February Newsletter — Trails Wellington

Help get Pyramid Scheme across the line

Public consultation for Pyramid Scheme closes this Friday. We need you to send an email supporting for this EPIC new trail to the Wellington City Council today!

We are planning to build an epic new trail on Matairangi (Mount Victoria). As part of this process the Wellington City Council wants to hear what people think of this proposal. To help get this trail built all you have to do is to send the Council a quick email voicing your support. It is that easy!

Pyramid Scheme (which we will rename once it is built) is a 2.3 km flow and jumps track that will run down the eastern side of Matairangi (Mt Victoria) For all riders in Wellington Pyramid Scheme will be a huge win, so it's critical the Council gets as many emails as possible hearing how much people support this trail getting built.

What we need you to do is to send feedback about this proposal to the Council via their submission portal (which is just an email) by this Friday at 5.00 p.m. – so do it now! Just write anything like why you think Pyramid Scheme should go ahead, and/or why this trail will be an asset to our network.

Creating your submission

To help out with your submission check out Trails Wellington’s own submission to the council below. Note that you are simply sending an email, so it can be as short or as long as you like.

If you're stuck, use our submission to help you create your own viewpoints. Pick and choose what relates to how you personally use the trails and what resonates with how you want to see Wellington develop. Remember your personal submission doesn't need to be long!

Trails Wellington supports this proposal. The factors underpinning our support include:

Trails Wellington’s members and supporters are providing the funding for this trail meaning that it is being built at no cost to Wellington ratepayers, while providing a fantastic recreational asset for everyone in Wellington to use and enjoy.

There are no grade 3 flow style trails in Wellington (of any significant length). There is huge demand for this type of trail as demonstrated by the popularity of the short “Saddle Jumps” section of trail that we recently upgraded on Matairangi. People want these style of tracks (which are available elsewhere in NZ), and this proposal addresses this.

This trail will offer an off-road commuting option for residents of the Eastern Suburbs when commuting back from the city.

We are firm believers that providing people with controlled, fun and engaging recreational opportunities in the outdoors will result in further kaitiakitanga from a broader slice of our community. Great examples of this include the restoration work that has been done in trail areas like Waimapihi (by the Brooklyn Trail Builders) and Mākara Peak. Trails Wellington thinks that the development of this trail will encourage a wider range of people to ride at Matairangi, resulting in increased planting, as well as trapping pests, and removing weeds.

This will be the ideal trail for beginner mountain bikers to develop their skills on Matairangi.

Trails Wellington has a big focus on fostering and supporting the Matairangi Trail Building group which will help maintain this area, including the proposed new trail.

The trail is easy to access, especially for the people who live in Wellington’s eastern suburbs, and central Wellington. Having recreational assets like this is critically important in terms of the liveability of Wellington as a city, especially as our population increases and intensifies.

The Hataitai side of Matairangi does not have a lot of trails on it. This, coupled with the trail being professionally designed and built (with input from the Council), means that there will be little/no conflict with other trail user groups.

The trail will be professionally built, and hold strong appeal for mountain bikers who ride in this area. We envisage that riders will be drawn to the underutilised Hataitai side of Matairangi, which will ease congestion on the city side of Matairangi.

Trails Wellington are working with Wellington City Council to enhance the trail network on the city side of Matairangi. We’re looking to keep the character of the existing trails, whilst better managing entrances, exits and trail crossings. This will improve this area for all trail uses including walkers, runners, and cyclists. This work is consistent with the Matairangi master plan which the Council previously published. This is a further positive.

We highlight the importance of our trail network in terms of attracting people to live and work in Wellington. We are quickly falling behind other cities that are putting a lot of effort into developing and enhancing their trail networks. The quality and style of this proposed trail helps to address this.

Recreational activities like mountain biking are hugely important for the health and wellbeing of our community.

Supporting our Affiliate Partners!

The following points are from our Trails Wellington Affiliates, if you're part of any of these groups or want to be, check out their viewpoints below.

WORD - World Off Road Riding department fully supports the proposal for the new Grade 3 trail on Matairangi. We understand how lucky we are to have an already amazing trail network on the doorstep of our CBD. Whilst we run after school programmes and holiday camps on the Matairangi trails, we do find the current network challenging with our younger and beginner kiddos. Recent upgrades to the network like the ‘Saddle Jumps’ have really helped us to progress riders safely. The development of this Grade 3 trail will help us offer the best experience possible for the next generation of mountain bikers. We’re super excited!

Pyramid Scheme Gets One Step Closer

It was epic to see the Wellington City Councillors recently vote in favour of moving to the next stage of considering the new Pyramid Scheme trail on Matairangi (Mt Victoria).

TW are looking to fund this exciting new trail which is a flow and jumps trail on the eastern side of Matairangi that will be 2.3km long. which will be funded by the Trails Wellington’s membership base.

Revolve - Revolve Cycling is a big supporter of Trail Wellington’s push to build a Grade 3 trail on Matairangi. Wellington is lacking easier and more accessible trails for beginner mountain bike riders and families. This makes it difficult for people to start mountain biking, and we've found that the lack of easy trails has been a deterrent for women getting out on the bike.

Having an easier trail would enable Revolve to introduce more new riders to mountain biking as we would be able to add Matairangi to our list of beginner/intermediate friendly locations. This would greatly expand the number of rides we would host there as it would allow more women in the club to ride there. Currently, despite Matairangi’s central location, which allows our members to cycle to the ride instead of driving, all the mountain bike trails are only suited to strong intermediate riders. While Revolve Cycling does have a number of members who enjoy these trails, one of our aims is to help beginner mountain bikers progress. The only other mountain biking trails near the city centre are in Polhill and, while these are greatly enjoyed by most intermediate riders, beginners still struggle with the narrowness and limited sight lines, as well as the steep drop off the side.