Before jumping into the fun stuff (i.e. the rides themselves) I thought it might be worth just touching on some of the things that helped in getting over to NZ.
As I noted in my introductory post, I was originally booked on the NZ Epic tour with Wild Horizons. I used this as my starting point and began researching different rides and shuttle options.
There’s a tonne of info online about the various trails around NZ, but it can be difficult sometimes to get the nitty gritty details and pull it all together into something more coherent.
I connected via email with Dan from NZ by Bike and he was really helpful. I connected with a number of tour and shuttle organisers, and managed to link up with Ted at Tread Routes to join another group that had booked his shuttle to ride the Great Lake Trail during the period I’d be in NZ.
I was interested in the Moerangi trail and read some reviews of the ride that mentioned the Jailhouse Farmstay who ran a shuttle and accommodation there. Early in my research it had seemed the shuttle had ceased to run, but later I found the site above and discovered that the shuttle still ran.
However, I wasn’t able to link into any pre-booked groups during the period, and it wasn’t cost effective to go solo for rides that required a shuttle.
Once I’d mapped out a few key rides (like the Great Lake Trail) I had enough idea of what I where I needed to be, so I booked my accoms at Rotorua and Lake Taupo (I was planning to stay with a friend in Auckland). Lucky I did, because the weekend I was in Taupo was also the weekend of the Contact Huka Challenge, where thousands of riders descend on Taupo. I managed to find one room left in the city, so I nabbed that and set about filling in the remainder of my itinerary.
After a lot of back and forth, my final plan ended up looking like:
Day 1: Fly in and orientation (Rotorua)
Day 2: Redwoods
Day 3: Redwoods
Day 4: Drive to Taupo, Craters of the Moon MTB park
Day 5: Great Lake Trail (Orakau to Whakaipo)
Day 6: Great Lake Trail (Waihaha to Waihora)
Day 7: Drive to Auckland
Day 8: Woodhill MTB park
Day 9: Woodhill MTB park
Day 10–11: Rest and return flight
I would have liked to have to have done at least one more trail ride (rather than 3 MTB parks), but as a solo rider this was really difficult due to shuttle costs/co-ordination. The only way this would be cost effective is to link in with another group, which I was only able to do for the Great Lake Trail. I wasn’t able to get one for the Timber Trail nor Moerangi on the dates I was there.