[max123]

Hey my name is max and I am going to be staying in auckland from the 13th to the 22nd of february. I will have 4-5 free days to go ride and have seen some stuff on the web so far but have no real idea of what I'm going to do (the main thing i've looked at is woodhill bike park). What shops would be good to go to? Are there any good options for renting nice well maintained bikes so I don't have to bring my own? Where are the must go spots/trails? I am interested in all kinds of riding, dh racing, xc, all mountain, skateparks, 4x/slalom, dj's etc. If I were to bring my own bike I would probably bring my blur 4x on account of its versatility, so anything that would be good for that would be sweet. Any help is greatly appreciated,
-Max

 

[MikeD]

Up north like that, Woodhill is great. There aren't too many trails up there compared with elsewhere in NZ, though. Buy the Kennet Bros. book Mountain Biking in New Zealand if you can. Many of the trails they talk about are long, old-school dirt road and doubletrack rides, but a lot of them are fun.

The "honeymoon commune" ride up north was a pretty cool old carriage-road slog with some portages across logs, etc.

I think there are some dirt jumps down near Hamilton, as well. If you can get away for a day at Rotorua, DO IT.

Most importantly, register at www.vorb.org . One of the locals will come out and ride with you. There's a shop up there that has a popular forum, too...it's outside of Woodhill...the Vorb guys can direct you to them, as I forget the name...

Have fun. There are some really cool beaches up that way, too. Can't say I find Aukland to be much of a charming city, though.