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Saturday 26 March 2011

Woodhill mountain bike park 26/03

Woodhill forest lies on the north west coast of Auckland, its 12,500 hectares of land is home to a number of recreational activities including horse riding, 4x4 adventures, motocross, mountain biking and tree climbing adventures to name a few. Woodhill is a sand based pine forest which has been cultivated for its timber for a number of years. Part of the forest joins nicely with Muriwai beach which provides a nice contrast of terrain on the horse rides that we have been on.

Woodhill bike park boast that they have over 130km of purpose built mountain bike trails and over 250 man made structures within the trail network. I managed to wangle myself a couple of days work at the mountain bike park fixing trails, northshore structures and repairing hire bikes. I got to drive an emergency response 4x4 through the bush play with chainsaws, nail guns and par-take in other such manly jobs. In return I got a Woodhill bike park jumper and a free pass to the park for a day kitted out with an awesome bike and gear.

The first days work I was sent into what they call the airfield to clean up after some recently felled eucalyptus trees. Me and Tim one of the parks managers moved logs and raked the pump track. I was then asked to repair some of the ladders on the beginners course further into the forest. Tim foolishly made the assumption that I was in possession of a driving licence and handed me the keys to a Mitsubishi challenger. The truck was an emergency response vehicle with after market suspension, a lift kit and a very tuned 3.5 litre v6 engine. The truck was rather fast and went very sideways around corners. I then settled into the job which involved a wrecking bar, a nail gun and lots of sweat. The second day we made a ladder drop I serviced some bikes I didn't do an awful lot it was not as fun.

Saturday I got to ride, it rained all day but I still had an awesome time riding all the different trails. Here is a picture of me and Tim's bike which he kindly lent me for the day. For all of you who are interested in the bike side of things I will be reviewing this bike as I thought it was quite a ride, unfortunately we do not stock them in the UK.

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