Active Apirana are absolutely thrilled to have secured 10,000 sqm2 (two acres) of land in Apirana reserve to bring mountain bike trails, a pump track and a mountain bike skills area along with native planting to central East Auckland. We would love you to follow along and support us if you can.
Join Hivepass for free and donate if you can
In February 2025 Active Apirana MTB were given 10,000 sqm (2 acres) of Apirana Reserve, which is located off St John’s Road, to develop into a local mountain bike park. We have three years to develop this idea. The vision is to have four downhill and one uphill trail, and eventually a hard surface pump track surrounded by native trees and vegetation. In order to achieve this we will need to raise $350,000 for the mountain bike trails, with an additional $250,000 for the pump track.
The proposed site crosses two local council boundaries (Orakei and Maungakiekie-Tamaki) and two iwi (Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei and Ngāti Pāoa).
Once the site is vacant work will be able to commence, but due to the weather, we will not be able to start until February/March 2026 at the earliest. We will also require some funding. Auckland Council Community Rangers, will assist us with pest control and planting. We are hoping that we can leverage our links to Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei and ask them for native plants from their nursery on Kepa Road. We can also link into Trees for city/Trees for survival.
October 2025
We know you're all keen for an update on Active Apirana! We are now using Hivepass for membership!
The only way to become a member of Active Apirana is now via Hivepass, and it’s super easy and it will only take a couple of minutes to sign up using your smart phone. If you don't have a smartphone, you can sign up online on any device https://join.hivepass.app/login
Here’s how it works:
1: Download Hivepass for free here: https://join.hivepass.app/login
2: Open the app and enter your name and email address, set a password and select ‘Create Account'
NOTE: If you already belong to another organisation that uses Hivepass, when you enter your email address, Hivepass will recognise you and you just need to log in and then select ‘join other organisations’ from the side menu.
3: Select your membership package. (If you’re signing up the whole family, have their details ready).
4: Enter your personal details and membership type. You can add a donation at this stage too if you like🤘
5: Pay securely using a credit or debit card
6: Just like that, you’re a member of Active Apirana and you can start enjoying all of the benefits that brings.
7: If you’re riding in an area that requires a permit, simply show the digital membership card screen to show that you’re an active club member.
Charmaine Vaughan saw mountain bike trails popping up in towns around Aotearoa. ‘Why not in central Auckland?’, she thought. She shares the story of her long journey from dream, through finding land, convincing her local board, finally getting approval after years of waiting, opening the vision up to the community, and now, getting into making the dream a reality.
Active Apirana is a dream of a community hub for people who want to connect, where people can come together to learn bike skills and develop their expertise, where native plants thrive and ecology is restored, and where tamariki and rangatahi can contribute to something amazing.
At the end of the article Charmaine shares several easy ways you can help bring Active Apirana to life.
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I grew up camping, kayaking, and rafting with my family and extended family — the kind of weekends where you’d come home covered in scrapes and full of wild stories to tell.
Fast forward a few decades (and a few adventures later), I met my husband. Luckily for me, he shared the same passion for the outdoors. Together with our fabulous crew of friends, we’ve had some epic trips around New Zealand. Great Barrier Island, the East Coast, Slipper Island, Tāwharanui… you get the idea.
Somewhere along the way, we picked up a love of mountain biking. Before kids, you’d find us at Woodhill Mountain Bike Park almost every Sunday morning with our happy tanks overflowing.
Then came the kids, and after a slow adjustment, we rediscovered the joy of adventuring again. The bikes came back out, the helmets dusted off, and those weekend adventures started creeping back into our lives.
It's not just me that's changed over the years. The mountain biking landscape has changed dramatically. Back then, we were riding sheep tracks and gravel roads on no-suspension bikes. Now there are 23 NZ cycle trails, mountain bike parks in many a small town all over Aotearoa, and many ride on full suspension e-bikes (no e-bike for me just yet).
One of the only ‘cycle trails’ to ride - 42nd Traverse in about 1998. Photo taken with film (some of the readers may not know what that is) and I am riding a bike with not a hint of suspension
One of the small towns that embraced mountain biking is Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Waitangi Mountain Bike Park was the brainchild of Mrs Tiffany Holland and her husband Robin. and opened in 2016 with 20km of trails. I was lucky enough to meet Tiffany, in her pink overalls with pink hair, at a planting day at the Mountain Bike Park and an idea was born. And no it wasn’t pink overalls and pink hair! It was bringing some mountain bike trails to central Auckland.
What do you need for mountain trails? You need land and quite a bit of money, but find up you need land. And who owns most of the land? The Council.
