The summer holidays weren’t just about mountain biking. We also took the time to visit the Whangarei Quarry Gardens. As the name suggests, this is a former quarry that has been turned into gardens over the last 15-20 years. Someone had the vision, and plenty of people put in years of hard work to turn it into reality.
I first visited here more than 10 years ago when it was just starting out. At the time it was a lot more bare, but now things have bedded themselves in. Well worth the trip if you’re in Whangarei.
There’s only one part of the National Cycle Trail network north of Auckland, the Twin Coast Cycle Trail. As the name suggests, it runs from one coast to the other, from the Bay of Islands to the Hokianga Harbour.
Unfortunately it has taken a long time to get this trail constructed. Sections of it are open, other parts are due for completion this year, but the middle section has no planned construction date. Most of the trail follows an old railway line, so it should be easy to do, but maybe some key sections were sold off. Disappointing.
But anyway, some sections are open, and we were able to make it an afternoon ride of it. We parked at Okaihau, rode to Kaikohe, had a snack then rode back to Kaikohe.
Okaihau a small town these days – I think you could buy a place like this for a fair site cheaper than the typical overpriced Auckland villa:
The trail follows an old railway line, so most of it is like this. Either open farmland, or old railway line cuttings, including a tunnel:
There’s a few sections like this, where there’s a trail parallel to the main trail, with more mountain-bike style tracks, including a few obstacles.
There’s also longer loop off the side of the track, 5km of tight twisty single track through the forest. Recommended for a diversion if you’re feeling like something more. Be warned though, after making easy miles along the rail trail, the forest is a lot slower going. Allow the time, food & water if you’re doing that diversion. It’s well sign-posted, and puts you back on the trail a few hundred metres from where you started.
This summer, whilst visiting family & friends, Anna & I went on a mini-tour of upper North-Island bike trails. One of my uncles lives in Opotiki, so this seemed a good excuse to visit the Motu Trails.
We didn’t have time to complete the whole 90km of the trail, so we parked at the shop by Tirohanga Motor Camp, and rode East along the Dunes Trail, before heading inland up the Motu Road.
The Dunes Trail is all easy going, cruising along close to the ocean. The only annoying bit is the “cyclist-juicers” you have to squeeze through.
Not quite no hands
After a bit of cruising along the Dunes, we headed inland, up one of those New Zealand roads that gets about 4 vehicles a day. There was a feeling of stepping back in time as we headed up the valley.
After a few kilometres of quiet sealed road, it turns to gravel. New Zealand roads aren’t very good. But even this is bad by our standards – 48km of narrow, winding roads. You don’t want to go too fast around the blind corners.
You’ve been warned:
Not a posed shot, or some country club where rich kids ride ponies. Just locals going for a ride
We meandered up the valley for a while, then stopped for lunch at a nice spot overlooking the river. Then a gentle cruise back down to where we started, for an ice-cream at the shop. Not a highly technical ride, just a nice gentle cruise through beautiful countryside. Perfect.
We’re hoping to return soon, to ride the Pakihi Trail. This is a more technical, challenging, mostly downhill trail. We’ve got a local contact (Thanks Uncle Barry!) who can drive us to the top of the Pakihi Trail. Hopefully we’ll find a few others to join us. Looking forward to it.
While up north this weekend, we took the bikes out to Glenbervie Forest, near Whangarei. I’ve been here many times over the years, but not recently. Turns out things have changed a little.
Arriving at the carpark, I wondered why there were no other bikers there. Normally there’s one or two. We headed out into the forest, noting the signs that showed some areas were closed due to logging. No problem though, we should be able to find some other trails, right?
Not so much. Signs pointed to trails, but they ended like this:
This wasn’t just a one-off either. Everything was turning into dead-ends.
All my attempts of find good trails were going nowhere. We just seemed to have miles of uphill in the hot sun, with trails non-existent or overgrown. Well, maybe there’s one left – Bluff. That’s one of my favourite trails at Glenbervie. It’s been there a long time, and was always reliable. Let’s head down there.
It started beautifully, with a nice path through pine trees. Didn’t last though – we came up to this:There is a trail through that gorse, if you look closely. The old trail is still underneath it all. There’s a smooth patch of dirt, and it’s a trail I know well from past rides. I thought that it might have just been a short patch of gorse, and we could push through it, but it got worse. Now we had cutty grass to contend with.
I pushed on past Anna, trying to see if it ever opened up. I kept thinking we’d reach the older forest, and the path would open up. It just got worse.
But after 150m of bashing downhill through it, I had to admit defeat. The problem is…there was only one way out. Back through the gorse. Uphill. Sigh.
I hauled my bike back up first, then came back and grabbed Anna’s bike. Eventually we made it back up to the forest road. Anna wouldn’t let me try going down any more tracks though. We had to head back down the main gravel road.
I guess the results were inevitable – we both ended up with shredded legs. Over the next few days I pulled at least 20 small thorns out of my fingers. Ouch. I’m not quite sure Ann’s forgiven me.
For the last day of my summer holidays, we went mountain biking at Waitawa, about 50km south-east of Auckland. This is a new regional park in the Auckland area, that only opened in 2014.
For the last 50 years Waitawa operated as an explosives manufacturing facility. Obviously it was off-limits, even though it occupies a remarkable position overlooking the Hauraki Gulf. But the council purchased the land in 2004, and Orica finished operations in September 2013. Since then the council has been hard at work, re-shaping the park.
Normally regional parks are a lot of bush, with a few walking tracks and campsites. All very sedate. But here they’ve taken a different approach, planning a range of recreational activities within the park. So they’ve built walking tracks, MTB tracks, horse riding trails, disc golf, etc. There’s fishing & BBQ areas, and there’s even a campsite for sea kayaks.
