“o · 2019-07-29 · ever since. ghostly figures are painted in the windows, echoing the past....

RV Travel Lifestyle | 76 rvlifestyle.co.nz | rvlifestyle54 55

TRAVEL GISBORNE TRAILS

“Our mission is for visitors to cycle up an appetite. Not just for Gisborne’s fine food and wine, but also to cycle more often,” enthuses Katrina Duncan,

co-owner of Cycle Gisborne. On a sublime blue-sky-and-sea Tairāwhiti day she shared exactly that: cycle ride, cider-taste, cycle, beer-pizza – then cycle a bit more.

Katrina and her business partner, Anelia Evans, launched Cycle Gisborne (cyclegisborne.com) in 2010. They now have a fleet of bikes and run guided and freedom cycle tours all year, as well as delivering cycle skills training and consultancy. Our wheeled early-March meander was a blend of their ‘Captain Cook City Cultural Tour’ and ‘Great Taste City Tour’, taking us on a journey through Gisborne town and along the Tūranganui River bank to the coast, mixed in with refreshing visits to Harvest Cidery and Sunshine Brewery.

“We’re finding that the Captain Cook tour is very popular with cruise ship passengers as well as New Zealanders,” Katrina says. “On one of the cruise ship visits we had 48 people altogether with groups of up to 16 and three guides, but we also guide groups of just two or three people.”

Over the last year around 300 people have pedalled Cycle Gisborne’s Captain Cook tour, which takes two-and-a-half hours. The Great Taste is a newer addition but looks like it will also be popular. Either way, you encounter no hills and get plenty of breaks, so the required fitness level is relaxed. Everything is provided. You just need to be able to ride a bike.

Katrina is clearly passionate about history and culture, popping facts and stories most of the ride. I’ve biked and run the Gisborne

foreshore before, so Oneroa Beachfront Cycle and Walkway was no surprise – a spectacular timber and paved ride along Waikanae beach front, with surfers and swimmers out on the water, families relaxing on the sand, and some superb trackside regeneration of coastal tussock.

What I didn’t realise, though, was quite how much art the whole area can boast. In town, we first stopped at the carved Te Tauihu Turanga Whakamana, shaped in the form of a waka (canoe) prow, where Katrina talked about the ancestors who first made Tūranganui-a-Kiwa their home.

Pedalling on, there seemed to be murals all over the place, a legacy of projects like 2018’s Sea Walls, Artists for Oceans, which saw over 20 local and visiting artists; and of Project Ataahua (projectataahua.nz), a Young Enterprise team from Gisborne Girls’ High School, who commission artists to create bold murals. Perhaps most of all, long-time Gisborne artist, the late Graeme Mudge QSM,

painted a host of historical tributes to the city and its people.

Tūranganui River is New Zealand’s shortest river, just 1200 metres long from the confluence of the Taruheru and Waimata Rivers out to the sea. So it didn’t take long for Katrina, Karen and me to reach the statue of Captain James Cook, erected at the river mouth before the turn of the millennium. Katrina talked some more about first settlement of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, and about Cook’s voyages – three times around the world – and how the first interaction of peoples had a tragic outcome due to misunderstanding.

A TASTE OF TAIRAWHITI ON BIKES

Tairāwhiti Gisborne is fast being discovered as a diverse cycling destination.

Words + Photos Jim Robinson

1-2. Oneroa Cycle and Walkway offers magnificent coastal views 3. A quick loop of Watties Wharf, on the way to the ocean 4. Gisborne’s grade-one/easy trail network makes for a relaxing ride

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A little further, we paused again at a statue of Nicholas Young, first on Cook’s ship Endeavour to spot the New Zealand coastline. The backdrop to the statue, way out over the water, is the dramatic headland Te Kurī-a-Pāoa/Young Nicks Head.

The final art spotted before we ducked inland was the old Gisborne jail, a gothic-looking red brick building that was built in 1910, housing criminals until 1952 and then holiday-park campers until 1983. It’s been derelict ever since. Ghostly figures are painted in the windows, echoing the past.

Altogether less sombre was our first ref reshment stop at Har vest Cider y (harvestcider.co.nz) that has been using local apples to produce award-winning cider brands for 30 years. Teresa shared tasty samples from the cidery range – super-refreshing on a hot day.

“Stopping at Harvest Cidery is a highlight of the Great Taste Tour,” says Katrina. “Some of our European visitors have never tasted cider before. We love being able to showcase local

Tairāwhiti produce.”Our second refreshment stop came at

Sunshine Brewery (sunshinebrewery.co.nz) that is also 30 years old and, as such, can lay claim to being New Zealand’s oldest independent craft brewery. Housed in a refurbished historic woolshed, a range of beers are poured in the Tap Room, where we also tucked into pizza. As Katrina says, “It’s a fantastic watering hole stacked with history that we enjoy visiting with or without customers!”

