Sabbatical in the Nature: Makera park "Big Hill" of Wellington

Today we helped out on a mountain bike and walking trails park just outside of Wellington. Jonathan was our guide with Dan of GVN today. Jonathan is a well known NZ mountain biker, so he knows how to build mountain bike tracks.

We started by going right to the peak, to Makera peak, all at 417m. The peak was wind still which was unusual so that was why we started up on the peak. Its usually very windy and in the clouds. From the top was a very good view over Wellington harbor. We started removing dowens barberry from the top, which is a prickly tree. We then walked a little down the hill and followed a mountain bike track, which had just started to be cleared. We needed to clear the track more and remove trees that were in the middle of the track.

After lunch we freed the flexes from the long grass and weeds on the top of the hill slope. It then started to drizzle very lightly but then half an hour later the sun was out briefly again. Then the clouds set in again. After an hour or so, we then went back down the hill and started to clear a new track for mountain biking. We had to chop down trees and remove roots to make the track as clear as possible.