I finally got back on my bike yesterday to do some decent kilometers in the saddle. John Keene and I decided we’d ride the Rimutaka Rail Trail.
IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT
It WAS a dark and stormy night! I woke up at 2:00am with the sound of rain and wind belting the house, here in Kelson. My first thoughts were I was going to have to get up and cycle in that crap outside in 6 hours. I texted John suggesting we call it off. Of course, he wasn’t awake, but that’s a little insight into how my mind works…
The morning, however, turned out to be quite a bit different. Overcast, with something that hinted of rain in the air, but windless and looking like a good cycling day.
MEET JOHN KEENE
John and I go way back, but I had lost track of him back in the mid 2000s. We both worked at Sysware, an IT outsourcing company specialising in SAS programming.
John reached out and helped me on the Tour of Aotearoa with a fountain of knowledge, having done it back in 2016. He kindly offered to take me out training and getting some serious kms under my belt.
Today, we were heading up to the rail trail summit.
INTERESTING WHAT’S IN YOUR BACKYARD
What I like about bikepacking is you get to see things and have experiences which aren’t possible on a motorbike or in a car, and its not going to take you all day to get there if you tramped in. The day’s cycling proved no exception.
For example, after cycling up the Lower Hutt river, and crossing over into Totara Park, we got to this interesting bridge in Brown Owls which I never knew existed.
Traveling on through Brown Owl into Birchville, the Hutt River was surrounded by lovely picnic spots and swimming holes, like this in the middle of no where:
MEET PEPPY
One of the highlights of the ride was meeting a famous local, Peppy the Alpaca, and his girlfriend:
Peppy’s a local celebrity – he even has his own Facebook page. Today, he was in fine form, nuzzling up to me and taking plentiful scratches to the head. By the way, alpacas don’t spit – that’s Llamas.
ONWARD TO THE RAIL TRAIL
We toodled on our merry way, cycling the easy path up beyond Te Marua, traveling through areas where, despite having lived in Wellington for 12 years, I’d never visited before.
Up a relatively steep start to Plateau Road, we carried on the flat ridgeline, eventually getting to Tunnel Gully Recreation Area.
What an absolute find! Never knew this place existed! It will be fantastic in the summer – cycling up to the local swim spots, and then heading here for a picnic.
The birds in the forest were just going off! This was recorded from the carpark in Tunnel Gully:
HEADING TO THE SUMMIT
The Rimutaka Rail Trail is designed to be a nice easy day trip for the family on a bike. Its an easy course with no complicated mountain bike tricky areas. Today, we saw lots of families and couples enjoying the ride/walk, with some taking Fido for a walk.
It can be a bit long – expect a 12 km very gentle uphill ride from the carpark. There’s heaps of information along the trail that describes it’s early history.
There’s lots of interesting things to look at, especially after the rain. The mushrooms were out in bloom.
DARK SCARY TUNNELS
Lots of them – I counted four. It’s amazing how these tunnels were made during the 19th century. They put out modern endeavours to shame.
Bring your flash light, and dress warmly because, getting no sunlight and bring head on into the wind, they’re freaking cold.
We met a film crew in one of the tunnels with some actresses dressed as vampires. Looking forward to seeing what ever that turns into.
SUMMIT AND BEYOND
John and I made it to the summit at about 12:00, having set it from Kennedy Good bridge over by Avalon at 9:30. The journey from Kennedy Good to the summit was 45km, and we did it easily in 3 hours.
After lunching at the summit, John introduced me to the latest bridge addition to the track, in a place aptly named Siberia:
Just off to the side were little waterfalls made from the rain:
That’s what I mean when I say bike packing can show you things which you can’t see by motorbike or car, and tramping would take you all day.
HEADING HOME
The trip home was suitably lovely, and John took me a different direction which introduced me to get another area of Wellington I’d never seen before.
However, there was one place I was aiming at, after an all day ride – Brewtown in Upper Hutt.
If you’ve never been to Brewtown, you’re missing a trick. It’s a family friendly area with caters for all types of interests. It has a range of activities including axe throwing, and is designed to appeal to a variety of diverse interests, not just us beer drinkers.
With I think, guessing, six different breweries on sight Brewtown has revitalised Upper Hutt and it’s well with a visit.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
I had a hell of a fun day, enjoying myself and seeing things I never would have otherwise. I’ve found places to take the girlfriend to and hide aways which are off the beaten track in my own backyard.
I’ve met alpacas, listened to birdsong, ridden through tunnels aver over bridges all within hours of home.
And it finished with craft beer.
Total ride length for me was 95kms, over 6:30 hours and none of it difficult. What a brilliant day! Thanks John 😁👍