Good practice spots near Wellington?

[BuzzardNZ]

I should also add Seatoun for practising intersection skills. Short blocks give you lots of 1st, 2nd 3rd, back down again and stop, rinse and repeat. Good spot for practising hill starts too with varying degrees of sloped streets. Always quiet, particularly on weekend afternoons.

I agree with Jimmy on this one. I learnt to ride in Miramar and Seatoun. Once your confidence is up you can try for a cruise around Shelly bay, but beware as there is a little bit of gravel on the road at Mahanga bay ( after Scorching and before Kau ). It's only 50kph round there and not much traffic during the week, plus it's a nice scenic ride.

[Paulo]

Yep miramar and seatoun are quiet , but when my girlfriend wanted to practice on the road even that was too busy for her tastes so I went out to Seaview the industrial area near Petone, wide streets and no traffic in the weekend. Of course the problem is getting out there with your bike in the first place.

[PeloNZ]

My first week was spent driving about the Karori suburbs at night, and the weekends. Yes, there is a bit of traffic, but its mostly easy. The Wrights hill carpark is ok.
A ride around the bays, after 6.30pm in Summer is wonderful and quiet

[superjackal]

Around Lyall Bay and Kilbirnie early in the AM on weekends is very good. Wide roads, great visibility, lots of car parks and not too much traffic. I learned to ride going around the nearby bays - not a lot of traffic and not too many intersections.

Hi all

I was wondering, though - can anyone suggest really good spots for getting some practice? Preferably something that's on a road somewhere, so I can practise getting up to over 20km/hr, without having to do donuts (the problem with parking lots), but has buggerall traffic.

Thoughts welcome.

Also, if you DO know of any ginormous empty parking lot spaces, do sing out! Ideally, close to Wellington CBD...