New Zealand

C

Capt.Gumby

Likes Dirt
Hi Folks

Looking to ride New Zealand for a weeks holiday with a few mates. Have been researching a bit but would appreciate members opinions about your experiences. In particular, where to go, best time of year, on our own or organized tour?

Have been thinking just to head to Rotorua and spend the week there. However, there a few organised tours that look good that travel around a fair bit but I'm not sure I would like to be locked in to a set itinerary.

We ride the typical enduro 160mm travel bikes.

Cheers
 
Jeffgre_6163

Jeffgre_6163

Likes Dirt
Being a Kiwi from the South Island and having done riding holidays in both Rotorua and Queenstown my personal opinion would be to head for Queenstown.
Yes the forest at Rotorus is pretty cool but Queenstown beats in hands down for variety of riding, the tourist infrastructure, picturesque location, most excellent bike shops, closeness of the riding areas to town, rider friendly accomodation etc etc.
Rotorus is basically a smelly logging town with a bit of riding and hot pools thrown in.

Flame away all you Rotovegas fans
 
T-Rex

T-Rex

Template denier
Rotorua is good, definately worth a few days. I understand Air NZ no longer flies direct, if you have to do a couple of legs, go via Wellington, which has some sensational trail riding right on the edge of the city, including the Makara Peak bike park, which you can ride to from the CBD on dirt, mostly single track. I go over there a lot for work, so I know the Wellington trails reasonably well, if you do decide to stop there PM me and I'll give you some ride details and link you to my Strava.
 
teK--

teK--

Eats Squid
Am in Rotorua now it is amazing.

Check out Red Woods there is a huge trail network you could spend a solid 2-3 days exploring here with shuttle lifts to some areas. Lots of single track both XC and AM style.

Also Skyline bike park is amazing you could also spend 2 days there if you like big jumps and rough steep features. They have a luge track which is pretty cool.

Per replies above you wouldn't have enough to fill 7 days without repeating some areas but I wouldn't mind spending a week here ;)
 
pink poodle

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
teK-- said:
Am in Rotorua now it is amazing.

Per replies above you wouldn't have enough to fill 7 days without repeating some areas but I wouldn't mind spending a week here ;)
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That's the reality...how often do you ride the same trails at home? I ride a lot and end up at the same couple of locations pretty regularly. So a little bit of overlapping in another country shouldn't really be a big issue.

I'm pretty sure the lake is meant to fish well too.
 
outtacontrol

outtacontrol

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Jeffgre_6163 said:
Being a Kiwi from the South Island and having done riding holidays in both Rotorua and Queenstown my personal opinion would be to head for Queenstown.
Yes the forest at Rotorus is pretty cool but Queenstown beats in hands down for variety of riding, the tourist infrastructure, picturesque location, most excellent bike shops, closeness of the riding areas to town, rider friendly accomodation etc etc.
Rotorus is basically a smelly logging town with a bit of riding and hot pools thrown in.

Flame away all you Rotovegas fans
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Dont listen to Jeff, he is on crack :)

We go to Rotorua every year in Feb for the festival when the shuttles run everyday. We stay for over a week and yes we do ride some trails many times. Go and ride them and you will understand why. If you like Enduro style trails, you would strughle to find many better.
The new EWS trails are mad :)
 
slippy

slippy

Likes Bikes and Dirt
You can't really go wrong in NZ. If you end up in Rotorua you can always hire a van from Rent A Dent and do the rides near Lake Taupo as well. That will more than fill a week.
 
abevern

abevern

Likes Dirt
I'm also planning on a NZ trip - any tips on tyres for predominantly Rotorua riding? I usually run Ardent/Ardent Race F/R. Is that going to work?
 
outtacontrol

outtacontrol

Likes Bikes and Dirt
abevern said:
I'm also planning on a NZ trip - any tips on tyres for predominantly Rotorua riding? I usually run Ardent/Ardent Race F/R. Is that going to work?
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There is so much grip pretty much anything works. Rode with a very prominant local one day who was running crossmarks on his nomad. Pretty sure that brakes some sort of law, but he said they run low profile tyres so they can get a little drift because anything else has too much grip.
Might be a little different with some of the new EWS rooty trails. I run ardent rear, hans dampf front.

I dont get any drift :)
 
J

Jamey

Cannon Fodder
I heard much about New Zealand and visited this country one time in the past. Being a tourist, I like to visit nature and historical places during my each tour. I am very happy with my hobby because through it I can learn lots of new things about the world. Let me share some names of best tourist attractions in NZ;
Lake Taupo
Tongariro National Park  
Fiordland National Park
Sky Tower
These are also my favorite places in this alluring country.
 
D.HILL817

D.HILL817

Likes Dirt
After reading some of these comments about rotorua, I'm getting worried. I just booked 8 days there and 5 in Queenstown. Sounds like I should have done the opposite :eek:hwell:

I'm in the same situation, 160mm travel bike
 
N

northvanguy

Likes Dirt
D.HILL817 said:
After reading some of these comments about rotorua, I'm getting worried. I just booked 8 days there and 5 in Queenstown. Sounds like I should have done the opposite :eek:hwell:

I'm in the same situation, 160mm travel bike
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No need to worry.... I prefer Rotorua on a 160mm to Queenstown any day
 
Duane

Duane

Likes Bikes and Dirt
outtacontrol said:
There is so much grip pretty much anything works. Rode with a very prominant local one day who was running crossmarks on his nomad. Pretty sure that brakes some sort of law, but he said they run low profile tyres so they can get a little drift because anything else has too much grip.
Might be a little different with some of the new EWS rooty trails. I run ardent rear, hans dampf front.

I dont get any drift :)
Click to expand...
Rode the EWS trails last weekend in the wet, glad I had some beefy tires however for all the groomed trails any tire was fine.
 
bowtajzane

bowtajzane

Likes Dirt
sounds like there's a few of us in the same boat.......
still tossing up between the ardent or maybe a hans up front.......:decision:
 
Moggio

Moggio

Likes Bikes and Dirt
At Rotorua its really grippy, unless its mud (ie a trail like Billy T after rain - eek!)... oh and roots at crazy angles to mess you up.

Last trip I had an Ardent up front and always felt nice and an in contact. Grip was least of my worries on the trails.
 
E

EyeMacHunt

Likes Bikes
outtacontrol said:
Dont listen to Jeff, he is on crack :)

We go to Rotorua every year in Feb for the festival when the shuttles run everyday. We stay for over a week and yes we do ride some trails many times. Go and ride them and you will understand why. If you like Enduro style trails, you would strughle to find many better.
The new EWS trails are mad :)
Click to expand...
I agree with this 100%. Just got back from an 8 day trip there and didn't get bored at all. The trails are so good that we were more than happy to ride them again and again.

We hired a 6 seater cargo van from a place called James Blond rentals(picked up from right near Auckland airport). It was pretty cheap split between 3 and we comfortably fit 5 bikes in the back with wheels on (tied down with dead tubes we brought with us)

Didn't manage to get to Queenstown but we were all more than happy with what Rotorua had on offer. The town is dead but you can find some good craft beer bars and pretty good food.
 
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