Rotorua Mountain Biking

We have an outdoors culture and it is never more self-evident than when you take a trip out to the forest. Mind you, even in the city you can tell because just about every second vehicle has a bike or bikes on the back. Sometimes 4 or 5.

The Whakarewarewa trails located at Waipa cater to everyone from:

• tiny tots to grandparents
  
• leisure riders to hard core downhill racers
• runners 
• walkers 
• dogs (taking their owners out)

Also expect to see: Apart from the hard-core bikers you would expect to see, look out for young parents with little ones on teeny-tiny bikes. Sometimes their little bikes are attached to the back of mum or dad's bike. So cute.

Over the years I have also noticed a LOT more cyclists not in the first flush of youth anymore (ok, I'll put my hand up, that includes me) so if you are older; come on out… come on… you know you want to do it… no need to be shy. It's great fun, believe me.

Mountain Bike Rotorua offer a guided bike tour through its parent company MDA Experiences. Lasting 3-4 hours, the trails taking in approx 200km of forest.

Pickups can be arranged from your accommodation or the CBD. The cost includes the pickup/dropoffs, a hard tail bike (whatever that is), and is suitable for 8yrs up.

Kaituna Waterfall Rafting as an add-on might be a refreshing option.

Have a look at the prices MDA Experiences website.

There are all sorts of mountain bike tracks, forestry roads and trails out in the forest with weird and wonderful names.

How about No Brains, Ball & Chain, Little Red Riding Huck and Sweet & Sour just to name a few. There are heaps more which you can check out at www.riderotorua.com

Click on any of the trail names to find out the Grade of track (they go from easy up to Grade 6 which would only be for very experienced riders), also how long the trail is and a little bit about the actual trail.

The Rotorua Mountain Bike Club and volunteers, along with Red McHale and the guys doing community service, do a heck of a lot of work on these trails; maintaining and creating new ones so kudos to them for that.

They have created something that is truly remarkable and beneficial to not only the community but also our visitors.

A comprehensive Recreation Guide is available for purchase (funds raised go towards track maintenance) with mountain bike maps showing all the trails. There is also lots of good info and photos.

The Recreation Guide includes walking and horse trekking information as well.

You might want to buy a Manky (navigational map and hanky combined). They have the mountain bike tracks on one side and the walking tracks on the other.

These are real handy as you don't have to worry about the maps getting wet and ruined. You can stuff it in your pocket and forget about it until you need it. Very cool idea.

Use the Manky in combination with the Recreational Guide and you're set.

Both the Rotorua Redwoods Info Center and Mountain Bike Rotorua have daily info relating to current road closures/safety etc. for all the tracks.

Once in the forest itself there is a central point at the Hill and Pipeline Roads intersection. From here the shuttles make runs up to the top every 15mins.

Now this can get a bit confusing. They run Saturdays, Sundays, April and October School Holidays and Public Holidays (apart from Christmas and Boxing Days).

During the summer they run daily 27 Dec - 1 Feb (except for Christmas and Boxing Days of course).

Last pick-ups for the day are 5.30pm Saturdays and 3.30pm Sundays.

Daylight Saving in New Zealand runs from the last Sunday in September when clocks go forward 1hr and ends the first Sunday in April when they revert back.

Additional shuttles run Tuesday and Thursday evenings during the daylight saving period. They leave the main carpark at 5.30pm getting in 5-6 runs from Hill and Pipeline Rds before dark.

Current rates can be viewed on the MBR Rotorua Shuttles website page.

You can't miss Mountain Bike Rotorua anyway, it's plonked pretty much on the side of the road with a big sign.

15mins should get you to the forest from the city center.

I have yet to update my photos for this (as at Feb 25) so will do it as soon as I can.