Southstar Shuttles reveals what the future holds after losing forest shuttle contract

Southstar Shuttles director Jeff Carter started the mountain biking service to take people up and into Whakarewarewa Forest. Photo / Stephen Parker

Rotorua is known to many as a mountain biking mecca and the Whakarewarewa Forest is a destination two-wheeled nomads across the world are drawn to. But visitors to the breathtaking forest did not always have well-maintained and easy access to the trails. One of the key players in turning it into the haven it is now known as was Southstar Shuttles director and founder Jeff Carter. After 13 years, Carter is reluctantly taking a step back. Cira Olivier reports.

People who bought bus passes from Whakarewarewa Forest's shuttle operator could have less than a month to use them before they expire - without refunds.

The operator, Southstar Shuttles, has lost a tender to keep operating the forest's trails and transport services and was to finish on December 1.

MDA Experiences, which won the closed tender put out by land owner CNI Holdings, has offered Southstar the option of continuing until February 24.

The offer would allow the service to run through the summer, provide current staff secured employment until February and give MDA time to trial an upgraded fleet of buses.

But Southstar owner Jeff Carter said he had not decided whether to take up the offer.

Carter said shuttle turnover was down 50 per cent since news broke last month that Southstar had lost the tender and he was unsure yet if this would be an economic decision.

But when the service changed hands the passes would expire.

Carter said he was not sure how many passes were unused at the moment as the business did not keep a record of it.

Pass prices vary from $10 for one to five for $40 and 16 for $100.

One pass gets one shuttle ride and can be used at any time.

Carter started Southstar Shuttles - a service in Rotorua's Whakarewarewa Forest to fill a gap in the market and take mountain bikers and their bikes to the top of the forest trails - 13 years ago.

The business built up a fleet of buses and private-charter Land Rovers, made $150,000 worth of trail developments, created 12 jobs and a global community built on the endeavour, Carter said.

Carter was disappointed.

"We've got to a stage where it's a good business and someone else wants it and they got it, which is really unfortunate," he said.

Southstar Trails had built trails for the past 10 years around the North Island and would continue to do so.

CNI Holdings Ltd manages land and forests collectively owned by eight central North Island iwi and profits are distributed back to iwi.

A spokesman said the organisation's focus was to ensure businesses which profited off the iwi-owned land offered the best market rate which was the reason the competitive tender was run.

He said a competitive tender was a fair process.

The proposals were assessed on several factors including the quality of the service, the experience of those tendering, their capability to deliver it and the price.

"This is very normal and best business practices," he said.

"We, as the owner of the land, have the right and will decide which proposal is the best offer based on a number of criteria.

"We do not expect there to be a change in the quality or frequency of the service provided, and therefore the number of employees engaged in delivering shuttle services in the forest."

Carter, despite his disappointment, was keen to see where new developments would lead.

MDA Experiences director Tak Mutu said Carter's legacy would be hard to follow.

"If I think about three of the biggest factors that have seen the forest become the mecca that it is today ... Southstar would be one of them."

Mutu said it was a hard decision to enter into the tender but MDA did so because they had "bigger visions than buses in the forest".

This included a modernised fleet of buses, trail developments, a gondola, first response services, conservation projects, cultural and ecological attractions and social causes.

This type of development would help ''keep Rotorua at the forefront of bike destinations in the southern hemisphere and potentially the world".

Mutu said there would be up to 20 jobs within the first year and more than 50 if the gondola proposal became reality.

MDA Experiences was working with Carter and would continue to during the transitional period, he said.