I’m currently in Oz & will be going up the East coast from sydney to Bundaberg in the next few days & wondered if anyone knew of any mtb trails/hire places. I’m on my honeymoon/career break/jolly & am really missing a(n mtb) ride.

I’m used to the Welsh trail centres but keen for anything really.

Same goes for NZ (N&S islands) – we’ve got 3 weeks in a camper so keen to explore & fingers crossed get some trails in.

Any hints/tips/suggestions greatly appreciated

Cheers

When I was in NZ I rode at

North
Woodhill Forest, nr Auckland
Whakarewarewa Forest, Rotorua
Wairakei Forest, Taupo

South
Sticky Forest and Lake Wanaka trail, Wanaka
Local Trails in Alexandra – thanks very much to the guy who showed me round!

Kev

It’s a pity you’re going North in Oz. There’s not too much in the way of trail centres but Canberra has some good organised trails and there are some crackers around Melbourne (the You Yangs and the Wombat trail being the best for me with Lysterfield being the most trail centrey and Mount Buller being the most Alpine red bullness place). There are some secret squirrel trails on Mount Tambourine near the Gold Coast but, to be honest, you’d be lucky to find them, even if I tried to give you step by step instructions on how to get there.

In Kiwiland, there’s almost too much to choose from. Rotorua, Taupo, Wellington, Queenstown and Wanaka all have great trails (having ridden them all on my trip over there recently, I can recommend all of them). There are good bike hire places in all of these towns, so hunt around, get the bike you want to ride and get out there!

Enjoy your hols.

Good riding to be had in Castlemaine, near Melbourne. Shame you’re not going that way either.

As for NZ, buy the Kennet Brother’s book. Simple as that.

(and ask around on Vorb.NZ – I met and rode with plenty of locals that way)

Thanks very much for the tips so far.

I knew about the Melbourne trails but was there last week & didn’t have any time for biking at all (but did do the great ocean rd which was great indeed).

Looks like I’ll write off biking for the rest of oz & looks at NZ instead. The Kennet Brothers site is great & that book looks to be the veritable business – many thanks. From their site I came across this site as well – http://www.nzcycletrail.com/

Many thanks again

hold on there!!!

Out the back of sydney near Manley Dam, on the coast there is a Spot called Awaba info here, try this spot or this site pick up a copy of Australian Mtb Bike too. Canberra is a great MTB destination and an interesting city to visit. The mountians of Victoria also have trails known as the Dirty Dozen – 7 stanes idea though it might snow up there soon.

Didn’t make it to Queensland but heard of loads!!

If all else fails find a bike shop and ask!

For NZ there are two good new books as well – North and South by Dave Mitchell. Available from Groundeffect beforehand or widely available here. Some godo alternate rides in them. Or Simon et als book (the Kennetts).
Also tracks.org.nz, vorb etc all useful. Depends where yu are going and what you want to do. As said Rotorua, Taupo nice riding also o/s Taupo Kinloch has W2K and Kawakawa bay both nice rides. Wgtn of course is fantastic. Nelson area, wanaka, QT etc all good.

Snowy Mountains has a few built trails and bike hire. You can hire bikes in the Blue Mountains too, but there’s no built stuff afaik.

When I was in Byron Bay I rode with some people from True Wheel Cycles in Mullumbimby.Some excellent riding just watch out for the carpet pythons!

Kenilworth forest 40 mins inland from Maroochydore on the sunshine coast had a great 45 klick loop for dirt bikes and Mtb’s, i loved riding the place while i was there … carefull of the “locals” tho 😯 and take plenty liquids

I live in manly. going North:
Stop 1 – Ourimbah Forest Park. Its marked (not like UK trails) but good enough. Its a good blast about 12km loop – do it 2/3 times for good ride.

Stop 2 – Awaba. flowy singletrack but short loop 10ishkm.

Stop 3 – Glenrock, Newcastle – you’ll need to hook up w a bike shop and get them to show you the trails, theres a heap of them and they are good fun

check out the NobMob website – it has trail info / directions etc and you may be able to hook up a ride through them as well.

Dont worry about going in to a shop and asking them to show you around trails sort you out a demo bike or something, the scene is very relaxed and people really accommodating.

Happy trails

Many thanks all – all great stuff & greatly appreciated.

The campervan relocation we had due to leave this morning (Sydney to Brisbane) has fallen through so we’re not sure what we’ll be doing or how we’ll be getting there. Probably Byron bay for a few days so i’ll check out True wheel cycles

easygrove – we were in Manly yesterday. lovely place (tho’ crazy expensive cinema tickets (it was p!ssing down so went to see the new Jack McCoy film – http://www.adeepershadeofblue.com/ – excellent but quality of the print/copy was terrible in places (sub DVD quality compression & banding at times)))