![\"Vandalism](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/vandalism-mountain-bike-trail-mount-victoria-town-belt-wellington-new-zealand.jpg\" "\\"Vandalism")
Vandalism on a mountain bike trail on Mount Victoria Town Belt, Wellington, New Zealand (credit: Wellington City Council)<\/p>\nCyclists in New Zealand have claimed that \u201canti-bike rhetoric\u201d is behind a recent surge in vandalism on a number of popular mountain biking trails, where \u2018traps\u2019 have been appearing in recent weeks amid a long-running conflict between riders and walkers.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Wellington\u2019s local authority reported that logs, stumps, and makeshift barriers have been placed on several mountain bike priority trails around New Zealand\u2019s capital city, in an apparent attempt, the council says, to \u201ccause serious injury\u201d to cyclists.<\/p>\n
The traps have been placed on different trails along the Mount Victoria\/Matairangi section of Wellington\u2019s Town Belt, a 520-hectare stretch of tree-filled green space open to the public and close to the centre of the city. Mountain bikers have been flocking to the Mount Victoria trails since the early 1990s, with the hill hosting a round of the MTB World Cup in 1997.<\/p>\n
The city council\u2019s parks manager Bradley Schroder said this week that stumps have been scattered along trails, frequented by downhill mountain bikers riding at speed, and pieces of timber attached to trees and stretching across the path, seemingly with the aim of forcing cyclists to stop or potentially crash. Fencing and signage has also been removed on some tracks.<\/p>\n
Vandalism on a mountain bike trail on Mount Victoria Town Belt, Wellington, New Zealand (credit: Wellington City Council)<\/p>\n
Schroder confirmed that police have been notified of the vandalism and that cameras will be installed along the bike priority trails to identify the culprits, with the parks manager adding that it cannot be taken for granted that other trails have escaped this recent outbreak.<\/p>\n
Local cyclists have said the apparent acts of sabotage are the latest \u201caggressive\u201d instalment in a long-running conflict between mountain bikers, pedestrians, and runners on the mostly shared-use trails.<\/p>\n
However, a Wellington residents\u2019 group representative, who has called for dedicated walkers-only tracks, has appeared to suggest that the vandalism is a response to riders \u201ccausing harm\u201d to others in the Town Belt.<\/p>\n
Speaking to New Zealand-based website Stuff<\/a>, cyclist Julian Morton, a Mt Matairangi Trail Builders volunteer, said the decision to screw a makeshift barrier to two trees on either side of the path showed a certain \u201clevel of intent\u201d on the part of the protesters.<\/p>\n \u201cThey would have had to have carried a drill with them… it\u2019s aggressive, anti-social behaviour,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n Morton noted that obstacles had appeared \u201chere and there\u201d over the years along the trails, but the frequency of their appearances had ramped up over the last month, becoming an almost daily occurrence \u2013 and causing at least one crash.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were really getting concerned, not just for riders\u2019 safety \u2013 I know there has been at least one person reported to have crashed from an obstacle \u2013 but also for people interacting with this individual: it could get violent,\u201d Morton said.<\/p>\n The cyclist stressed that the trail builders work hard to be \u201csocially and environmentally responsible\u201d, and that the trails had been built with the endorsement of the council.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look after the trails, we plant 2,500 trees a year and we\u2019re really supportive of the conservation efforts of other groups: we want to share the Town Belt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Admitting that he was saddened by the \u201canti-bike rhetoric\u201d surrounding the trails, Morton added: \u201cAt the end of the day we\u2019re all just people who want to enjoy the outdoors or enjoy getting around Wellington.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, mountain biker Rob Bardsley also pointed out that, due to the placement of some of the obstacles, cyclists using the trail would not be able to spot them until it was too late.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can go over the handlebars, [there\u2019s a] good chance of a broken collarbone or arms, worst case a broken neck,\u201d he said, warning that the vandalism was putting children who use the trails at risk.<\/p>\n \u201cWho are you punishing? An 11-year-old out with his mum? They\u2019re the ones who don\u2019t have the ability to stop and haven\u2019t developed the reflexes to avoid [obstacles].<\/p>\n \u201cPutting these up creates fear and anger. Nothing good will come of it other than regret, injury, and legal implications.\u201d<\/p>\n >\u00a0Concerns raised about possible attacks on cyclists after popular family cycle path sabotaged with piles of logs \u201cdeliberately\u201d left by \u201cidiots\u201d and hooded men spotted shouting threats at passing riders<\/a><\/p>\n This fear was echoed by Lachie Ross, an U21 New Zealand national enduro mountain bike champion, who rides the Mt Victoria trails around four times a week.<\/p>\n Ross told RNZ<\/a> that he is \u201cdisgusted\u201d about the attempts to put cyclists in danger on what he says are the best trails for children around Wellington.