The Thames Mountain Bike Club’s Big Bike Film Night returns on June 14.
The annual fundraiser, together with grants and donations, helped the club raise more than $100,000 towards one of its largest projects, upgrading the Karaka Track.
The club also built mountain bike skills structures at Hikutaia School and started a new pest trapping programme.
Club vice president and trapping coordinator Ric Balfour said before the film night shorts got rolling, the club planned to screen a compilation of the activities it had been involved in over the past year or so.
“Photos and video will feature our track maintenance work, our new digger, our kids’ skills structures, our night rides and most recently our foray into pest control.
“The club has contributed more than 700 hours of recorded volunteer time in 2023, and we are well on the way to exceeding that this year.”
The Karaka track behind Thames was one of the club’s biggest projects since the club was established in 2011.
Volunteers installed two large bridges and several smaller boardwalk style bridges on the track, as well as hiring track building company Walkway Solutions to upgrade the track to make it much more user-friendly.
“This old county road reserve heads up the Karaka Valley to a feature known locally as ‘Red Bluff’ which gives a fabulous view of the upper Kauaeranga Valley and Tabletop Mountain.
In late February, Predator Free Hauraki Coromandel Community Trust (PFHCCT) helped the club establish a trapline along the track and the club now has 20 DOC 200 traps designed to catch mustelids such as ferrets, stoats, and weasels.
“The club has assembled a small group of keen volunteers to check the traps and have man- aged a weekly routine over the last three months. The tally so far is 65 pests taken out, four stoats, one ferret, and the rest rats.
“However, heavy damage is evident from possums, so the club is applying for grants to purchase the new possum trap called the AT220.”
Funds raised from the Big Bike Film Night will go towards track maintenance and traps.
To monitor the trapping success, the volunteers conduct a bird count at the Red Bluff each time they check the traps.
“When we put the word out on our Facebook page for volunteers, we expected mountain bikers to be interested, but what we have is five out of six trappers are local community members who are keen to help look after our native forest,” Ric said.
“We have a lot of support from the business community too, with great prizes donated for the raffle.”
This will be the fifth time the club has hosted the film night and the third time it’s combined a fundraiser with the short film showing.
“Bring some cash for the fundraiser which includes a raffle, snacks and nonalcoholic beverages. BBFN curator Brett Cotter has been a generous supporter of TMBC by donating some of the proceeds from the tickets back to the club.”
DETAILS: Tickets from www.trybooking.com and search for The Big Bike Film Night – Thames. The TMBC action starts at 6:30pm at the Thames Civic Centre, and the films kick off at 7pm. For more information about the club, contact Ric Balfour via email at thamesmtb@ gmail.com.
