Date: Wed 12 to Sunday 16 October 2011. Middle weekend of the school holidays.

Where: Staying at Westport. We have booked two Motel Units at Westport Holiday Park for three nights, cost approx $40 per person per night depending on numbers. One is a two bedroom motel type unit which sleeps 5 or 6 and the other a studio unit that will sleep 3. They have bathrooms and kitchens with all bedding etc provided.

The Plan:
Wednesday -Take the 6:30pm Interislander and stay the night in Picton.
Thursday - Drive to Westport (4 hours) then ride Charming Creek (3 Kennett stars). 36km as a loop or about 12 km of single track that we could ride both ways.
Friday - Ride Denniston Plateau (3 Kennett stars) - Over 50km of tracks with Grades from 2 to 4.
Saturday - Ride Kerwins Track (4 Kennett stars) near Reefton (less than 1 hour from Westport) - 13km of grade 5 track with 1100m of climb that we could ride both ways or we could investigate a Helicopter to the top if there is interest.
Sunday - Ride in the morning - Possibly another one at Denniston or Teetotal trails at St Arnaud - In the afternoon drive back to Picton to catch the 6:30pm Interislander back to Wellington.

Food: Sort your own breakfasts, snacks, and lunches. Dinners are likely to be on the ferry Wednesday & Sunday, and restaurant, takeaway, or supermarket and cook in the motels, on the other nights.

Approximate budget
Ferry $338/3 each way =$220
Accommodation 4 nights at $40 =$160
Petrol = $60
Food = $100
Total =$540

Register Interest: If you are interested get back to me by Sat 17th Sept with the following information:
Name
Email
Home Phone
Cell phone
Are you happy to take your vehicle?
How many passengers/bikes can you take (normally passengers are expected to pay for all the petrol, plus their share of the ferry)
Are you interested in a Helicopter to the top of Kerwins - probably $100 each?
First in first served - if we reach the maximum number the motels can take additional accommodation will be available in other types of units within the Holiday Park.
For further information contact:
Graeme Silcock � Phone 976 7758 or 021 470 161
silcock@paradise.net.nz

From time to time the club organises a weekend away trip to somewhere in New Zealand. In the past, trips have included the Queen Charlotte track, Reefton, Nelson, Napier and Pureora Forest.

Here are a few highlights from last year (May 2009 – April 2010)

June: Away trip to Golden Bay. The club took a trip down south and took on some of the new tracks opened up to mountain biking in the Golden Bay area and also one of the old classics “The Kill Devil” A big dump of snow ensured we had some interesting riding and some great pictures of bikes with snow up to the hubs.  

August: The club again ran the MTB leg of the SPARC Get2Go schools challenge on Mt Victoria. This event is being moved forward to June this year and we are looking for volunteers, drop us an email if you are available Tuesday morning 29th June.

September: Away trip to Taupo. This time the club went north to ride Te-Iringa an interesting DOC walking track opened up to mountain bikers who enjoy a good walk with their bike, although we did get a couple of great technical descents for our efforts.  

October: The newly commissioned club riding shirt from Krank arrived with the new club logo attached, and now red, white and grey have become the clubs new colours. Again drop us an email if you would like to purchase one of these shirts, $99 normally $109 from Krank.  

November: An HVMBC team entered the 12 hour Wild Wellington event now in its 3rd year and a couple of us headed up to Rotorua for the National MTB Orienteering champs.  

December: The Xmas BBQ was held at Queen Elizabeth Park this year. We had a ride around the park followed by bike hockey and a lavish BBQ and all before the rain came.  

2010 January: The fifth running of The Akatarawa Attack. HVMBC now fully organise this event with the mapping skills of OHV member, Michael Wood guaranteeing a good map.  A wet January day greeted nearly 90 competitors in the Maungakotukutuku Valley. While they kept warm racing around the hills for between 4 and 8 hours, back at base we battened the hatches, put on lots of layers as a howling southerly dropped the temperature to 13 degrees... even the BBQ was abandoned for a Subaru full of pizza’s!  

February/March: We did a couple of recognisance rides to the north of the area and both of these should appear on the ride schedule this coming year, although in a shorter form as one of the rides took us 8½ hours!   Karapoti. This year was the 25th Anniversary of this classic race and as always a few good keen HVMBC men gave it their best and a couple of us took on the shorter ‘Original’ event first held in 1986, this took place the day after the main event, starting from the top of the Akatarawa saddle.  

May: This year saw the annual Meridian Bike Jam event move to Mount Victoria, a much more interesting but challenging course up down and around The Mount