Bush block land eyed for trails

Mountain biker Manton Parker Knight and horse rider Catherine Brown at the forestry-bush block at Thompson's Track that could become a recreational park.

More than 60 people turned up to a meeting in Katikati last week interested in looking at setting up recreational trails on an 89ha block of land at Thompson's Track owned by Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

The land has been replanted for forestry, but council may consider a complementary use if a fully funded application was received.

Katch Katikati's Jacqui Knight called the meeting to gauge interest in setting up a track for mountain bikers and walkers and was pleased with the turnout. Sheryl Palmer, the leasee of the land for 40 years, and neighbouring property owners attended the meeting.

Enthusiasts shared their ideas and talked about building a big facility to draw tourists. There was a desire to fix up Thompson's Track at the end of the road. Jacqui said not even the 4x4s use the track over the Kaimais anymore.

"If the massive sink holes were filled in and we can get over Thompson's Track it would open up a tourism opportunity - people could do a loop ride back through the Karangahake."

Jacqui said the land needed to cater to many users.

"For walkers, if the tracks were opened to the stream down the bottom more people would use it, bearing in mind it is a forestry block and at some stage it will be milled."

The logging tracks in the block have always been used by horse riders.

For mountain bikers tracks needed to be built by professionals and needed to be separate from the horse trails.

"Someone needs to come and look at the land, design the tracks that will need to be maintained locally."

As a result a steering committee of 12 has been formed of Jason Wilmshurst, Andrew Gorringe, Neil Foot, Roger Owen, Alex Johnston, Sally Goodyear, William Beasley, Kirsten Symes, Catherine Brown, Andrew Hawkins, Jan Mossman and Jacqui Knight.

The group is a 50/50 split of horse riders and mountain bikers and is proposing to present a submission to council's Long Term Plan.

A priority was seeking advice on building a mountain bike track looking at providing for beginners to above average riders.

"We have contacts for track builders from Rotorua who are keen to have a look at the land. Talking to bikers because of the length of the land it could be a track with a point of difference," Jacqui said.

Jacqui would be talking to council staff on the procedure for a submission to ensure its success. People are encouraged to visit council's website and have a say on the proposal for the area to be developed for recreational use.

Keep up to date with the group's progress on Facebook MTB.