Craigieburn Trails

We started the Craigieburn Trails journey with the Department of Conservation a long time ago, and along the way they’ve provided endless advice and in-kind support for the Castle Hill Community Association including, but not limited to, supplying technical staff for design (structures, etc) and mitigation of environmental effects, trailhead signposting, etc.
We continue to have a great relationship with DoC staff, now formalised under a Memorandum of Understanding between DoC & CHCA that underpins the future track development we hope to undertake.

Ground Effect Cycle Clothing have been a great supporter of the Craigieburn Trails since the outset, even spending a couple of their company Xmas days out working on trail building (one of which produced the “Ground Effect switches” north of Picnic Rock on the Hogs Back Track). Ground Effect were also heavily involved in the development of the Sidle 73 track and the re-route south of Cheeseman’s Forest Lodge.

Geotech kindly donated excavator-time for use on some of the gnarly bits of the original Hogs Back Track development.

Sylvia & Garth from Trax-NZ put in a huge amount of collaborative effort to produce the beautifully crafted Craigieburn Trails “microfibre map”, which helps ensure riders can find their way on the ground, and also provides much needed fundraising for our trail maintenance and development coffers.  Getting your map direct from us here will maximise the fundraising benefit to the Craigieburn Trails.

T5 Contracting have been great supporters, taking our ideas from concept through to the final product and everything in between – including boardwalks, bridges and retaining walls. Particularly in the first few years of the Trails, T5 has been involved in our maintenance programme, re-routing trail around sensitive and prone areas, and creating whole new trail with the completion of the Coal Pit Spur Track – giving a complete link between Castle Hill Village and Flock Hill. The team at T5 are keen mountain bikers themselves, they know how a trail should ride with the least impact on the surrounding environment possible… the end result is terrain inspired and flowing trail to ensure all riders, at all levels, have a great day out in the Craigieburn area. Thanks T5, looking forward to more trail development in the future.

Local clothing and outdoor equipment manufacturer Cactus Outdoor have kindly supported our Spring 2014 workparty by donating spot prizes for a couple of lucky volunteers. Cactus produce exceptionally hard-wearing gear locally in NZ, and more than a few of the Craigieburn Trails team are already fans of their clothing; between us, our Cactus trousers have quite a few hours over the last few years contributed to track building on the network.

The Backcountry Trust has been an ongoing supporter of the improvement and maintenance of the Craigieburn Trails. To date they have funded some $69,000 worth of work on a variety of trails in the network. This work has ranged from smaller projects such as the replacement of a small bridge on the Luge Track, through to bigger works, like contractors to repair and realign parts of the Hogs Back and Dracophyllum tracks.

Mike & Monty of Castle Hill Recreation Ltd who are developing the latest stage of the Castle Hill residential sections donated $4,000 towards the Coal Pit Spur Track plus another $1,000 for every section sold. If you were thinking about a section or a house & land package at Castle Hill Village, talk to these guys.

Spoke Magazine sent a few people our way for our Winter 2014 Numberplate Surround fundraiser – go and buy a copy of their fabulous mag and say thanks from us!

A generous $20,000 towards the overall development of the combined tracks from Castle Hill Village to Flock Hill.