VictoriaMay 9
How many showers does it take to stop smelling like a rotten egg? I’m on my third and the smell from the thermal bath yesterday is just beginning to fade. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Despite the beautiful sunny day, today was really windy. We wanted to do the forest loop trail in the Whakarewarewa Forest, but we were weren’t sure it would be warm enough.
We headed over to Mountain Bike Rotorua and talked to the experts at the bike store. Being warm suddenly wasn’t our concern anymore. It shifted to, “What the heck are we thinking of doing?”
We started second guessing our choice of activity when they described the trail as easy to moderate and a bit challenging in sections. They said the loop is designed to be accessible for people of almost all ages, abilities and fitness levels. You don’t need to be a professional downhiller; as long as you’re a confident rider, you’ll find the variety of uphill, downhill and flat sections interesting, fun and fairly easy to navigate.
“Uh-hem, give us a few minutes,” we said. “We need to discuss.”
We hesitated and deliberated. We considered alternative things to do as we walked over to the Rotorua I-Site Information Center.
The 20 mile one-way mountain bike forest loop trail is graded 2s and 3s, meaning moderate difficulty at times with undulating paths.
During our deliberations, we were in the information center talking with a city ambassador who, despite never doing the trail herself, said it was easy on an e-bike and we shouldn’t have any problems. She convinced us (“pensioners do it!”) and eased any of my concerns about a difficult forest mountain bike trail, so after 20 minutes of hemming and hawing, we layered up to keep warm and decided to go for it.
On our electronic mountain bikes, with freezing hands, we meandered through the redwood forest, going uphill, downhill and making many switchback turns. We pretty much had the forest to ourselves, which was a good thing, because I wasn’t going very fast, despite the high gear and added power boost from the e-bike.
The first quarter of the ride took us clockwise across the Tokorangi Face, which offered a panoramic view of the city. We stopped for a break and some photos.
According to what the lady in the information center told us, we had just completed the toughest part of the track. It was all uphill and a bit nerve racking to be honest.
We haven’t ever mountain biked on forest trails like this before. It was quite the bumpy ride at times. Since the trail was a one-way system, there was no turning back, yikes!
We finally arrived at Te Pūtake o Tawa car park, the halfway point. It took us longer than we expected and wondered if we’d even make it back before sunset. The ride was exhilarating and slightly terrifying all at the same time. Suffice it to say, I don’t think I’ll qualify for the BMX trials any time soon. Unfortunately for me, I had a lot more practice ahead in the next couple of hours. To distract me from the challenge, it was time to put in my AirPods and blast some music!
We took a short break and tried to read the map to determine what the trail was like up ahead. We pressed on and came to Blue Lake Beach. That seemed easy.
The trail used to run along Green Lake (Rotokākahi). However, in 2019, mountain bike trails near the lake were closed to protect the lake’s sacred status. Green Lake is privately owned by local tribes and is considered sacred, so swimming, fishing, and boating are not allowed.
We continued on the trail as it narrowed and got steeper. The turns were sharper with high banks for better riders than myself. Where is the easy section? I wondered. I realized taking advice from an information ambassador who has never ridden the trail probably wasn’t the wisest move. Despite that, it was still a pretty cool trail, ride and experience (or so I kept telling myself.)
I came down out of the forest where Mitch was waiting at the map at Jeff’s Link junction. We finally figured out the legend. Ignorance is bliss. Maybe not knowing the difficulty was a good thing. Apparently, we were three-quarters of the way through the ride and we had truly finally arrived at the easy part of the journey. It was still sunny and only 3pm, so it seemed we wouldn’t be stuck in the dark after all, assuming we read the map correctly.
We had a gravel road ahead, then a bit more forest trail followed by a long stretch of concrete path back to where we began.
We biked Lake Tikitapu, through to the existing Te Ara Ahi path on State Highway 5 to connect to the Waipa mountain bike car park.
I couldn’t be happier than to see a slab of concrete. I almost wanted to get down on my knees and kiss the ground.
The good news is I didn’t break any bones or do any major damage to myself. Mitch declared the ride the best he’s ever done. I was too busy concentrating on not falling over and getting injured to fully enjoy it, so I wasn’t looking around at my surroundings as much.
We had a quick dinner at Mok Ja, a local Korean restaurant. Not nearly as good as our Denver fav, Seoul BBQ.
We’re headed home now to rest our tushies. They’re a bit bruised up from all the undulations on a mountain bike seat. I think we’ll be feeling even more pain come morning.