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85. James Cook statue marks the landing place of the Endeavour6. Sunshine Brewery Tap Room offers tasty refreshment7. Gisborne’s old prison building with ghostly window art8. The trails were beautifully presented

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WHATAUPOKO RESERVEProbably just as well I fuelled up on pizza at

the Tap Room because 75 minutes of vigorous effort followed later in the day. Whataupoko Reserve, just five minutes from the centre of town, has been a popular mountain biking and walking/running area for years – the location is ideal for handy fitness missions and fun. The area used to be known as Langford Fallon Reserve, when local Bernie Vette oversaw the development of a network of trails.

Since late-2018 the 22-hectare reserve has got a lot better. A major upgrade has seen a range of new mountain biking trails created, plus an upgrade of the existing walking and dual-use trails. The project was led by Gisborne Mountain Bike Club and Gisborne Council, supported by funding from Eastland Community Trust and New Zealand Community Trust. Specialist trail builders Southstar Trails did the work.

Anyone who’s into mountain bike park riding will forge a firm smile at Whataupoko: it’s not massive but it’s incredibly dense with trails wriggling through mostly established forest. Two ascending trails and seven descending trails span different grade options. Personally I’m of the mindset that bike wheels are best kept firmly on the ground, but for anyone who likes getting up and airborne, there’s lots of opportunity for making it happen.

With the sun starting to lower, I was shown the new trails by Steferl Gordon, secretary of the Gisborne Mountain Bike Club.

“I’m just one small part of a very enthusiastic committee, who together have made this happen,” Steferl comments. “It has been a real success. It’s so pleasing to see heaps of people

using the trails every day, there are all ages and levels out there just having fun.”

“In the three months since we first had a couple of new trails open we’ve had visitors from all over New Zealand and the world riding them, and loving them! There are three grade-two trails and a mix of harder grade so it’s going to keep everyone entertained.”

Signage is under way but the Reserve is small enough that a ‘follow your nose’ approach works fine. For the first few laps, you don’t know quite where you are, but whichever trail

you take down, you seem to keep popping back out at the start.

Whataupoko Reserve trails are open to all, for free. The two main entry points are on Fox Street and Hauroa Road. Please respect any trail signage or closures, because many of the trails are new and work may be going on.

RERE FALLS TRAILAn altogether different kind of riding is to

be found on Rere Falls Trail, which travels the twisting, sometimes-gravel back-country roads

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9. Mountain biking in the recently upgraded Whataupoko Reserve 10. Steferl Gordon, one of the enthusiastic team who led the Whataupoko upgrade project11. Portside Hotel, a popular stay for those riding Rere Falls Trail and other trails12. Te Tauihi Turanga Whakamana, representing the prow of a waka

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For more about the trails, visit www.motutrails.co.nz or check ‘Motu Trails Cycleway’ on Facebook and Instagram.

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between Gisborne and Matawai. This is a 100km journey designated as a ‘Heartland Ride’ under The New Zealand Cycle Trail.

Keen bikers spin the whole distance of the Rere Falls Trail in one or two days, while some link in Motu Trails and ride from coast to coast, Opotiki to Gisborne or vice versa. Others prefer cruising the mostly flatlands between Eastwoodhill Arboretum and Gisborne, enjoying a vineyard lunch on the way. The road between Gisborne, Eastwoodhill and Rere Rockslide is all sealed, so you don’t need off-road machines. Non-cyclists can drive.

Eastwoodhill is the National Arboretum of New Zealand, a forestland haven with around 3500 different species of exotic and native trees, sprawling over 131 hectares. The arboretum offers cyclist-friendly accommodation.

Further inland towards Matawai, Te Wera Homestead recently opened doors for business,

with owner Lou offering accommodation for up to 10 people in a refurbished farmhouse. The Homestead is well placed as an overnight stop for those biking between Gisborne and Opotiki in two or three days.

So take your pick: make your own way, or have a supported ride; go for a quick spin or go far; ride gravel or sealed road, waterfront, coastal, trail, bike park. Whatever your preference, it’s another taste of Tairāwhiti Gisborne.

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13. Young Nick statue14-15. Millennium wall of tiles and ocean foreshore art16. Along Waikanae beach

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“o · 2019-07-29 · ever since. ghostly figures are painted in the windows, echoing the past....

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