Opinion: Is $75 for a few hours reasonable for Crankworx?

The crowd watches in awe as a rider flips in the air at this year's Crankworx Rotorua. Photo / file

I love mountain biking in Rotorua's Redwoods.

There's something to be said about hurtling down deep dips and sweeping bends with the rush of pine forest rushing past. Ironically, it was not something I got into in all of my years growing up in Rotorua. It wasn't until I moved to Tauranga that my husband and I would regularly make the trip through Pyes Pa and Ngongotaha to go for rides along the many trails at Whakarewarewa Forest.

The Redwoods and facilities available for mountain bikes in Rotorua are to be lauded, and are well worth the regular drive over. The city should be proud of itself.

I'm less enthusiastic about the recent Crankworx mountain biking festival though.

When my husband and I were unexpectedly in Rotorua for a family matter on the same weekend as Crankworx, we found ourselves with an empty Saturday afternoon on our hands. So, as any keen mountain biker without a bike would do, we went to watch the best in the world compete in the festival.

But we were stunned it was going to cost us $75 each for a few hours.

Granted, the $75 also covered an all-week pass, and I learned there were "free" days for people during the week. Wonderful. It's nice to know locals are still being looked after.

But I have to question, were organisers deliberately trying to cap visitor numbers?

Rotorua attracts countless numbers of riders to its trails each weekend, ourselves included. How many of them would have paid $75? There were a few in our queue who did. Others did not.

I walked away from the ticket booth feeling disappointed.

As much as we'd like, we can't make the trip over during the week for a "free" day or to even make the $75 each worthwhile. There was no programme available at the ticket counter or entry to let us know what exactly we would have been paying $75 for. Maybe this could have helped sway our decision. Maybe not.

This was a prime opportunity to remind people of why Rotorua remains a premier events destination, but in my view, someone dropped the ball.

I guess we will stick to the Redwoods trails, forewarned for next year.