I have been riding mountain bikes for thirteen years now and for most of that time I have ridden at Woodhill forest, just north of Auckland. When we first started riding there the tracks were managed by the Auckland MTB Club and there was a limited number of trails. Many years ago the park changed to a commercial enterprise and has expanded immensely with many many kilometres of managed single track riding.
As the park is now commercial you have to pay a fee to ride, this was/is still a source of contention amongst the longer term mountain bikers, but hey the tracks are good and they do sell coffee at the park !
A few years back I spent a couple of weeks building tracks (and got to ride for free for a few years) I worked with a group on a number of tracks but built the “No Brakes” track myself over a couple of work holidays. I have a soft spot for Woodhill !
Miles and I went up there on Friday afternoon, the hottest day of the summer so far, for a last ride for a while. For some reason I was dead flat and had limited power, so we didn’t have the longest or fastest ride, however it was, as always, a good ride, and we did ride out the back and do No Brakes…
Miles heard a rumour that the Spaghetti trail block of forest is going to cut down soon 😦 Spag must have opened in 2000 and was one of my favourite trails, I have ridden it hundreds of times as it is a good link out to the back trails. I hope it doesnt get the chop, but if it does at least I rode it before I left.
Hopefully I will get some riding in in SE Asia, but will definitely do some in Europe and if I settle there for a while I will buy myself a new bike, one with gears and lots of suspension !
Where is Phil now? 
Good post mate….