{"id":234378,"date":"2026-01-15T09:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/234378\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T09:37:09","slug":"500k-rotorua-mountain-biking-project-takes-whakarewarewa-forest-loop-fully-off-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/234378\/","title":{"rendered":"$500k Rotorua mountain biking project takes Whakarewarewa Forest Loop fully off-road"},"content":{"rendered":"

Te Ara ki Tumunui (The pathway to Tumunui) \u2013 a new 2km section linking Te K\u014dtukutuku section of the trail with State Highway 5.Te Ara ki Waip\u0101 (The pathway to Waip\u0101) \u2013 improvements to existing forestry roads and construction of new sections of single trail between Te Ara ki Tumunui and Waip\u0101.<\/p>\n

Construction was completed late last year by local companies including Empire of Dirt, Velo Solutions, Ground Base Solutions, Great Rides and the Rotorua Trails Trust team.<\/p>\n

Signage and seating are expected to be installed by March.<\/p>\n

Designed for riders of all ages and abilities, most of the loop trail is Grade 2 and suitable for beginners.<\/p>\n

It offers views of geothermal sites, lakes, forests and cultural landmarks, the council said.<\/p>\n

\"RotoruaRotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell and Tourism Minister Louise Upston at the announcement of improvements to the Whakarewarewa Forest Loop mountain biking trail. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n

Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said mountain biking was a \u201cmassive drawcard for visitors\u201d and contributed more than $130 million in spending a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re grateful to the Government for recognising the importance of investing in our world-class trails.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upston told Local Democracy Reporting she recognised funding was often the \u201ctipping point\u201d for whether these sorts of projects happened or not and was happy to have invested in the track. <\/p>\n

As for riding the trail herself, the Taup\u014d MP was still a \u201cbeginner\u201d mountain bike rider but looked forward to coming back and seeing how the trail was performing.<\/p>\n

\" Tourism Minister Louise Upston in Rotorua announcing a $250,000 investment towards improvements to the Whakarewarewa Forest Loop mountain biking trail. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n

In a statement, she said the funding was among several cycle trail infrastructure announcements as part of the new $70m Major Events and Tourism Package.<\/p>\n

The improvements would bring more visitors to Rotorua and give riders a better, safer experience on New Zealand\u2019s \u201cnewest Great Ride\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said an increase in visitor numbers would benefit local businesses, jobs and the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a win for tourism, a win for safety and a win for everyone who loves to ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rotorua Trails Trust chairman Grant Utteridge said Rotorua had long been regarded as the home of mountain biking in New Zealand, but it now had a truly \u201cworld-class mountain biking loop\u201d for all riders. <\/p>\n

\" Rotorua Trails Trust chairman Grant Utteridge. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last five years our surveys have consistently said that the concrete path was terrible because it wasn\u2019t a great experience or it was really good because it was fast and you could get back to the forest,\u201d Utteridge said in humour.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we took on board the terrible nature and largely through the leadership of the council we can now celebrate the new off-road section.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said early feedback from users had been \u201cincredibly positive\u201d.<\/p>\n

RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson said the loop track is an \u201cessential asset\u201d for Rotorua\u2019s visitor and tourism economy. <\/p>\n

\" RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson speaking at the announcement of the now fully-off-road Whakawerawera Loop Trail. Photo \/ Mathew Nash<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is big business for us,\u201d he told onlookers braving the heavy rain at the announcement on Thursday. <\/p>\n

The Government launched the $50m National Cycleway Fund (Ng\u0101 Haerenga) to kickstart the Ng\u0101 Haerenga Great Rides project in 2009, the council statement said.<\/p>\n

The original Whakarewarewa Forest development, which included the loop trail, received $7.09m from the Government.<\/p>\n

The Whakarewarewa Forest Loop opened in stages during 2020 and was added to the Great Rides network in 2022.<\/p>\n

Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.<\/p>\n

\u2013 LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Te Ara ki Tumunui (The pathway to Tumunui) \u2013 a new 2km section linking Te K\u014dtukutuku section of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[138859,21525,3247,25282,4516,21524,111,43,139,69,58601,3263,1327,1120,68113],"class_list":["post-234378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-500k","tag-biking","tag-forest","tag-fully","tag-loop","tag-mountain","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-offroad","tag-project","tag-rotorua","tag-takes","tag-whakarewarewa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}