Local Rides, Bottle Lake Forest.
For my regular Rendlesham/Tunstall fix, I
head out to Bottle Lake, just 10km North of Christchurch city and runs
adjacent to the East Coastal Beaches of New
Brighton.
Like <kiwi>Renders &
Tunny</kiwi>, Bottle Lake Forest is a production forest with trees logged
in a 30 year rotation. Like home nearly all are pinetrees and covers 800+
hectares of coastal sand dunes. The full MTB loop is around 12km and the best
description of this would be…......
Imagine your best 300m metres of Rendlesham
wibbly wobbly, add to it your best 300m of Tunstall ups and downs, throw in
200m of the Rendlesham family stunt loop and 100m of the least boring fire
track you can think of, remove nearly all the wet bits, dispose of all the
litter, prune back all the soft foliage that could hook your bars, add in a few
cheeky jumps, a lake with a nice board walk through it, a glimpse of the sand
dunes and breaking waves by the surf club, increase the track elevation
variations to about 20m, position the odd water tap and free to use electric
BBQ, multiply the length of all this to cover 12kms then place a nice Café at
the end of the ride and you’ve pictured my local Renders & Tunny Ride.
When feeling more like getting high....and I do mean gaining height.
The Port Hills are one of the best-loved
landscapes of Christchurch.
The rocky out-crops contrast the flatness of the Canterbury Plains and provide
100km views to the Southern Alps as well as
down into both the City and the shipping harbour.
It’s massively popular with walkers, runners, rock climbers, paragliders, mountain
bikers, road bikers and those out for a scenic sightseeing drive. The whole of
the ‘Port Hills’ are basically the crater rim of a super volcano, and it’s
gorgeous to explore and with over 55km of purpose made tracks, it’s a real
asset to have on your doorstep. It takes me just 4 minutes to cycle to the foot
of the most popular all weather track, the Rapaki Track, which climbs up to the
vast network, including Victoria
Down Hill
Park. Some of the tracks
remain closed however, due to rock fall and continued rock fall hazards following
the 2011 Earthquakes, although recently much work has been done to progress
reopening the forgotten tracks.
The tracks are constantly and magnificently
maintained by both the Dept of Conservation (DOC, a govt agency that basically
look after the natural/nature side of the whole country) and local volunteers.
Port Hills http://tracks.org.nz/area/show/102
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