Don't let the city vibes fool you, Wellington has some totally sick trails and many of them are riding distance from the CBD.
There are trails weaving around many of the vast hills that surround the city and the locals have a huge variety of different types of terrain to hit. Riding with a local is always a good idea, as navigating can be a bit tricky at first.
There is a buzz in the air at the capital right now thanks to a new Trails Trust that formed to act as a bigger voice for the MTB community. The council are onboard and together they are doing more maintenance and building more new trails such as Polhill (Waimaphihi), Mt Vic, Miramar, Makara Peak and at the Wainuiomata trail park.
If you are visiting this summer we recommmend visiting one of our awesome Yeti dealers, Capital Cycles or Get Lost Cycles and pick there brains on the best tracks to ride. But a few suggestions are
Keen on hitting some jumps?
- Mt Vic has lots of fun jumps, in particular the Hospital Jumps (as in final scene of video)
- Dirt Farm is about an hour out of town, but great for jumps
- And right in town there's a track called Mystic Portal.
If you are riding wth the whole family...
- Try Belmont MTB Park (between Petone and Lower Hutt). This has well sign posted trails and great for all ages
Or are you after a big epic ride?
- Try Mat's favourite lap - From Island Bay ride up the Tip Track, along the Fence line, down Wrights hill, then you get to Makara Peak. There’s lots of options here with over 50km of trail. And well sign posted here. Finally head back up Wrights hill, to the wind turbine, then down Polhill tracks straight to Garage Project for a brew of choice.
Or if you are time limited and just after a quick lap from town
- From Aro valley ride up to the wind turbine (40min climb), then come down Polhill (CarPark, Ikidie then Serenditipity). This is a 15+ min typically Wellington tight flowy fun single track descent with a bit of everything. Enjoy the beautiful native bush, and if you are lucky you might well even spot some Kaka rustling around the bush.
- Or for a bit more spice, Mt Vic is always a great option and full of trails. It can be a bit hard to find your way around, but its full of great tracks and you will meet tons of locals out on their lunch break.