It's a classic and one of the originals. The Dipper was the first trail we rode when we first came to Rotorua for the weekend to mountain bike.Acouple of laps of this seemed like a big day out back then.
It was only later when we moved here and hooked up with some of the locals, like Mike Lee and Rick Todd, that we began to explore other trails. Gaz Sullivan from NZO (Nzone, then) was also newly arrived, but another Whaka regular who'd made the weekly trip to Rotorua, with his wife, Glen.
As Gaz used to say after making the big move down here: "The only thing I miss about Auckland is going to Rotovegas for the weekend." He took us out on Rock Drop, which had a fearsome reputation. His advice was simple - "stay on my back wheel, follow my lines and try not to think too much''.
It worked most of the time. But there were a couple of over the handlebar incidents. No mercy, though. Gaz wheeled the offender back up the hill for another run at some section of technical misery and made him or her ride it again, while talking them through it. Result: success and very real satisfaction.
I did case myself badly on a section with two consecutive log rollovers a couple of years later while doing a check of the course for the 2003 Oceanias and munted a rib or two. However, Rock Drop has never scared me since Gaz's tutorial. Obi-Wan Sullivan.
