Anyone have experience or can point me in the direction of some info on this area..?
There’s a couple of hastily cobbled together websites but nothing too informative or very up to date..

The best ones we did were Parihaka MTB trails in Whangarei. There’s not a great deal of trails here, but they are fun. We also rode at Waitangi Forest, but there was no singletrack. The Kennett brothers’ book recommends those two plus the following:-

-Tutu Trail, Ahipara 27km return, intermediate grade. It says you need to check the tides.
-Kaitaia Walkway, near Kaitaia, 12km return, intermediate grade.
-Twin Coast Cycle Trail, Horeke to Opua, 80km one way, beginner. Sounds like a rail trail.
-Glenbervie Forest, 10km northeast of Whangarei. Bike park with intermediate and expert trails (grades 3-5 trails in the book are graded 1 to 6, 6 being the hardest). Says theres 10km plus of trails. The book is a few years old, so could be more now.
– Whanui Loop, 15km east of Whangarei. 17km, grade 3, 70% gravel road, 30% singletrack.

All except Glenbervie get 2/4 for fun factor. Glenbervie is 3/4.

I’d recommend heading further south if you can to Rotorua and Taupo. Just had our first ride at Craters of the Moon this morning, it was great.

Thanks mate… The Parihaka trails will be on my doorstep while I’m out there, but there’s no reason to rule out a little road trip so might head further south too..

great info 🙂

Hey Yunki,

If you are up near Ahipara at all worth checking out the Erehwon trail through the deserted gum fields, takes in some awesome slick rock and ends with a great descent down giant sand dunes.It is in the Kennet bros book.

Definitely worth a road trip down to Rotorua too.

Have a great trip!

If you like it gnarly there’s not much reason to head to Taupo (craters of the moon). Rotorua has lots to keep you entertained for several days. There’s some cracking natural riding a little further south on Urchin and Umukarikari but they’re not exactly bike trails. 🙂

Cheers folks… sounds like I need to track down a copy of the Kennet bros book 🙂

Yeah, what Jon said about Craters. We loved it, but we’re more xc riders. Looked at the map board today and there’s only one black run and 6 red and at least one of those is up hill.

We bought our book out here.

Only got a week left before we fly back to the UK 🙁

If you can get to Taupo then the Great Lakes Trail is lovely, nothing technical but awesome scenary and the start point (about 8ks from Kinloch) gives an 8k downhill start 🙂

also the Timber Trail is another awesome trail, again nothing challenging at all technical but amazing views and mountains