The 2014 Kiwi Brevet Course

Everything is shaping up nicely for this year's course.

Many thanks to Mondo for negotiating access through Manuka Forest on the North Bank of the Wairau, and the Patterson family for allowing access through MacDonald Downs Station again. Please note that both these sections of private property are normally closed to the public. They are not open for practice rides - we only have permission to ride through during the Kiwi Brevet, with certain conditions such as no fires, no camping, leave gates as you find them, only riding through during daylight hours, pull over for trucks, etc.

Please note that there is an access fee to be paid as you pass through Rainbow Station - $2 as you pass by Rainbow Cob Homestead.

In the Craigieburn-Castle Hill area there will be the option of getting off Highway 73 for about 10km, onto a mix of skifield road and sweet singletrack for about 24km. The sale of Kiwi Brevet musettes will be helping to fund the construction of the first section of singletrack (Coal Pit Spur track) which will be built next week. However the bridges won't be complete - you'll need to ford Craigieburn stream a couple of times. If you like the sound of this option check out this map http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/-43.1391/171.7429&layers=C for more details.

Here's the Google map for the whole course - note that the detail for the North Bank forestry roads will be put on an A4 map and handed out at the event briefing (at Top Town Cinemas in Blenheim on the morning of the 1st Feb).
https://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?msid=213858899904025765407.00047034cc217e43981f8&msa=0&ll=-42.228517,173.468628&spn=2.347008,5.410767&dg=feature

If you're wondering how hilly this is, our original altitude graphs from 2010 give a pretty good idea - http://www.kiwibrevet.blogspot.co.nz/2009/12/altitude-graphs.html . The major difference is having the Molesworth replaced with the Rainbow. There's an altitude graph for the Rainbow Road in the latest edition of Classic NZ MTB Rides.

We'll send out cue sheets, and guidebook and map references in about a week. Details regarding SPOT trackers should be out in the next day or two. In the meantime, good luck with your final preparations!