Totara Park Mountain Bike Park
Manukau City, Auckland, New Zealand
For anyone looking for a nice easy ride through a park in Auckland with some small fast bits through bush, then this is a good option. You can do a few loops with different mini-loops in between and enjoy a good 15km+ ride without any asphalt or big metal horseless carriages to annoy you. Local riders will have no excuse for not being fit!!!
Whilst relatively new, this facility is getting better every month and has enormous potential to be a world leader in terms of inner city offroad bike trails. Well done to all involved.
Update August 2013
After issues over track erosion and lack of maintenance over the winter of 2013 (other than the hard work of locals), representatives from the Totally Totara group met with Auckland Council and the result has been the formation of the Totara Park Mountainbike Club!
This is a good move: as a non-profit organisation, the TPMC will have access to resources that Totally Totara could not enjoy.
Already some great advances have occured, including the donation of a motorised wheelbarrow thanks to Les and the crew from Timco.
Totara Park MTB Club President Mike Small picks up the motorised wheelbarrow from Peter from Kingsford Motor Mowers who serviced the units for free!
You can stay up with the play by visiting the club's Facebook page right here.
See the vid!
Totara Park MTB Trails, Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand from Elvis Zaskarelli on Vimeo.
From The Hub you can explore the full network of trails, heading west for the 2-way Paddy's Paddock Downhill or north to enjoy the 2.4km Morepork Loop.
After the first trail into the middle of Totara Park, you come to The Hub, a clearing in the middle of Totara Park with tables, bike racks and a cool little pump track for kids of all ages.
Weaving in an out of a gully, the trail crosses a few small streams making for the odd technical hairpin.
In the April 2010 Manukau Matters newspaper - a Manukau City Council publication:
"Parks projects brought forward
The council has decided that a range of parks projects should be brought forward for completion before 31 October 2010 (when MCC ceases to exist and we get the Super City - CNZ). They include...
Totara Park cycle track - $450,000. Work has already started on this project, and this funding will complete the development, providing another 3050 metres including a challenge stage for more experienced riders."
Entry to Totara Park is from Wairere Road, Redoubt Road and the lookout point off Goodwood Drive/Eugenia Rise.
Vegetation
As you ride around the park, you will be seeing some of the native bush that is an example of the rich variety of vegetation that once covered the Manukau region. There are some great example of large native species: Puriri, Totara (the name of the park!), Rimu, Taraire, Tawa, Kahikatea and even the mighty Kauri. There is even more in the denser areas where the walking tracks exist: Mapou, Mahoe, thick clusters of Nikau Palms and tree ferns. Vines of Puawananga (a native Clematis) will often provide bright displays of white starry flowers amongst the tree tops in Spring (around October). Some of the smaller plants you will see are Kawakawa, Putaputaweta and Mingimingi and right on the bush floor we see many types of ferns, mosses and fungi.
You will certain observe that there has been replanting of native species around the various stream crossings as part of an ongoing regeneration programme.
Ecological Bush * Playgrounds * Walkway * Swimming Pool
Totara Park is one of Manukau's largest parks. Stretching over 216 hectares Totara Park has something for everyone.
Enjoy a tranquil, country atmosphere just minutes from the Manukau city centre (next to the Auckland Botanic Gardens). Relax and unwind amongst superb flora and fauna or stroll through rolling farmland, taking in views from Glenbrook and Manukau Heads to Rangitoto Island.
There are a number of walks ranging from twenty to forty-five minutes and a 3km farm track. The walks are relatively easy with steps provided in steeper places.
The Totara Park Pool is a free outside pool and paddling pool supervised by lifeguards.
Opening Hours: 10.00am to 6.00pm - November to March
10am to 8pm - December to February.
* The main picnic area is just off Wairere Road. You can take your own gas barbecue.
* There is an adventure playground close to the main picnic area in Wairere Road. There is also a playground near the swimming pool.
* There is a free tennis court available all year round. If others want to play you should limit your game to thirty minutes.
* Mountain biking is permitted along the bridle trail.
* Horses may be ridden on the farm track during daylight hours. Please watch out for walkers and joggers.
* Converted from the original farm homestead, Beaufords Reception Lounge is a popular venue for weddings and other functions.
Dogs
Dogs are permitted in some areas of the park provided they are kept under control and do not disturb other park users or wildlife. They are not permitted in the main picnic area or near children's playgrounds.
Brochures (from the Auckland Council website)
Download the Totara Park mountain bike track map (PDF 6.7MB)
Download the general Totara Park brochure (PDF 4.2MB)
The Puhinui Stream Forest trail info (PDF 1.59mb)
Location
The Main Carpark to the park is the end of Wairere Road in Manurewa (90 Wairere Rd, Manurewa) although riders are being encouraged to parl at the highpoint parking lot off Redoubt Road where you dive straight into the trails with the downhill Hub Link.
Totara Park is close to Manukau City Centre and is only 10 minutes from Auckland Airport.
Update February 2012
The Totara Park MTB facility is looking good! Thanks to some local rider input and some great effort from council staff and contractors, you can zip around the entire network now in the hot summer sun (more shade please!). Get out there now and enjoy! The big test will be the coming winter and how the efforts to weather proof the trails work.
Update July 2011
The www.cyclewaynewzealand.co.nz crew headed out on a wonderfully sunny warm day (spring is here early!) to check out the circuit.
Much of the track network has bedded down and survived winter reasonably well, but there are still plenty of bad muddy spots - these will no doubt be the targets for the necessary maintenance and tweaking to give these trails the flow they need.
It was good to see great signage, especially at The Hub, a clearing in the middle of Totara Park with tables, bike racks and a cool little pump track for kids of all ages.
Update May 2011
The Totara Park trails hosted Auckland's 2011 Bikewise Kids Jam and was quite a success by the sounds of it. One parent we spoke to is now being hounded by his kids to let them ride there every week! That's what we want to see - let's hope the trails can be maintained, fighting the terrible wear and tear of having cows walking and crapping all over the trails.
October 2010: huge disappointment.
Yes, we checked out the trails again late September and now you can see why cows crapping all over a paddock and MTB trails don't mix. The cows have worked out that someone has built all these nice little bridges for them to walk over and so now the entries and exits are an impossible sludge of cow hooves and cow s$#t. This is so bad it will not recover in finer
weather: it will need leveling off and fixing, only to occur again and again.
This left us
asking: will they have to spend heaps more money to solve this?!! And this is whilst there are a few tracts of nice regenerating native bush that would have suited some nice single track. Aergh!!!