Nelson. Cool place, huge number of trails.

 

Awesome! Thanks!

 

Rotorua.

 

Wanaka/Queenstown

 

I spent 3-6 months planning to move there, but they voted to keep weed illegal XD. My best finds were Dunedin and Queenstown but both suck hard for property prices. QT for tourists and Dunedin for students. Plenty of houses for sale in both but rentals are impossible ,Well that was before 2020 so maybe not now.

There are a few smaller towns within 30m of Queenstown where you can get a much better deal but you won't really find done up places or new developments.

 

Thanks!!

 

Nelson or Queenstown. Most of the population is on the north island so yeah nah yeah. Nelson.

 

There's really only one "big city" in New Zealand: Auckland. And the best mountain biking isn't there. Instead, if you don't mind a 'mid-sized' city with good mountain biking, then check out Wellington. Or, for a 'small city' with good mountain biking, I'd recommend Nelson. Or perhaps Rotorua, which has arguably the best mountain biking in New Zealand (but isn't such a good place to live, IMHO).

 

Thank you!!

 

I live in Wellington..... we have a lot of riding surrounding the region.

WCC promo vids:

Trail Atlas has a heap of GoPro footage of the various rides around Wellington too.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrfqLAacE5VQmelG5Zr2j8g

Basically, anywhere you live/work in the Wellington region, you will have close access to a trail park e.g.

Wellington => Makara, Polhill, Mt Victoria, Miramar
Lower Hutt => Belmont, Wainuiomata
Upper Hutt => Karapoti, Tunnel Gully
Porirua => Rangituhi, Belmont

 

Q: Auckland??
A: You'll be stuck in traffic for an hour+ and your ride(s) will be cut short

Q: Rotorua??
A: Great trails, but place smells like rotten eggs and your car will get broken into while you're out riding

Q: Wellington??
A: Windy city, you'll get blown off the trails... again traffic will be an issue after work.

Q: Dunedin...???
A: Hell Yeah!!
Trails pretty much at you doorstep i.e. I live a 20-30 min pedal from some wicked trails.
Super active community, new trails being developed all the time.
Local government have granted $300K to mtb governing body for the above.
Fun events, year round.
Race events on the local calendar also.
Wanna take time off work and do some shreddage??
Heard North 45 mins, etc and ride some interesting tracks.
Head inland to Alexandra, for some of the best riding anywhere.
Pop over to Queenstown to get your shuttle, gondola fix.
I'm truly lucky to live in a great city, with so many cool trails and with a really active community.
Plus, when time and funds allow I can shoot off for something different... which, in the end - just makes me appreciate how lucky I am to live where I do.

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Nelson.

There are 4 ever-growing areas within 20 mins ride of home. Numerous back-country style loops from town. Several other areas within an hour or two drive with their own trail networks. Very active large local club.

Check it out on Trailforks.

Property prices suck. But otherwise it’s all good here. Bring your climbing legs.


Cheers
Colin

 

Planning a potential trip. How would rank and could you describe the riding regarding the following? If mountain biking is not an option, how about hiking and back packing?

First tier
1. Hastings
2. Masterton
3. Darfield

Second tier
1. Kaitaia
2. Tokoroa
3. Raetihi

Thanks much!


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Planning a potential trip. How would rank and could you describe the riding regarding the following? If mountain biking is not an option, how about hiking and back packing?

First tier
1. Hastings
2. Masterton
3. Darfield

Second tier
1. Kaitaia
2. Tokoroa
3. Raetihi

Thanks much!


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Probably not a huge amount of riding. Hastings/Napier has decent riding at Pan Pac.
Masterton I don't think has any?
Darfield none? But near Mount Hutt and Christchurch.
Kaitaia? Pretty economically repressed and I don't know of any riding. Tokoroa has a bike park, Raetihi, nearish to Taupo. But those are mostly off the radar when it comes to riding.

 

Thanks. How about Levin?


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Tokoroa has a great little bike park but it's also quite close to Rotorua so if you're just visiting Whakarewarewa is the obvious choice.


Also might help if you provide a bit more context about what else you're doing. Your list of places kinda looks like you threw darts at a map.

 

Here.

 

As you can work/live anywhere, I'd look at Rotorua, Taupo, Nelson.

-Rotorua never gets too cold or hot, and the soil type allows riding in all conditions. Rotorua is 100% world class mountain biking. Town is 2-3 miles from the trails, there's a reasonable airport, it's only 2.5-3.0hrs drive from Auckland, less to Hamilton. I should have bought a house there back in 2003 before I left NZ to live overseas.
-Nelson, I've not spent as much time there, and unsure of soil type. But the weather is good, there's a decent airport and hospital etc. It's a really nice spot.
-Taupo is close to Rotorua, and a little more of a vacation town, and gets colder. But, beautiful town and great trails.

