Trail map (NZ Topo Maps) 

Friday morning dawned crystal clear. One of Zane’s riding buddies from Chch met up with us and we headed off to Wakamarina. As we had 2 vans, we planned to set up for the big shuttle. After dropping Mike’s spaceship off at the Wakamarina valley end, we headed back round the start.

To get to the start of ride you need to pass through a forestry road. Unfortunately this is being actively logged, so not only was the gate shut but there were big signs up saying it was all closed. If you are looking to do this ride, best to check with DoC first. 

So we drove back round to the end of the track and decided to do it as a there and back. 

On the way up the main trail, Zane wanted to take a turn off that he hadn’t been on before. Where the Wakamarina track would go down into a gorge, where you can cross the river on a bridge, Doom Creek walkway sidles around the valley and back again, meeting up with the main track on the other side of the gorge. 

Doom Creek is another miner’s pack track. So the gradient is generally pretty good. In most parts this meant the track was basically a narrow, but gentle sidle. There are some parts where it gets into established Beech Forest. Here the track is wet, somewhat slippery, but worst of all for me, exposed. On one side you have a ditch, the other a near vertical cliff. So despite the easy grade, I found my vertigo kicking in and I was walking these parts. 

I’d say half of this track had me nervous, the other half was great fun. There were plenty of sections where you weren’t exposed to the big drop, and I enjoyed rolling through the beech forest sections. 

Once back on the main trail, it seemed like a highway in comparison. Given all our mucking around with the van, and our Doom Creek diversion, we decided to turn around at Devil’s Hut. 

The downhill was great. There were some pretty interesting, loose switch backs into the bridge, and a healthy climb out. As always it seemed like it was over all too quickly. 

Once again, I am left wanting more. I’d really like to do the full ride sometime soon.