🌟🚵‍♂️ WHAKA WEEKLY 🚵‍♂️🌟 27th November 2025

Weather: Bit hot mate, cooler in the trees tho and swims in the lakes after are dreamy!

Dirt: Fantastic and fasssssst

Another cracking week in the forest with 137 hours of quality mahi from the RTT crew and the incredible adopters! With summer rolling in and the trails drying out, we're full steam ahead on building, refurbishing, keeping the vegetation under control, and keeping everything in premium condition ready for your summer holiday or staycation in Rotorua. Get out the and enjoy!

🌟 TRAIL HIGHLIGHT: SPLIT ENZ REIMAGINED

Alright folks, let's talk about what's been happening on Split Enz because this project is SPECIAL.

The Rotorua Trails Trust build crew has been working day-in, day-out (in between significant storm interruptions!) alongside the adopter to reshape, reimagine, and rebuild a section of Split Enz.

Split Enz is Rotorua's longest single trail at 5km, so we didn’t rebuild the whole thing in one go. But what HAS been done is a taste of why resurfacing is just as good as — and sometimes even better than — building new.

Resurfacing brings the original vision back to life.

It's faster, it’s cheaper, and the impact hits just as hard.

Plus, resurfacing significantly reduces maintenance required in the following years, so actually saves a mountain of money long-term.

And the best part?

You now have an amazing section of trail to rediscover and fall in love with all over again.

And yes — we can hear you already: “Do the rest!”

We CAN.

But only if we do it together.

These projects are crowdfunded, not done for profit, but done for love.

If you want the rest of Split Enz reimagined… chip in.

Make it happen.

Make it real.

The dream is sitting right there waiting.

Donate at www.rotoruatrailstrust.co.nz

🌏 MEET THE BUILDER: SCOTT FROM BEARTRACKSANDTRAILS

This rebuild was led by international trail builder Scott — a guy who spends his year building trails in Japan, across Europe, Australia, and all over NZ.

And yet… he keeps coming back to Rotorua.

Why?

Because he loves this place. He loves the trails, he loves the community, and instead of taking big contracts overseas, he chooses to bless us with his time and talent every year.

That’s the magic of Whakarewarewa Forest — world-class people choosing to invest in something bigger than themselves.

Get out there and ride the new section. Feel the flow. Experience the vision.

Then imagine what the rest could be. 🚀

🎉 AGM & VOLUNTEER AWARDS NIGHT — 2025 WRAP-UP

Two weeks ago we held our AGM and Volunteer Awards Night — a chance to celebrate the people who keep this forest alive. Here are the legends who took home the top honours:

🏆 New Trail Adopter of the Year – AJ Walters (New Exit)

You know why — he has single-handedly rebuilt this trail. Simply epic.

🏆 Community Trail of the Year – The Brains Trust (No Brains)

A model of what community-led adoption looks like. 679 hours of volly work in the last 12 months. Incredible.

🏆 Community Spirit Award – Rotorua Rinkly Riders (Te Poaka)

Not just Te Poaka, but also the Planet Bike Picnic Arena, Be Rude Not To refresh, and building a massive community group that is inclusive, supportive, and gives purpose to many people. Love them, love their ethos.

🏆 Most Reported Hours – Ian Young (Split Enz)

Machine-level consistency — 296 hours from one person in one year!

🏆 Young Adopter of the Year – Colton Boardman (Mini DH)

The future of trail stewardship — not just an epic rider, but giving back to the trails he loves. Young and old, we could all learn from him.

🏆 Forest Loop Adopter of the Year – John Fiesst (Feeder)

With over 116,000 annual visitors, John ensures they always have a beautiful experience.

🏆 Roaming Adopter of the Year – Les Thorne (Whaka Forest)

If it needs doing — he’s already there.

🏆 Above and Beyond Award – Andrew Burt (Whaka Forest)

A true leader who helps others succeed. Organised 680 hours of working bees and cleared over 150 hours of trees. Legend of the Forest.

🏆 Volly of the Year – Toni Fleming (Whaka Forest)

Heart, consistency, and community spirit in one package. 100% there at every event, every working bee, every tree clearing job. The definition of "work hard, stay humble."

These are the people who make this place run. Absolute legends.

🌳 Forest Loop – Te Kōtukutuku Extension

FIVE hours on Thursday spread across drains, vegetation, and surface repairs! Full comprehensive maintenance on this extension keeping it running mint!

🏗️ Corridor (lower)

One hour from the adopter on Thursday split between drains and vegetation. A quick and effective hit to keep the vegetation under control and the drains ready for the next storm.

🦆 Dipper

Two hours on Friday — one hour tree clearing, one hour surface repairs. Yarp, when trees fall down, they sometimes take out some track too. Great reporting allowed us to get out there and get this trail back in form lickety split.

1️⃣ Tahi

Took us two hours to clear up that gosh darn tree. All good now though — ready for riders of all levels and ages to pump out some laps on one of the most unique and varied trails in the entire network.

🌰 Chestnut Link

We finally found that tree! Cheers for the reports — glad to get it sorted.

