Summer activities are in hyper-drive as many New Zealanders enjoy the holiday break.

Joining the fun is a new adventure park at the bottom of the South Island which is all part of a wider plan to lure tourists south.

Bluff Hill has been transformed into a 26-trail experience called Motupōhue Adventure Park.

Southland Mountain Bike Club has been behind the upgrades in recent years.

Club president Marcus Roy told 1News, "we're really excited. It's been an amazing journey to get to this point."

The long and scenic hill slope is full of twists and turns with roughly 26km of trails all up.

"Currently Bluff is, I guess, the bottom of New Zealand for the mainland," Roy said. "A lot of people come and get a photo with the sign and a photo at the top of the hill, but they generally don't hang around for very long."

He and others in the region wanted it to become one of the country's popular biking destinations.

The hill had an affinity for things with wheels — including the likes of the Burt Munro motorcycle hill climb and Tour of Southland challenge up Bluff Hill.

Now the focus was on the downhill experience.

Te Rūnaka O Awarua chairperson Dean Whaanga has been working with local authorities on a masterplan for Bluff's tourism sector.

Bluff Hill was considered sacred to iwi and plans have been worked through to preserve and develop the area into a "world-class" visitor destination while respecting that.

"When the project was brought to us as part of the Bluff Tourism Master Plan... it showcases our hill here.

"It was a place where we always used to come and play as a Bluffie or a person from Motupōhue... we're pretty excited about it and the opportunities that can happen by bringing people into the Bluff."

Invercargill City Council contributed more than $500,000 to the project along with a generous boost of nearly $1m from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's tourism infrastructure fund.

The hill already had 10 existing trials that were upgraded along with 16 new trails.

The council's parks and recreation manager Caroline Rain told 1News: "[We] did a lot of work with the local mountain bike community and some trail experts to make sure that we put in something that's going to be world-class for the future."

While tourists were the focus, the also exploring different competitions and events.

Roy said: "We've got facilities to be able to cope with large events — bigger events than we've previously had."

"We had the secondary school national [championships] here a couple of years ago which attracted about 600 riders over four days. So we're looking to hold more of those events and even national rounds of cross country downhill [biking]."

And there were plans for a multi-million dollar upgrade at the lookout on Bluff Hill to add to the overall experience — but that still needed funding.

Roy said the next phase would be a track for beginners and those who want to practice before taking on the hill.

"We've got some funding already allocated for a new pump track and skills area so we're about halfway there through the fundraising process."