It was a stunning day, and the park & surroundings were looking amazing:
This was our first trip to Waitawa, so it was a bit of an exploratory mission. There’s plenty of maps and signposts, but it was still a little tricky figuring out our bearings. The maps don’t always quite match up with what’s on the ground either.
They’ve had some problems with slips recently, which was limiting vehicle access. Some of the mountain bike tracks were impassable due to slips too, although this didn’t cause any major problems for us. Lack of bikes was a bigger problem – the gorse is encroaching on some trails, because they just haven’t had enough riders through there recently. I’m sure that will change.
Getting started was a bit tricky – we could see trails, but it was a bit unclear which trails were going where, and we had a bit of looping around near the carpark, before we got under way. Once we got onto a nice downhill to Mataitai Bay, we were away!
Down at the bay, we cruised over to the wharf, to watch someone catch a hammerhead shark. Only a foot long though, so it went back in.
Being summer, it was of course fine and sunny in Auckland, as it always is. Makes for hot and sweaty riding back up the hill. Trying to get around one of the old magazines, we hit blocked off trails and gorse, so had to backtrack and head up the road.
We then went up and over, and down to Waitawa Bay. This track is not marked on the maps as a mountain biking track, but it was signposted. It really shouldn’t be a biking track though – the corners are too tight, and it’s very steep in places, with many steps in the steep sections. A walking track, not a biking track. Still, it got us down to the campsite.
Lunch was the old mountain biking staple:
Easier to haul up the farm track away from it:
Well, maybe a little bit easier. Anna’s face was about the same shade as her top by this time.
From here we headed back toward the main entrance, then picked up ‘Oyster Shell’ and ‘Valley Loop’ to take us back towards the MTB carpark. These trails were nice easy going, smoother than the trails we’d started out on. Some of the tracks are far too tight & steep, but these were perfect – only problem was getting too hot and sweaty on the uphill climb back to the car!
I’m not sure how well it will ride in the wet, but I look forward to getting back there again before the end of summer, to explore more of the trails to the Western side of the park.
It’s great to see more mountain biking options in the Auckland area. With Fourforty now opening, there’s plenty of choices in the South/East area.
When I married Anna, I also married Samson, her Bernese Mountain Dog. It didn’t take long before he decided that he was actually my dog. It’s just as well Samson liked me. I don’t think Anna would have married me otherwise. Samson was a unique dog, and much-loved. Sadly now he is gone.
A Unique Dog
At first glance, Sammy seemed like a big goofy ball of fluff. 45kg, and he loved to run up to people, sit on their feet, and lean further and further into your legs until you just about fall over. There was something about the set of his mouth that made him look like he was happy and smiling. Single men take note: Bernese Mountain Dogs are good for attracting women.
He was a happy dog too, with an easy-going, calm nature. People assume that big dogs need a lot of exercise, but it’s not the case. Every morning he would come bustling into the bedroom, expecting his morning walk. But he didn’t need hours of exercise, and was chilled out. He would be happy to spend the day just hanging around the house, sitting at your feet. He might also give you a swipe with a big paw, if he thought you weren’t giving him enough attention.
He had a tremendous bark, and often put it to good effect, lying in wait behind the fence, terrorising passers-by. But if someone opened the gate, he would either run away, or run up for a cuddle. We joked that the only way he would stop burglars would be by tripping them up.
Samson was a very relaxed, biddable dog. Easy to take for a walk, he would never get far away from you, and would come when called. He did not like being on the lead, but knew that we had to put him on it when near main roads (just in case Dog Control came along). If you needed to go into a shop, you could just tell him to Stay, and he would. Never needed to tie him up. Simple hand actions could make him Sit & Stay, no commands needed.
He never cared much for food, grazing, only eating what he needed, at odd times throughout the day. He wasn’t hand-fed, so never begged at the table. He was too big a dog to allow that.
We joked that he was at the bottom of the pack, below everyone else. But he had his role in the pack – keeping the pack together. He hated it if we were out walking, and Anna & I got too far apart. If we were out mountain biking, I would ride ahead on the trail, and Samson would be in the middle. If Anna got too far behind, he would turn back down the trail and go and find her.
He never seemed to think he was a dog. If we met a dog and owner out walking, he was usually more interested in the owner. He didn’t like small dogs – they barked at him. There’s something odd about watching a 45kg dog walk out onto the road to get around a 3kg barking rat.
I don’t know if he had his routines, and we adapted to those, or if it was the other way around. But he was an important part of our family, and we loved him as much as he loved us.
Notice Period
We’ve known for a while he was dying. 10 weeks ago we noticed some lumps on his throat, which were quickly diagnosed as lymphoma. Big dogs don’t live long lives, but he’d been fit & healthy, and we thought he would live for 10–12 years. It was a shock to find, at 8 years old, that he only had 2 months to live.
So for the last two months of his life, he was spoiled rotten. Walked at least once a day, often twice. Previously only one of us would walk him on weekdays, and we would go out together at the weekend. But for the last few weeks we both walked with him. This was when he was happiest, just hanging out with us.
We put rugs on the bed, and encouraged him to hop on whenever he liked. He was fed whatever he wanted: large handfuls of liver treats, dog chews, frozen tripe, cheese, whatever he liked. Extra cuddles, extra trips to the beach, anything he enjoyed.
He was always obsessed with cows, so it was a particular highlight one day when we took him to Cornwall Park, and a cow stuck its head through the fence and licked him.
Sadly he never managed to catch the neighbour’s black cat. I don’t know what he would have done with it if he had actually caught it.
He will be missed
Now he’s gone. The house is empty. For a while, our lives will be a bit emptier too. It will take time to adjust.
Goodbye Sammy. You were loved, and you will be missed.
