In 1998 the Wellington City Council set aside 200 hectares of retired farmland in Karori southwest of Wellington, New Zealand for a mountain bike park. Development of the Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park began almost immediately with volunteer work parties planting trees and digging new tracks.
By 2012 over 40 kilometres of hand-built single track had been built and over 32,000 native seedlings planted. Pests such as goats, sheep, and possums had been dramatically reduced allowing new vegetation to flourish.
The park is free to use and open to both cyclists and pedestrians. Approximately 30% of its users are pedestrians.
The Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park was visited by 8% of the Wellington population in 2003 according to research carried out by the Wellington City Council. It has received a recreation award from the New Zealand Recreation Association and two conservation awards from the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
The park is jointly managed by the Wellington City Council and Makara Peak Mountain Bike Park Supporters Inc.
Famous quotes containing the words peak, mountain and/or park:
“Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his penthouse lid;
He shall live a man forbid;
Weary sev’n-nights, nine times nine,
Shall he dwindle, peak and pine;
Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“And as it measured in her calipers,
The mountain stood exalted in its place.
So love will take between the hands a face. . . .”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“and the words never said,
And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.
We sat in the car park till twenty to one
And now I’m engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.”
—Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)