Mark Attwood, Ally Davey, Ridge Coleman, Martin Fowler and Simon Debenham. Photo / Tom Eley
A special bike park has been featured in a new Coromandel Tracks and Trail Guide.
The digital guide, released by Thames-Coromandel District Council, allows people to “follow their sole” by sorting walkways and parks according to footwear or mode of travel – hiking boot, sneaker, jandal, stiletto, flipper, bike or horse.
It also indicates how difficult each track is and whether it is suitable for dogs.
The council hoped the guide would attract tourism beyond the usual hotspots and encouraged out-of-towners to stay an extra night or two, the council’s economic development advisor Ally Davey said.
“There are these really cool little gems that people forget about.”
One of those “little gems” featured in the guide is the Ride Coromandel Bike Park.
Years ago, Coromandel butcher Keith Stephenson made a simple deal with mate Mark Attwood: if he finished a brutal adventure race around the peninsula, Stephenson would shout him a beer.
It was a casual bet, the kind Stephenson was known for; no fuss, just a bit of fun..
But he never got the chance to make good on it.
Stephenson died in 2021 while out on his bike, “doing what he loved”, Attwood said.
Today, his legacy isn’t measured in words, but in dirt, timber, sweat and wheel tracks, left at the Ride Coromandel Bike Park.
The park next to Cormandel Town snakes across the hillside with more than 6km of trails, jumps, BMX tracks and downhill runs. It was a project Stephenson poured himself into long before his death.
“He was a salt-of-the-earth guy,” Attwood said.
The park began with two teenage boys asking Stephenson if he could build them a place where teens could ride, hang out, burn off energy, and stay out of trouble.
The boys initially raised $20 for the park, but Stephenson didn’t laugh it off. He got to work.
What followed was more than two decades of graft and advocacy that led to a mix of council and community funding being secured.
The land, the town’s reclaimed landfill, also had to be secured and made safe.
By the time the park opened in 2021, Stephenson was gone.
Before his death, Stephenson was able to watch his granddaughter, Makai Tamati, 7, ride her bike at the unfinished park, his daughter, Kara Tamati, told the Waikato Herald.
“For someone so gruff, he really did care about his community.”
The park is run by a dedicated group of volunteers who make sure the park is maintained and looked after.
The latest addition to the bike park, a new public toilet with a mural of Fletcher Bay, was completed at the end of 2025.
“The number of [bike park] users coming through here, last year, was 13,978,” Davey said. “Roughly 80% of those were people coming from other places.”
Bikes and helmets are available for use at the park, with families donating to maintain the equipment.
Other featured tracks in the new guide are The Kauri Bush Walk to Tuck Bay, located at Long Bay Campground at the end of the Thames Coast Rd, where visitors can come within arm’s length of a 1200-year-old giant kauri tree.
“We don’t talk really about our waterholes and our really cool waterfalls, which are quite unique to our region,” Davey said.
The trail from Long Bay campground takes about 40 minutes and offers a rich snapshot of the Coromandel’s native forest.
Because of the presence of kauri and kiwi on The Kauri Bush Walk, visitors are encouraged to use the wash stations at the walk’s entrance.
New public toilets were being built around the Coromandel, using the TCDC Tourism Infrastructure Fund, Davey said.
“It’s to try and encourage people to respect our places.”
Projects include new and expanded toilet blocks, outdoor showers and drinking fountains at Cooks Beach, Pūrangi Reserve, Buffalo Beach in Whitianga, Waikawau, Matarangi, Kōpū, Cory Wright Domain in Tairua and Port Rd in Whangamatā.
Several of the builds have been supported by community boards, iwi partnerships and local fundraising, with landscaping and artwork added to many of the sites.
Tourism Infrastructure Funding (TIF) from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has helped supplement ratepayer and community funding to build and upgrade toilets in key visitor areas across the district.
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. He previously worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive.