Great riding on the Great Lake Trail
We’ve been meaning to get to the Great Lake Trails ever since we picked up our new e-bikes in Taupo in 2017, but only ever managed to do half of the Waihaha part a couple of years ago.
This time we parked the Egg at the Kinloch boat ramp ($20/night, NZMCA self contained only) with a beautiful view of the marina and lake. Short walk to the toilets, good store across the road as well as the puzzlingly well reviewed Tipsy Trout restaurant and bar. This was the perfect place to start the K2K+Otaketake loop, 32 km of well-maintained, exciting Grade 3 tracks. A bit of rain the day before made it more interesting, with tight switchbacks and lots of little gullies obviously designed and built by MTBers. The downhill section from the Whangamata carpark is 10km of grin-making pleasure.
Why can’t they all be this good?
Max elevation: 620 m
Min elevation: 382 m
Total climbing: 501 m
Total descent: -501 m
Total time: 04:02:44
Excellent track building and maintenance makes the Greaat Lakes Ride one of the best in the country
Good signange and directions
You can feel quite remote even though you're just around the corner from Taupo
Typical K2K
The view from the Egg