Just a twenty minute bike ride from Rotorua you find some fantastic bike tracks in what is known as the Worlds biggest man made forest. The bike park is free to enter, so all it costs to go would be the rental of bikes. Half a day set me back thirty dollars including a helmet which was absolutely needed there.
The tracks were varied grading from one to five in difficulty, but when setting off in an easy route without being cautious you could easily end off in a harder one with unexpected jumps and drops. I liked riding the grade three and four tracks which where challenging enough considering I was riding a hard tail bike with minimum protection. Renting a full suspension with complete gear for downhill would have cost a hundred and sixty dollars a day, and I figured riding just a few of the hardest tracks would not have been worth the difference in costs. Just a few kilometers onwards there was also a gondola lift with downhill cycling trails that also had some quite extreme jumps so Rotorua is definitely a place to go if you are a pro rider looking for World class rides!