I had to find a suitable bit of land. I looked at maps, talked to locals and considered every possibility. And then one day I was running on stage one of the Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai shared path. I looked at the paddocks there and wondered “who owns that land?”
It turns out the answer is complicated: Kiwi Rail owns the rail corridor, Waka Kotahi owns land that was once going to become a motorway but, thank goodness, is now a shared path instead. And the Council owns a reserve called Apirana Reserve.
I needed the support of the Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board (MTLB), and before long I was presenting to them about my vision for mountain biking in central east Auckland.
That vision showed the Apirana Reserve becoming a multi-use space, including a pump track, a mountain bike skills area, jump tracks, and family-friendly trails. It will include trail options which are accessible for the various bike types used by disabled and mobility impaired riders. In addition, we’re looking to enhance the land ecologically. And it will be an amazing space for the community to connect with each other and nature.
The Board thanked me for presenting. From memory (you will see why it's a vague memory in the next paragraph), they alluded to doing a Parks Needs Assessment.
And then I waited. And waited. For over six years I waited, intermittently asking for updates and getting some Council goobledegook in reply. I am sure it made sense to them and it's all part of the process. But I don't know the process, so for me it was a bizarre waiting game.
Finally at the end of 2024, I met with a Council Parks and Places Specialist. They told me that the Board was seriously considering assigning some land to mountain bike trails in the Apirana Reserve at their February meeting. And they did!!!
My son and I on the day we found out there was a strong possibility there was a strong chance we would get access to some land. He was much shorter than me when the idea was borne.
It's hard to describe the excitement of waiting so long for something, and then considering the slightly daunting challenge ahead.
I finally got to take my vision to the community. I called the initiative ‘Active Apirana’, with the intention that the name might change later (it hasn’t!), created some social media pages, and set up a community meeting. Many hands make light work, and I was hoping others would be keen to get involved.
I arrived early to our meeting room at the back of St Chads Church. Two others showed up. At the time the meeting was due to start they were still the only people present: one was a lawyer and one was a digger driver. I commented I thought we had all the skills we needed in the room!
But more people showed up. And more. Lots more people. Over 70 people thought it was a really good idea! It was particularly heartwarming to have rangatahi come along ready to start digging.
Obligatory selfie at the community meeting.
Of course there is lots to do before we get to the digging. And professionals will be doing the actual trail building.
A dream without a plan is just a wish. My wish came true: I got the land. Now I needed a plan, and some help to develop the plan. Thankfully from the community meeting I got an amazing and enthusiastic committee. We developed a plan, along with tonnes of behind-the-scenes admin. This included becoming a registered charity. Many hands certainly do make light work and it’s lovely to be surrounded by people who share the vision and the effort.
While planting native bush was always a key part of my vision, when I finally got permission for the land I realised I knew nothing about plants! Luckily the Council Community Rangers helped by getting an Ecological Management Plan developed. The plan talked about the ecological enhancement of the land which made the initiative feel even more special.
While I don’t love admin, I do like talking. It’s lucky that I do. There has been lots of talking to the committee, especially sharing the knowledge which is in my head. There’s also lots of talking to community groups, key stakeholders, and potential funders. Even writing down this experience as an article, I’m hoping will lead to more people being connected with Active Apirana - and more good conversations to come!
Active Apirana will serve as a hub where families, friends and neighbours can gather, fostering a sense of belonging and community spirit. It will strengthen social ties and create a more connected community. Tamariki and rangatahi will enjoy and learn from being part of developing, maintaining and using the Active Apirana trails. .
Active Apirana bike park will provide an opportunity for people to develop their biking skills in a controlled and safe environment. Children and adults alike will benefit from the opportunity to improve their co-ordination, skill, balance, and overall confidence.
But it doesn’t end there. This can have a positive ripple effect, boosting self-esteem and encouraging participation in other recreational activities as well as leading to greater uptake of cycling as a means of transport around their communities. Numerous studies show a positive link between using bikes for recreation, and the likelihood of using bikes for transport. Providing opportunities for recreational bike use is a key part of encouraging greater uptake of cycling for transport, and realising important benefits such as reduced congestion, and reduced carbon emissions from transport.
Similar trails in Manukau at Totara Park attract around 30,000 rides every month — proof that Aucklanders are craving places like this. With the right support, Apirana Reserve could become a vibrant hub for our local community and a destination for riders across the city.
So that’s where you’ll find me — dreaming, planning, and (hopefully soon) riding these trails in the heart of Glen Innes. Because adventure shouldn’t be something you have to travel far for. Sometimes, it can be right here in your own backyard.
We would love your help to deliver our dream.
Ways you can support us are:
