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Rotorua Deputy Mayor Dave Donaldson said forest ‘counters’ recorded a 50 per cent spike in visitors once New Zealand came out of Covid lockdown. In 2019, the International Mountain Biking Association named the trail network at Whakarewarewa as among the six best in the world, awarding a gold level accreditation as “the best of the best”. More importantly in the closed borders, Covid-19 climate of today, it’s proved a boon to a tourist town that now finds itself in competition with the rest of New Zealand for the domestic visitor dollar. The value of mountain biking was spelt out in a 2018 report commissioned by Rotorua Lakes Council, from Michael Connell & Associates, which found spending by both locals and visitors of between $29.2m and $47.4m per annum.