at bay over the past few weeks. By patrolling Sally alley, ridgeline extn, Pōhatu, and line cutting sections of T4. Thanks Team Bark for your mahi, it’s nice to be able to rail down the trails without vegetation spoiling the fun 😊.

Cheers MPS and Bark for your generous support and sponsorship which enables the crew from Bark to carry out this important work.  

Koru grooming

Koru is looking awesome thanks to Stephan one of our regular riders, who has single handedly

taken on the challenge of raking the entire length of Koru, Cheers Stephan you’re a champion.   

Getting Lazy fern back on Track

A group of 30 Onslow College outdoor education year 12 students are full speed ahead with a refurbishment project to bring the start of Lazy fern back in to grade. The students are applying what they learnt from the Recreation Aotearoa trail guidelines to the start of Lazy fern with the aim to bring the trail back to a true grade two trail, with new fun features and practical drainage solutions. Sofar the students have completed two sessions, and have another two programmed in September, this work will go towards their NCEA credits.

Awesome work team, we love your Mahi 😉   

 Track conditions.

Trail conditions

With all the rain we have been having of late it’s a bit wet out there now, so we're having to close a few tracks periodically, to insure they don't completely turn into a bog, winter tends to be quite harsh on our trail network. Thanks for your understanding as we try to keep the trails open year-round.

Remember; For up-to-date info on the City’s MTB trails including Makara peak, download the Trails Wellington app, https://www.trailswellington.co.nz/  if you’re not a paid up TW member you still have access to the trail status section of the app. While you’re checking out the trail status, join Trails Wellington to support Mākara peak trails. 😊

For up to date park information and events, check the Makara peak supporters Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/makarapeak/.

Get involved.

Keen to lend a hand, but are unable to make the Mākara peak supporters weekend work parties? We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join our weekly Thursday maintenance sessions, if your keen to learn trail building and maintence techniques, then come and join Ranger Mark and Martin, Ricky from Slack trails and our awesome volunteers, Dave, Anna, and Wayne for a fun day out at Mākara peak. If this sounds appealing, please drop me a line at  mark.kent@wcc.govt.nz .

Is your business or work interested in supporting a Mākara peak community project?

Corporate volunteers, contribute massively to the park each year, working on conservation projects and enhancing our track network.  

Taking part in these activities such as track building and refurbishment, planting and weed control is immensely rewarding mahi, and makes for an awesome team building day out at Makara peak.   

 If your business - team are interested in spending a day at Mākara peak let’s talk, please drop me a line at  mark.kent@wcc.govt.nz

Happy trail’s