Te Ahi Manawa, “The Burning Heart”, is another favourite trail of mine although one I don’t ride enough. It takes a technical line through some beautiful forest on the South Eastern side of the trail and descends down to Lake Rotokakahi (Green Lake).
In this video it looks like I’m just pootling along, I’m certainly not pushing the envelope!! Its a narrow trail with lots of nadgery bits and trees to clack your bars on. When pushing hard it is a significant challenge.
The A line branch hop seen at 00:01:14 is actually easier than it looks but requires good commitment. I’ve ridden it before easily enough but forgot it was coming this time down and its definitely something to be ready for.
Trailforks Trail Data – www.trailforks.com/trails/te-ahi-manawa-119081/
Distance: 2,278 m
Climb: 10 m
Descent: -262 m
Avg time: 00:12:28
Trailforks says:
Te Ahi Manawa, “The Burning Heart”
The deceivingly flat start to the trail is quickly given a reality check as Te Ahi Manawa drops into a steep, rooty, off-camber trail. This one is for the technically oriented riders, with plenty of drops and chutes to test yourself on. There are a few bypasses for the most technical sections, although the bypasses themselves are still far from easy. After rain it can get a bit slippery with a trail surface closer to the DOC trails at the top of Tawa Road than that of its hard pack neighbours. After 700 meters the trail opens a bit compared to the technical introduction with some steep downhill switchbacks thrown in to keep you on your toes. At the 1 km mark the track opens onto Buchanan Road where you have the option of taking a left towards Kung Fu Walrus trail or hanging a right towards the next section of Te Ahi Manawa. The second section warms up a few hundred meters down the road with a small climb before tapering into some classic outback trail action. Cleaner than the first segment, this section rides similar to the Billy-T/G-Rock sequence with a few off-camber corners for good measure. This section is more manageable for riders who aren’t as dialed on the rootier tracks. After 1 km it exits onto Tikitapu Road before dropping into the final section. The penultimate piece is similar to the second section, with a highlight of some large sweeping turns down a gully at the end of the trail that feels similar to riding a half pipe. The trail spits you at the shore of Green lake for some big grins and great scenery.
Camera – Chest mounted GoPro Hero 8
Settings:
1080 60fps
Wide Lens
Hypersmooth on High
Video processing and editing software
Dashware
Hitfilm Express
Video Output for YouTube Settings: H264, .mp4, 1080p, 30fps, target bitrate 60Mbps, max bitrate 90 Mbps
Apart from the glitch in the map/speed data right at the end I’m really pleased with the quality of this video.
I’ve solved the resolution and pixelisation problems I was having with the gauge overlay by, instead of using a green screen technique, exporting the gauges out of Dashware as an image sequence and importing those into Hitfilm.
I’ve also found good export settings by uping the target and max bitrate settings. Big thanks to Triem23 on the FXhome community pages for their help. See the post HERE
Ian Ganderton 
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