Arrived in rotorua on Friday at 17:30 the place stinks a bit with all the sulphur in the air but I'm used to the smell from work.
I camped up at the top 10 campsite for the last 3days i was planning on roughing it here but the serviced campsites are only $18 which is about £8, you get spa, hot pool, swimming pool, washing facilities and my favourite outdoor barby's. I was in town today and some of the local newsagents have tunes blasting out it was funny watching the Pakistani man who owned the shop bopping about to Bob Marley's could you be loved.... The locals are dead nice and helpful the bike shop Bike Vegas is a good place to go if you need anything for the bike the guys are sound. At the weekend there is a shuttle service for the mountain biking its $30 for 6 runs so today(Sunday) i took the option after a hard day yesterday and payed for the uplift.
It was well worth it i rode the national DH track a few times and then hit the single track trails at the end of the day taking about 25min to get to the bottom it was a perfect way to end the day. The weather over the last 3 days has been unreal its so hot and long may it last..
I'm off to the Luge then the geysers and the volcanic pools tomorrow then I'm off to Napier which is on the east coast to get some beach action Napier is about about 2hrs drive from here.
Trails
There are over 100km of trails 
in the forest and as soon as you get in from the car park there are trail start points everywhere. All the trails are graded in colours 5 different colours, White(easiest), green, red, blue, black and a black 6 the (hardest) and they also have a number system that works in conjunction with the colour boards to let you know how severe it is. The trails themselves are hardpack, very loose/dusty very fast, tight and great fun. Most climbs involve the fire roads but there are a couple which you get in the woods for.
The hill's that the Forrest is situated on is not that big in terms of height but the trail builders have done an amazing job for what they have all the trails are flowing you are required to pedal in some bits but its well worth it. Anything from a hard tail to a light 6' travel bike would be ideal for here..one of the best trails in the forest is rated green its called corners and it is exactly that if you can carry your sped well then the speed you get is unreal.
DH track
The National Dh track is very different to the rest of the trails in the forest it is steep rutted loose and has some big drops doubles and step downs. There are a few different lines down but i chose to stay with the National track as i only had 6 uplifts(1 afternoon) to try it out if you can keep the bike pumping along the track its class the amount of speed you can carry and the corners are surprisingly grippy with the odd one that will just give out there are 2 step downs one that's about 12ft and the other just after the fire road is about 20ft in length and drops down about 12ft so you need to carry a good bit of speed over it or your mince meat, the final jump at the end is about 50ft, I never tried it partly because i never had any armour and secondly cause I never wanted to spangle myself (which is what probably would of happened) or my bike after only being here 3 days.
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