Welcome to the Jungle

Got out of the Makara zone yesterday for a ride/slog/bushwhack with a few guys from Vorb, led by Colin, who me and Christian met last year but never got to ride with due to bad weather. I met up with Col and Tama at J'ville and loaded myself and Stumpy into/onto his V5 Golf and launched it up the coast to the Three Sisters. It's a ride on the other side of the Akatarawas where Karapoti is held. The ride was a going away jaunt for Owen, who is moving to Auckland (for love, not money).
The other guys were Dave, Antony, Daniel who is a customer of the shop and [geez sorry mate I've forgotton your name.] In typical NZ fashion it was straight into a fireroad climb for 40 miutes or so, with a few stopss to re-group. we did some of the Karapoti course in revers (climbing) trhen peeled off a sidetrack and into the undergrowth. Ankle deep slop had me having flashbacks.
The first bit was pretty much unrideable, but we tried anyway, Tama and Col both coming unstuck early on. It was tight, slippery and kinda technical, and then it got steep.... down. This section was either use your brakes and end up on your ass, or let it all hang out and hope you don't end up on your ass. I got down using the latter technique, then went back up to photograph the others conming down.
Col nailed it in style.

Antony got it sideways but held it and escaped nicely.

Tama was like a lead balloon screaming "get out of the fuckin waaaaay" as he barrelled past.. I thought he must've had blurred vision (like my pic!)or in big trouble because I wasn't in the way, unless he planned to go bush any minute. From there it got a lot easier to ride, not flowy, but still I had a good grin on my dial for the whole ride. At the end Owen (and Daniel) did a few runs over this drop, maybe trying to prolong his time in Welly by breaking something. Pizza and beer on the way home was a great end to a nice way to send off the big O.