Tokoroa tracks draw nation’s mountain bikers

arriving in Hamilton from Auckland only a year ago. While in Auckland her teacher had suggested she take up the violin, also at the age of 9.

An NYO audition involved recording pieces and sending the recordings to the orchestra’s Wellington assessors to judge.

All NYO members attend an eighthour-a-day, four-week training programme in Wellington in July including two concerts. The orchestra is also to perform in Wellington and Christchurch next year.

Linbei and Emily see inclusion in the NYO as a great opportunity to work with other young musicians and professional tutors. It also looks good on their CVs

Hillcrest High School year 10 students and National Youth Orchestra members Emily Kim, 14 and Linbei Ke, 14. although neither is sure if becoming a professional musician is what they want to do in life.

Hillcrest music head Paul Ellery said Emily and Linbei demonstrated the strength of the school’s string orchestra and their inclusion in the NYO will provide a great opportunity to gain entry to leading academies and tutors if they chose to continue in music at performance level.

Three former Hillcrest students, now studying at tertiary level, have also been selected to perform with the NYO this year. They include Yotam Levy (cello), Alexander Arai-Swale (double bass) and Ephraim Wilson (organ). Second-to-none tracks in Cougar Park have helped bring one of the country’s biggest mountain biking events to Tokoroa.

About 1000 riders from all over New Zealand are expected to roll up to Cougar Park on September 18 for the annual Torpedo7 Day-Night Thriller.

Events promotions marketing manager Charlotte Pearson said there were only a handful of other mountain biking events in the country that could match the thriller. She said the event had been held in Taupo since it began in 2002 and at its peak, drew more than 3000 entries in one hit.

The move to Tokoroa was made because the tracks in Taupo weren’t up to scratch.

‘‘The forest we were using was felled . . . for a couple of years the tracks have been out in the open and not in the forest and not really ideal for the event.’’

She said the Tokoroa Mountain Bike Club put its hand up.

When event organisers saw the qual- ity of their tracks, there were no doubts.

‘‘The tracks will speak for themselves,’’ she said.

Selling the location had been the biggest hurdle.

‘‘A lot of people don’t know much about Tokoroa. In the past it being in Taupo has been a reason for people to go away. That’s where we’re finding it difficult to attract people to come.’’

The Tokoroa Mountain Bike Club secured the contract for four years and treasurer Larry Sullivan believed there was only one way to go from here.

‘‘People say you can’t have events here because there’s not enough accommodation, but our answer to that is you’ve got to have events here to instigate that accommodation.’’

He said the club put in hundreds of volunteer hours to ensure the tracks were up to scratch.

‘‘We can offer a real good venue and word will get around. In two years time it could possibly be the biggest event that comes to Tokoroa on a regular basis.’’