Wellington mtb Riding March 2007

Tom & I left Auckland on Thursday avo 1st of March in the big blue fun bus, kindly provided by WH Worrall & co. Our calling to Wellington ws to provide technical support at the Karapoti Classic mtb race held in the Akatarawa Ranges north of the central city.
We stayed at Tom's folks in Taupo and then bailed out in the morning after Tom had presented his mum with a new bike for her birthday. What a nice son he is.
I had the 1st stint behind the wheel through the Desert Road, Tom the next to Bulls where we had to pull over after been stuck behind a bevy of Army Unimogs and no chance of passing due to the ever present road works. Amazing how a patch of recently laid road needs pulling up again.....
Coffee and Tom's mum's sammies in the sunshine were fantastic. Cheers Laura.
After I don't know how many hours of careful driving, we turned off to ascend the Paekakariki Hill. This used to be an awesomely hard ride on a road bike, but sensational on a motorbike in my yoof. The van was hardly a race car, but we smiled all the same.
Staying at my brothers converted warehouse in Petone was the business. Open the roller door and drive in.
Saturday - up early and I mean early, set up in the car park by 7. Bugger all to do really. A few mechanical bits and pieces before the 10am start-then some serious sifting before the guns turned up a mere 2 and a quarter hours later ! Holy hell they are fast.
Big brother did the business in the over 40 blokes and young Samara Shepard cleaned up the under 19 girls as well.
A couple of old sifters from "back in my day" dealt out a few handfuls of whoop ass as well. Jonty Ritchie came 8th overall (2.31.58)and Geoff Knotman knocked out a 3.06 on his Surly singlespeed coming home 145th overall. Hmmm that's a worry.
I own Geoff's old Merlin bike, but that's a whole 'nother story.
Oh, BTW Giant James punted the farm gate (Santa Cruz VP3 @ 36 pounds) round in 3.12. Legend. I personally think he was the winner of the unofficial Clydesdale class. he must weigh 100kg in his riding gear. Phew.
I could bore you to tears with the tales of our riding round the great tracks of Wellington.
Right, lets then.
Saturday avo James dropped us off up the top of Belmont. Tom and I took in the bridle path to Danzigs track (lots of switchbacks) and then over to the Korokoro Stream track. This is loaded with pea gravel and long steps at the top and then follows an old water pipeline out to the road. Narrow and tight; very exciting at speed. As a bonus I managed to clear the steps onto the wooden bridge at the end-only other person I've seen do this is Al Heine from Blueshark on his Foes Weasel. Hey I was on my Foes FXR-must be something in that.
It's bedtime - tune in for more later on.