Reefton isn’t a place name that crops up often in conversation. I do recall a work colleague once lamenting that his dodgy computer was “as slow as a wet weekend in Reefton”. Another commented he had “spent a week there one weekend”.
All has changed with the development and promotion of mountain biking tracks, originally cut by gold miners over a century ago, in the dense West Coast forest surrounding the town. (The following and all Saturday pics by Pete)
So in the middle of a prolonged West Coast drought – that’s not an oxymoron – Nathan, Pete, Sean and I, buoyed by an idyllic weekend forecast, hoisted four bikes on the back of Nath’s Prado to tackle Reefton’s best trails.
Friday night was spent fraternising with colourful locals at Wilson’s Hotel. A double serving of lamb shanks slipped off the bone as easily as the establishment’s ales slipped down my throat. Returning to the motel, a glance each way before crossing the main street would have been an unnecessary precaution.
The following morning with some dry throats and whet appetites, we slipped out of town bound for the renowned Big River-Waiuta trail. Following a week of ‘alpha male’ emails it was time to stop pedalling crap and start pedalling bikes.
With low valley cloud, mist coated our glasses as we headed up Soldier Road, but glimpses of blue sky above the thinning cloud provided an indication of the scorcher that was in store.
Climbing steadily passed the road-end, the old coarse-rock 4WD track robbed us of momentum. We almost felt sorry for Nath on his 1990’s hardtail, ‘almost’ because it didn’t seem to impede his impressive progress.
It was a morning of long steady climbs, ridgeline views of thick West Coast bush and long bone-rattling descents.
We passed a few rusty mine relics, before coming across the impressive Big River mine, which had been one of the most productive on the coast. Twenty-plus kilometres from anywhere, hardy types hauled 139,000 ounces of gold out of a quartz reef running through the hillside in the late 1800s.
After lunch at the cosy Big River Hut, perched on the hill overlooking the mine remains, we moved from 4WD track to the more enjoyable single-track surface for the climb at the start of the Waiuta Trail.
The challenging but very rideable track, through mosses and ferns, was our best riding of the weekend. The track wound around hill faces, up and down slopes until the final steep grunt to the highpoint of the day at about 800m and the start of the sweet downhill to Waiuta.
At the road end, much remains of the Waiuta gold mining community. The mine was functioning and very profitable until 1956 when a collapsed shaft brought about its demise.
A speedy downhill on the gravel road to Blackwater followed, where Sean, desperately short of water, strode up the drive and knocked on a farmhouse door. Threatening barking by what sounded like a mongrel pig dog sent Sean scampering for the gate. Looking back we saw the mutt appear - a family Labrador capable of inflicting potentially fatal licking injuries.
Further down the road we got our water at another farmhouse, this one full of hospitality but short of exterior paint.
Lapping it out peloton-style on the hot tarmac - much to the chagrin of non-roadie Sean - we made it back to Reefton and a welcome dip in the river behind the functional Bellbird Motel.
It’s great to venture into new country for the first time. It’s even better to ride with at least one member of the party who has ventured there before. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case for our ride of the much-vaunted Kirwans Track and we stuffe… okay, I stuffed up. This ride was largely my idea.
MTBing legend Dave Mitchell’s guide to the track recommended riding a complete loop from the former mining settlement of Capleston, previously home to more than 1000 miners, up the old trail to Kirwans Hut at 1300m in the Victoria range, over the back passed the numerous mine relics and down the Montgomerie and Waitahu valleys. To be fair, the guide book described it as a grade 5 (out of 5) “all day epic” (yesterday’s ride was rated a very comfortable 4).
It all started well. We followed the very well formed track up Topffer Creek with its attractive bush, across a couple of swingbridges and through a large tunnel cut by miners through rock.
As the track got steeper and more relentless the riding turned to walking for the last few of the 14 kilometres to the top.
Relieved to be there, with impressive views through breaks in the bush, we hoovered some lunch before setting off with high expectations for the descent over the back. Afterall, this was promoted on different websites as “the everlasting downhill” and “one of NZ’s greatest wilderness downhill rides”.
What we encountered was jungle country, in places more of a tramping route than a trail. The next couple of hours were a mixture of bush-bashing, and lifting and carrying bikes, mixed in with all too infrequent stretches of delightful downhill.
This was two hours of tighly-packed tree roots, rocks and other obstacles – in places it seemed the MTB equivalent of motorcycle trials riding. Often, with no sign of a track, we were left scouring the trees ahead for trail markers.
We later discovered that the much-hyped downhill was actually the track back down the route we had climbed up. And damn sweet it would have been too! Feeling a little cheated at missing out on such an eye-popping blast of a descent, we eventually cruised out the rutted old 4WD track from Montgomerie Hut to the road-end, and the remaining few ks on the road back to Reefton.
Even allowing for Sunday’s route stuff-up it was still a great weekend. Some sweet trails, great weather, absolutely stunning bush and good company. With more ride options in the area, I’m definitely keen to return to Reefton for another weekend – that’s not something people used to say.
