Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Huntley School pupils in Marton enjoy mountain bike racing on track they helped build

Jesse King
By Jesse King
Reporter·Whanganui Chronicle·
7 Apr, 2019 05:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Huntley School's new bike track

Three mountain bikes struggle through soggy clay as they go up and down the mounds of a brand new bike track.

Riders Tyler Smith, Michael Fahy and Sam Cranstone pedal frantically towards each jump, getting impressive air and sticking every landing.

The 12-year-old Huntley School pupils are loving it, reaping the rewards of all the hard work they put in to making their own tracks over the years.

In 2015, Huntley School had an orchard area full of pine trees that had to be taken out due to their age, leaving what principal Sam Edwards called a blank canvas.

Not long after the removal of the trees, Cranstone was outside thinking the area looked desolate and decided to form the Huntley School mountain bike committee.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It started out with five of us building a track over time and now that it's finished, people have come pouring in," Cranstone says.

Principal Sam Edwards watches as Sam Cranstone, Tyler Smith and Michael Fahy ride over three new jumps at Huntley School. Photo / Bevan Conley
Principal Sam Edwards watches as Sam Cranstone, Tyler Smith and Michael Fahy ride over three new jumps at Huntley School. Photo / Bevan Conley

"I love the feeling of being on a bike and in the fresh air. I could spend all day out there riding."

The original track was laid out by old boy Bill Wakely and the committee applied for tools to maintain it from the Parents and Friends of Huntley School (PFH).

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

They received tools such as wheelbarrows and shovels, eventually using them to start creating their own tracks around the area ... but they were not exactly up to standard.

The committee is now a club as decided by the remaining members after Fraser Caseley and Jonathon Jamieson departed Huntley School as Year 9 pupils.

The club thanked them for coming back to lend a hand when they could on a new track that they had begun working on.

Despite the boys' enthusiasm to create a challenging large scale track, they could get only so far, but luckily for them, plenty of people were willing to help out.

Discover more

Wannabe models get tips from the pros

02 Apr 04:00 PM

Investigations continue into deliberately lit fire

02 Apr 12:00 AM

Woman received 40,000 yen stolen off Japanese student

02 Apr 04:00 PM

Listen: The Chronicle Podcast

03 Apr 05:06 PM

One of them was Paul Wright of PW Wright Contracting in Marton.

"Paul is a current parent who is passionate about the school. He came in with his digger and bulldozer free of charge and spent evenings clearing the area out," Edwards said.

"We needed like 300 cube of clay. He said we were sitting on a lot of it so he came out and excavated it all for us which kept the costs right down."

The Cheatleys of Velo Ronnie's Bicycle Store work with Huntley School on their cycling programme and mentioned Rotorua-based Empire Of Dirt who created the track.

Huntley School's new bike track was made by Rotorua-based company Empire Of Dirt and cost $9000. Photo / Bevan Conley
Huntley School's new bike track was made by Rotorua-based company Empire Of Dirt and cost $9000. Photo / Bevan Conley

It cost $9000 which was supplied by the Parents and Friends of Huntley School (PFH) after the mountain bike club wrote to them.

"We're big believers in students making choices themselves and being responsible. They drove this and they're passionate about it," Edwards said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We encourage our kids to get outside, be active and be risk-takers. There are some big jumps over the mountain bike track, but we don't wrap them in cotton wool."

Up to 80 per cent of the school's pupils are now racing around the track during break times and trying out all the new jumps, including the revamped "Huntley drop".

Fahy said he felt happy and proud of the club's efforts.

"Tyler and I race motocross so we're adrenaline junkies basically. We love pushing our limits. We're out there every lunch and break," he said.

"When we leave the school and then come back, we'll know that we helped build these jumps. We chucked in the effort and it turned out really well."

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

'Moving needle in right way': Company aims to reverse heart health trends

Whanganui Chronicle

Visitor fees for Tongariro Crossing spark concerns for business owners

Whanganui Chronicle

Artists inspire students at Sarjeant Gallery's Big Art Day Out


Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

'Moving needle in right way': Company aims to reverse heart health trends
Whanganui Chronicle

'Moving needle in right way': Company aims to reverse heart health trends

Whanganui has one of the highest heart disease deaths and fewest cardiologists.

22 Aug 06:00 PM
Visitor fees for Tongariro Crossing spark concerns for business owners
Whanganui Chronicle

Visitor fees for Tongariro Crossing spark concerns for business owners

22 Aug 06:00 PM
Artists inspire students at Sarjeant Gallery's Big Art Day Out
Whanganui Chronicle

Artists inspire students at Sarjeant Gallery's Big Art Day Out

22 Aug 05:00 PM


Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet
Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

10 Aug 09:12 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP