Having taken a 10-year break from any form of bike riding, the Redwood Forest posed a challenge.
I loaded the bikes on the back of the vehicle and I dragged my father along with me for this one as we used to bike the Redwoods when I was much younger.
The drive to Rotorua is roughly an hour from Hamilton and well worth it.
My first challenge of the day was to figure out how to steer. The old saying of 'it's like riding a bike' didn't apply so much here. Balance was a little shaky and trying to figure out how to navigate a corner in the car park was hard enough ... how on earth was I going to survive mountain biking? As my last experience as a child ended with me face first in a mud puddle and my bike somewhere further along the track, I'm pleased to say I not only survived this time, I mastered it and had a lot of fun doing so.
We began the day with an easy level one track, also called the 'kids' loop'. We arrived about 10am and there were plenty of families out with kids of all ages, even on those walk-along balance bikes.