Wanaka is a great place for mountain biking. Filled with heaps of trails ranging from beginner to expert. In wanaka you can bike for days and never ride the same trail. People flock from all around the world to ride at queenstown and wanaka. But most people don’t even get to ride half of the good trails here in wanaka. Some good places to ride are: Sticky Forest Trail System, Hikoi Loop, Deans Bank Loop and Lismore Forest Jump Park.
Sticky forest is a great place to ride. It hosts 47 amazing trails. The trails range from easy to extreme. To get to sticky forest there are 3 places to enter: the first one is through the Sticky Forest car park which you access either on Rata Street or Forest Heights road. The second is Venus landing clearing which you access through Infinity Drive. The third access point is through the Lake Outlet Holiday Park. Once you are in sticky following the mapped route to the double gate (the starting point of most of the trails) there will be a map there. One of the best loops from the double gate is down Peroxide up Tunnel of Love then down 4G and up Chairlift from there you can go back to your car or house. This loop is great for beginners or children. My mom and little brother love this loop and it only takes about an hour. A List of some of the easy downhill trails are: 4G, Peroxide, Easy street, Hoe down, North Face, Dizzy Turns, Venus, Stumpy, Yumps and School Boy This is all the main trails ridden by all. Sticky forest is definitely the main riding place in wanaka.
Hikoi is an easy, family friendly loop. With 1 main loop and lots of different options. Also on gunn road there is a small skills park. The entrance to Hikoi is Gunn Road and the Outlet CampGround. Riding slowly it takes 1.5 hours, it is a marked trail but there are lots of turn offs so make sure to follow the arrows. I don’t recommend riding this trail after a frost as it gets muddy. This is probably the easiest trail in wanaka. But it is also really fun and has some great views.
Deans bank is a really fun trail that is great for learners or if you want to get fitter. It has some good uphills and descents. It is one of the more out of town trails but it is worth it for the amazing views of the river and the lake.You can access this trail at the Albert Town DOC campground. This is an easy grade trail that is a 11km grade loop that can take 1.5-2 hours with kids. There is a ½ way cut off just after you pass the picnic table on the left. At the picnic table you can choose between the normal route or the new flow trail on the left. The flow trail hooks back onto the normal loop. The flow trail is fun with jumps and is a bit harder than the normal trail. This is definitely one of the more popular trails in wanaka because of how fun it is.
Lismore Bike Park is a jump bike park off Plantation Road. It is the best place to practice skills. And it is very close to the town center. On a normal weekend there will be loads of riders riding and digging new jumps.The easy/beginner areas are: pump track by the water tank. The two easy jump trails on riders left in the main forest area. Also there is a track going over the back called rock and roller. The jumps get harder as you go further to the rider’s right. This area is great for practicing your skills and learning new ones. One thing that the people that maintain the jumps ask for you to water the jumps you are riding. This is to keep the dust down and also to keep the jump from being eroded. But always remember that it is a public facility so let other people have a go on the jumps as well.
In conclusion, wanaka has loads of fun trails that anyone can ride no matter what skill level. Some of those are: sticky forest, the trail system with loads of trails and heaps of fun. Hikoi the family friendly short loop. Deans bank, the scenic 11k loop with lots of fun trails. Lizzy woods (aka lismore) the best place to refine your skill and maybe even learn new ones. Wanaka is a great place to ride and soak up the view.
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