Queenstown/Wanaka, are great, but boy are they pricy. Dunedin/Wellington ... you're living in much bigger cities and won't have the "ride to the trails" lifestyle of Rotorua. Wellington has also got really expensive recently for housing. Dunedin has pretty miserable weather in winter. Short days and cold, but not the good cold where you get powdery snow to go explore. It's totally an option, but for 12 months a year of mountain biking, Rotorua is my #1.

Rotorua does have a reasonable level of low level crime. Cars being broken into at trail heads, low level stuff. I think you'd want to be in a nicer suburb near the trails, and ensure bikes are locked and out of sight at home. I have only fond memories of maybe twenty mountain biking trips there over the last 20 years.

 

Just to continue, Rotorua has had a good number of people relocate there for the trails etc, if their careers could work there. Some found that they had to move back to Auckland/Hamilton for careers or kids education, and some found that they rubbed the small mountain bike community the wrong way and sort of outgrew their welcome.

I'd say out of Rotorua, Nelson, Taupo, that Rotorua is the one with the strongest bicycle community as a percentage of total population. Mountain biking is everywhere. Whereas Taupo has a mtb community, but they're not as dominant/visible in the city.

 

Am I to assume the level of crime in Torokora is not like the USA? My daughter may visit. I’m worried about my bike and laptop being stolen. Should I just buy a low spec bike and insure it?


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I never leave a bike on the back/top of a car, even with locks. Maybe if in a cafe and it is literally outside of the cafe. NEVER overnight, and never even outside a supermarket or any place I'm going to be inside for more than a minute.

I never leave anything visible inside the car. My parents hike a lot (well, they used to, they're slowing down now), and after having cars broken into a few times at trail heads, they'd leave the cars (wagon's) completely empty, radio face off and glove box open. Making it 100% obvious that there's nothing inside the car. I think they got broken into twice and I got broken into once when I borrowed their car to go mountain biking.

As far as personal safety, I would say NZ is amazingly safe. Like another level safer than a safe place in the US. It's just the smashing into car windows and stealing bikes from cars/garages that is annoyingly common.

In saying all this, my group of a dozen or more riding buddies do what I do for bike security, and only one has had a bike stolen (road bike unlocked outside a cafe while he sat down for a coffee. He took his eye off it for 10 seconds and it got wheeled away never to be seen again). A friend had his ibis locked to the back of his car on the way from Auckland to Rotorua and popped into a bakery or burger joint to grab something to eat in the car (so a what, 5-10 min stop whilst ordering) and came out to find a couple of youths trying to get his bike off the car. They didn't have anything to cut the lock, so were just yanking it. They scampered off when he came out.

So, never leave a bike on the back/top of the car. Never leave a bag visible in the car. I'd still bring your good bike though. The trails are too good to ride on a bad bike. The only good rental bikes I've seen are e-bikes in Rotorua, where they had Scott Genuis e-bikes. The regular bike rentals seem very budget.

It's truly a beautiful country with super friendly locals, great trails, amazing independent cafes with awesome food. Our standard trip was to drive down to Rotorua on a Friday night, and do a night ride. Then Saturday we'd ride 5 or 6 hours and then go to Fat Dog for a massive feast. Sunday would be breakfast at Zippy's and off for 3 or 4 hours on the trails before heading back to Auckland. Rinse and repeat.

 

Don, I'd move there in second, but once you're living there you gotta have a life .. and riding is an important part of life.

I'd take a step down in salary to have good access to riding.

Think of it as a paid vacation

P.S. Once you move I'll need your address

 

Honestly, either place is grand.

Rotorua is fairly flat compared to here. I've just spent the day guiding my Rotovegas friends around. Despite being fit they just aren't used to the steeps, long climbs up and sharp drops. The term "Nelson Grade 4" was mentioned a few times!! There has been a program of work recently to re-grade the tracks more accurately.

Nelson has become a bit of a multi-sport destination, too. Coastal town surrounded by hills provides endless opportunities for training on the bike, trail running, or on the water.


Cheers
Colin

 

Honestly, either place is grand.

Rotorua is fairly flat compared to here. I've just spent the day guiding my Rotovegas friends around. Despite being fit they just aren't used to the steeps, long climbs up and sharp drops. The term "Nelson Grade 4" was mentioned a few times!! There has been a program of work recently to re-grade the tracks more accurately.

Nelson has become a bit of a multi-sport destination, too. Coastal town surrounded by hills provides endless opportunities for training on the bike, trail running, or on the water.


Cheers
Colin

Yeah, I agree, Nelson should very much on my list. My jobs are currently more location dependent, but if I could remove work, I would have my shortlist of:

1) Rotorua (it's driving distance to Auckland for work/travel, which is a big plus for me)
2) Nelson
3) Taupo
4) Wanaka (if I was rich enough to afford housing and heating the house)
5) Tauranga (an hour from Rotorua trails, but has beach right there)
6) Christchurch