🚶 Puarenga

FOUR hours on Friday — two hours blowing and two hours vegetation work. All done by one volunteer who every year takes a day off work to come and volunteer at Rotorua Trails Trust! So rad. If everyone who could do that, did do that… just imagine! Maybe you didn’t even know you could do that?! You can! Give us a shout and have your next work volly day giving back to the forest that gives us all so much.

💨 Divine Wind

Two hours from the adopter on Friday doing surface repairs. They have taken a tree that fell directly over the track and turned it into an incredibly fun jump! So cool eh! Big shout out to the trail adopters who are always up there tinkering, making sure that Divine Wind is always in awesome condition and super fun to ride.

🎭 As You Do

THREE hours from the adopter on Saturday hitting ALL the bases — one hour on drains, one hour on vegetation, one hour on surface repairs! Full trail maintenance magic! The adopter on this trail consistently shows up, puts in the mahi and the love. Chur bru!

🐦 Box of Birds

Same adopter as As You Do and just over TWO hours on Saturday — also spread across drains, vegetation, and surface repairs. Quick, efficient, comprehensive maintenance!

🐷 Pig Track and 🐷 Piglet

Big amount of work and a little poem too, legendary:

“Blower, rake, spade and saw;

Needles, potholes and blackberry no more!*

*within reason:”

That’s heaps eh!

🐗 Te Poaka

THE LEGEND RETURNS! The Te Poaka adopters, Rotorua Rinkly Riders, have done it AGAIN! THIRTY-TWO HOURS of surface repairs, berm building, and general awesomeness on Monday.

Last fortnight we were speechless when they dropped 44 hours. Now they're back with another 32! Rotorua Rinkly Riders have put in SEVENTY-SIX HOURS on Te Poaka over the last week — SEVENTY-SIX HOURS!

This isn't just trail adoption — this is trail OBSESSION in the best possible way! This is someone who sees the trail as their masterpiece, their legacy, their contribution to the community! When you ride Te Poaka, you're riding the result of genuine passion and dedication!

We're running out of ways to express how incredible this is. LEGEND doesn't even cover it anymore! 🙌🙌🙌

Why do they do it? They do it for YOU, so you have the best possible trail this summer. Enjoy.

🆕 New Exit

Two hours from the adopter on Monday dialing in the berm at the crossing with Old Exit. Love that passion and dedication — not just building it, but refining it to perfection. Absolutely crazy dedication and passion. Love your work buddy!

🌿 Forest Loop – Te Pou Koropū

One hour on Monday split between blowing and vegetation! Keeping the Forest Loop network tidy!

🎪 Dodzys Skills Park

We are getting things all set for an epic summer in Dodzys! The RTT crew dropped off 3 MASSIVE trailer loads of Rotorua Gold up to the adopters of Dodzys. Now they are fully prepped to do as much reshaping, resurfacing, and rebuilding as they can dream up.

We couldn’t do this without the generous donation of Gold Dirt from Aaron and the team from RNL Quarry. Can’t thank you enough for this eh — legends!

Also massive shout out to TW Moore Quarry for looking after us so well when we need fines to repair trails and the unsung heroes at Rotorua Forest Haulage for digger diesel.

📊 BY THE NUMBERS

💪 137 hours of trail work

💰 $8,176 value delivered to the forest

🙌 55 hours from incredible adopters (40% of all work!)

👷 82 hours from our paid crew

🚜 Digger still going strong on major projects

Task breakdown:

• 57 hours surface repairs

• 27 hours digger work

• 18 hours vegetation

• 11 hours hand building

• 9 hours blowing

• 5 hours drains

• 5 hours tree clearing

ADOPTER HEROES THIS WEEK:

• 32 hours on Te Poaka (76 hours in the past month!)

• 5 hours on As You Do and Box of Birds

• 2 hours each on Divine Wind and New Exit

• Multiple 1–2 hour sessions across Pig Track, Piglet, and Corridor Rebuild

The adopter community is CRUSHING IT right now! Forty percent of all work this week came from adopters! That's the power of people who genuinely love their trails!

💚 SUMMER VIBES & SUMMER SUPPORT

Summer's here and the trails are in EPIC condition! Split Enz transformation is done, Forest Loop keeps expanding, and the trail crew and adopters are keeping everything absolutely mint!

This is the result of consistent investment in the forest. Every donation helps us keep building, transforming, and responding when storms hit.

Want to support this level of work? Donate or become a member at www.rotoruatrailstrust.co.nz

Your support means more digger hours, more trail development, and more rapid response when nature throws us challenges!

🙏 MASSIVE thanks to everyone who got out there this week - especially our adopters who put in 55 hours of pure passion! You're the backbone of what makes Rotorua trails special!

🤝 Support the work at www.rotoruatrailstrust.co.nz

Remember folks, these trail reports show funders that our community is ACTIVE,

ENGAGED, and BUILDING for the future! Every logged hour proves that Rotorua takes trails seriously!

So if you are out there putting in the Mahi, please report your hours on Trailforks or shoot me a message at comms@rotoruatrailstrust.co.nz. It makes a huge difference.

🚵‍♀️ Summer's here - get out there and enjoy! 🚵‍♂️