Day 3 – Mountain biking and the Whakarewarewa Forest (last day in Rotorua)

I read in one of the guide books that the Whakarewarewa Forest had 10 of the best mountain biking paths in New Zealand.

I ended up going on a 5 hour mountain bike epic trying out 13 of about 30 trails. The riding was exceptional. The New Zealanders really know how to design and maintain their adventure activities. The trails were fast with a lot of big drops but all rideable.

Since I was on a rented bike they did not rent shoes for clipless pedals so I was without. Also having not planned to mountain bike I had not brought my padded bike shorts. Finally, what added to the epic was that there was only a single water bottle holder and I only had .5 L bottle. So I undertook a 5 hour mountain bike ride with .5L of H2O and no way to carry food with me. Not the brightest move in the world. The water turned out not to be a problem because on central location to the trails had a water spigot which I could fill up after almost each trail. The food however became a big issue as I bonked near the end and my muscles felt like lead and every hill began to feel like a mountain.

Near the beginning of my ride I ran into a couple of people who invited me to join their 24 hour continuous mountain bike team of which they were only 2 hours into. This seemed like a great idea at the time but I wanted to ride more of the trails so I thought I would meet up with them later. However, after bonking at the end of my ride, I bagged out on the 24 hour race. This turned out to be a good idea because I was pretty sore the next day as it was. Again I wish I had more time to ride the other trails and would tag this spot as a must revisit.

Day 4 – Travel to Taupo and the Geothermal Wonderland
The main sights around Rotorua and Taupo besides the adventure sports are all volcanic in nature - mud pools, geysers, hot springs and mineral deposits. I didn’t realize that large geothermal zones were so rare. A ranger at one of the geysers that I visited said that the largest zones are in Russia, Iceland and the US (Yellowstone). So after seeing a few small geysers and mud pools it made me realize how unique and cool it was to live near Yellowstone. I made me interested in visiting when I get back home.