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:
“In all things I would have the island of a man inviolate. Let us sit apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all round Olympus. No degree of affection need invade this religion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)
“Linnæus, setting out for Lapland, surveys his “comb” and “spare shirt,” “leathern breeches” and “gauze cap to keep off gnats,” with as much complacency as Bonaparte a park of artillery for the Russian campaign. The quiet bravery of the man is admirable.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)