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you go any weekday, any weekend, there will be hundreds and hundreds of kids up there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of work that the council has put in to put these barriers in place and separate the mountain bikers and walkers is very fair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While noting that most of Wellington\u2019s mountain biking community was respectful, Bardsley did admit that \u201cone or two stuff it up for everyone else\u201d, creating conflict between walkers and runners and mountain bikers \u201cpushing the limits\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they like to ride like that, that can cause some issues,\u201d he acknowledged.<\/p>\n Bardsley also said the local cycling community had its suspicions about the identity of the \u201cvigilantes\u201d behind the recent vandalism and that a description of a suspect was circulating.<\/p>\n \u201cThese traps are massive. If it\u2019s the work of one person it\u2019s a very strong person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Mt Victoria Residents\u2019 Association president Ellen Blake told Stuff that she did not know who was behind the vandalism \u2013 but insisted \u201cwhat has happened has been something to do with how people are feeling about it\u201d.<\/p>\n >\u00a0New cycling route sabotaged with wooden stake and nails, as “hazard” protesting new access granted to cyclists raises safety fears<\/a><\/p>\n Blake has been a long-standing campaigner for dedicated pedestrian spaces in the Town Belt, and says the conflict dates back to the early 2000s, when the mountain bike trails were first established.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been a lot of issues with people on foot, runners… people have been frightened by mountain bikes using the trails, some people have been injured,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Blake said that while there are currently 12 mountain bike-only tracks, no tracks are dedicated to people on foot, saying her campaign\u2019s \u201csolution is to make some tracks, like the [10.6km] Southern Walkway so that you can go all the way along it without coming across a mountain biker.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if she was concerned that the obstacles could injure cyclists, she instead claimed that mountain bikers \u201chad caused others harm\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are always concerned people would be hurt up there, that\u2019s been happening for some of the others,\u201d she said. \u201cIf council addresses some issues as a result of this, that would be a good outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n However, in response to these complaints, Wellington council\u2019s media manager Richard Maclean advised that Town Belt users should \u201cexercise common sense\u201d, with walkers sticking to \u201cobvious pedestrian paths\u201d and avoiding trails \u201cclearly designed for bikes\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people don’t agree that mountain bikes should be on the Town Belt. We think otherwise. It’s a large place, there’s heaps of room for everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In a statement, parks manager Schroder added that the mountain bike priority trails on Mt Victoria are \u201cdesigned and heavily signposted to minimise the risk of riders and other Town Belt users from coming into conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are extremely concerned about what\u2019s going on \u2013 we’re in touch with the mountain biking community and we\u2019re warning riders to take extra care while using trails on Matairangi\/Mt Victoria,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know some people in the community don\u2019t like that the Town Belt is a shared space for walkers, runners, riders, and other track users but we won\u2019t tolerate people doing things to put other people in harm\u2019s way.\u201d<\/p>\n >\u00a0Police issue warning after cyclist finds wire tied across forest trail<\/a><\/p>\n Unfortunately, acts of sabotage on cycling routes \u2013 with potentially catastrophic consequences \u2013 aren\u2019t just confined to New Zealand.<\/p>\n In March, we reported that a popular traffic-free cycle path on the Isle of Wight was the subject of two apparent anti-cycling sabotage attempts<\/a> in the space of a month, after piles of logs were left strewn across the trail \u2013 and immediately replaced after being moved by cyclists \u2013 and hooded, cider-drinking men were spotted allegedly shouting threats and insults at people on bikes.<\/p>\n Last December, a group of mountain bikers, whose decade-long campaign to open up Guernsey cliff paths to people on bikes was recently successful, saw their first trial ride halted when a wooden stake with nails was found laid across the route<\/a>, believed to be in an act of protest.<\/p>\n![\"Vandalism](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/vandalism-mountain-bike-trail-mount-victoria-town-belt-wellington-new-zealand-2.jpg\" "\\"Vandalism")
Vandalism on a mountain bike trail on Mount Victoria Town Belt, Wellington, New Zealand (credit: Wellington City Council)<\/p>\n![\"Mountain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mountain-biker-using-mt-victoria-trail-wellington.jpg\" "\\"Mountain")
Mountain biker using Mt Victoria trail, Wellington (credit: Wellington MTB Club)<\/p>\n![\"Mount](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mount-victoria-wellington-town-belt-new-zealand.jpg\" "\\"Mount")
Mount Victoria, Wellington Town Belt, New Zealand (credit: Wellington City Council)<\/p>\n