Whakarewarewa Forest near Rotorua is not that big. Only about six kilometres from one side to the other, and not much longer than that north to south, it contains hundreds of kilometres of forestry roads and trails for walking or running, horse riding, and best of all, bike riding.
There is a lot of topography packed into the area. Elevation gain from the main entrance to the very top of the highest hill is about 450 metres, and there are several other summits that are not far below that height.
There are springs, streams, wetlands, ponds, and pockets of native forest among the plantation trees of various species growing in different stages of the production cycle. There are two lakes that border the forest, and the whole spectacle is literally on the doorstep of the city of Rotorua.
I am lucky enough to have ridden a bike in a lot of places around the globe, and Whaka Forest is pretty hard to beat for sheer variety.
The recent long weekend is a case in point. A friend was visiting for a few days. She is a very accomplished cyclist, with a career spanning decades that includes racing mountain bikes on dirt, road bikes on tarmac, and track bikes on the velodrome.
Although she is in the business, she is currently without a mountain bike of her own. She does have a state of the art gravel bike, so for her visit I grabbed my version off its hook.
We set off from our place north of town, and pedalled the ten kilometres or so to the forest on dedicated cycle paths, including a section that goes right through the middle of an active geothermal feature… only in Rotorua!
We decided to ride a modified Whaka Forest Loop on our first day. The trail is really good fun on a mountain bike or e-bike, and at about 32 kilometres with 580 metres of climbing overall it is an honest day out. On the gravel bikes it arguably more fun, because on slim tyres, with no suspension and drop bars there is less room for error.
The ride was fantastic. The dirt was sublime, and we met many other riders having their versions of a great day out on the Loop. We customised our ride by taking one of the many diversions available, because the ‘official’ route currently includes a concrete path down the side of the busy State Highway 5 - convenient and efficient but not exactly beautiful. The forestry road route we chose traverses a stunning block of old Douglas fir with a generous understory of native plants. There are a few extra climbs along the way, but that only makes it more interesting.
By the time we made it home we had clocked up sixty off-road kilometres, every one of them memorable.
The next day we didn’t feel like such a big outing, so we got ourselves to the trail centre and started from there. I had a vague plan but as sometimes will happen, especially when plans are vague, we did something else.
The plan derailed when we arrived at a beautiful spot known as The Duck Pond. There were no ducks, but it is a surprisingly pretty place, sitting as it does next to a recent clear cut. My mental map was malfunctioning, and it took us up a road that leads to an old singletrack downhill that was reconfigured many years ago as a horse trail. We were going up it, which was not 100% achievable and required a bit of footwork. There hadn’t been any bikes on it for a long time, or horses for that matter, and it felt very remote and wild.
From there we meandered across the lower reaches of the forest with the fuzzy idea of getting to the part of the Forest Loop we had skipped the previous day. That plan also went south, or more correctly east, when we passed by the entrance to an old walking track and ventured in to investigate. We found a perfectly formed but overgrown route that wrapped around the base of one of the major hills, in beautiful forest. It became impassable but will definitely receive a return visit - I need to know where it goes!
The holiday celebrating the King’s Birthday was the following day. Gayle had gone home, and another visitor to town was keen to ride a couple of trails he was missing, now that he lives across the Tasman. Paul and I hooked up with Graeme and we did a lap of the woods that was the best two hours of riding time we could have hoped for.
The long climb to the very top of the forest was done first. It is a decent effort, but we were not in a hurry and modern mountain bikes are so incredibly efficient we could discuss many aspects of life as we dawdled skywards. We stopped a couple of times to gaze at new views afforded by the latest round of logging. The loggers leave a mess, but the new views and exposed terrain are exciting for future trails that are bound to unroll.
At the top of the hill called Tawa is a relic of native forest that stretches along a ridge and down to the shores of Lake Tikitapu, commonly called the Blue Lake. Tuhoto Ariki is a trail through that area. It is a favourite of riders who like the feeling of native forest and enjoy the character of a line that is hand-made and features many sections with exposed tree roots.
Halfway through Tuhoto is a clearing we call the Alien Landing. It is an oddly circular patch of grass in the dense jungle that surrounds it, punctuated by a small pond at one end. It was there that G discovered his seat dropper would no longer function due to a flat battery. That was good news to me, because it meant I would have a better chance of keeping up with him. Turns out I still couldn’t but I was at least a little closer at the end of each downhill.
The end of that trail has been closed for logging of the adjacent block, but that is complete and the Trails Trust has created a really nice extension we rode for the first time. It climbs across a newly uncovered ridge then deposits riders at a road junction where more trails begin.
Our next goal was Te Ahi Manawa, a long and quite tricky downhill run that is different every time I see it. Another hand-made line, it runs down through mature pine forest to an almost overgrown forestry road, then recommences for an exciting conclusion on Tikitapu Road.
After checking to see if all of us felt up to the task, we decided to go and climb Kakapiko, a lone hill at the south-western edge of the forest that is host to a volunteer-built trail called No Brains.
The climb is an unpleasant necessity to a great reward: a long and spectacular downhill run through forest and then across the face of a very precipitous clearcut with views from the top that more than make up for the ascent.
All of this incredible mountain biking in under two hours of riding time.
And all of this bike riding on one slightly longer than usual weekend.
