Half-Day Self-Guided Mountain Bike Journey through Whakarewarewa Redwood Forest

My daughter and I were excited about mountaining biking the forest loop track. When we entered Mountain Bike Rotorua, there was no friendly smile or a welcome greeting. "Good morning. We have come to rent a couple of bikes", the young man behind the desk looked up on his phone and gazed over to the women on the till. Once again, "Morning," I said to the lady. No smile, half bothered. "Good morning. What do you want full or half suspension ebikes" ! That was about all the customer service we received, and I handed over $220.00 of hard earned cash for 1/2 day e bikes. Has it become too hard in the service industry to welcome customers anymore and make them feel like they are going to have a great time on one of New Zealands great bike journeys. The trail itself was absolutely beautiful. We met a couple of the friendly volunteers along the way, who are working hard to keep the track great. My recommendation would bring your own bike!

Went with my teenage daughter. While we can both ride bikes this was our first time riding trails. We hired 2 x hardtails for 2 hours for $90 which I thought was a good price. Came with helmets. Staff were friendly and knowledgeable. They suggested some beginner trails and gave us quick tutorial. We really enjoyed the morning. The trails are well maintained and good for beginners - we did the Kids Loop, Tahi, Dipper and Creek in 2 hours. We finished with a coffee at the cafe outside on the deck. Very memorable and definitely worth the time and money. We arrived just after opening and didn't need to book.

A beautiful forest accessible to qq km from rotorua and where it is possible to rent mountain bikes all suspended and electric where I spent 2 hours out of time This whakarewarea forest is a biodiversity reserve with plenty of endemic species and you must of course stay on the trails drawn not to damage anything

This was my first time mountain biking. A clean helmet was provided and a clean bicycle. I decided to be cheap and rented the bicycle without rear shock suspension. The bicycle was comfortable and in good condition, but if I could do it all over again I would definitely rent the higher priced bicycle with the rear shock suspension, believe me your body will really appreciate it after riding for hours like me! The rental process was straight forward, I booked and paid online, and the check in was fast and easy to pick up the bicycle. The trails are easy to navigate, as a first time rider, level 2 was plenty. Nice day outdoors. Good way to start the day, rental was from 9am to 1pm, half day rental.

Incredible! So much fun. Our family has never gone mountain biking before, but it is super accessible for all levels even children. So convenient that this place is right at the start of many tracks. Half day was perfect time for us to try a couple of tracks. The staff were able to help us but could be upskilled in customer communication, despite saying we were very inexperienced, we had to ask a lot of questions to get support. There is also an app they recommended near the end of the session, so it might help to download that which would help navigate the forest.

It was a great day out. Excellent service and advice. The track was sufficiently challenging for us seniors. Great stops along the way to break the journey. It was well signposted. We hired electric bikes which was the best for us. We will definitely be back.

I was expecting a trailer with our bikes on it but they have a beautiful store and super helpful people. The bikes were new and they fitted each to our sizes. Trails started 50 meters from the store. Highly recommended.

The outfit you with bike and helmet. Remember to bring gloves and water bottle. The mountain biking here is the best I’ve ever experienced, and I only did one percent of the trails. I can’t wait to come back someday and try different trails. The 3 to 4 hour experience was a great idea and Viator was great and communicating and for a reasonable price.

Pickup procedure was super easy and directions were clear. The folks who fitted us for our bike even gave some recommendations on paths to take. Overall the mountain biking was scenic/good, but we did have one issue as the chain of one of our bikes fell off about halfway through the day. The team (I think the name was Michael) was very helpful and helped swap out the bike but a good amount of time was lost so we were not able to cover all the distance we wanted. We understand that these things happen and appreciate the team’s help to get us back and going. I would encourage people to think about renting an e-bike based on desired amount of challenge. With just one day it might have been better to cover more ground and see more sites with an e-bike. I wouldn’t change what I did but it’s worth considering!

So good service with kind and professional staff. We had an awesome day. The bikes we rented were perfect and the outstanding service they provided us was awesome. Thank you so much.