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Biketober

Strengthening our community’s love of bikes and active transport.

A Biketober cycle maintenance workshop
Wao Aotearoa

News & Events Biketober

Berit Landgraf is regularly seen riding around Wanaka on her beloved cargo bike.  

Out of a passion for cycling, from a frustration that not enough is being done to promote cycling infrastructure, and in the belief that bicycles are one of the best tools to take climate action, Berit became involved with Wao Aotearoa as a volunteer in 2021.

Originally from Germany, but now living in Wanaka, Berit is the organiser of Biketober in the Southern Lakes area which is part of a wider month-long celebration of cycling across New Zealand. Wao Aotearoa manages the event and has created a platform for everyone in the Southern Lakes District (and beyond) to hold their own event and to grow the biking community. In 2023, as well as Wanaka and Queenstown events, Central Otago will also be joining the fun.

Trail Hub had a chat to Berit to find out more and how people can get involved.

A pedal-powered smoothie machine at Biketober 2022.

Biketober includes a variety of events, including keynote speaker sessions.

Firstly, can you tell us a bit more about Wao Aotearoa?
Wao Aotearoa is a not-for-profit organisation that is delivering climate action and inspires, educates, and enables communities to live in balance within a thriving, diverse ecosystem.  

The Wao team agreed to create an action group to tackle our transport emissions. We started the Campaign Get SMART, Get Moving (sustainable modes of active and resourceful travel) which has three goals:

  1. Increasing health & wellbeing.
  2. Reducing emissions related to transport.
  3. Increasing road safety.

We do this by encouraging a shift towards more active transport, use of public transport (where available) as well as better use of cars (car sharing, EVs etc.). 

We started off with a survey to find out how we travel, where the barriers and opportunities lie and to measure change. We are running this survey again this year, in two-year intervals. 

To tackle mode-shift towards bikes we embraced Biketober, an event that is celebrated across the country and launched it in Wanaka. It is a great lead-up towards the Wao Summit at the end of October.  

What is Biketober aiming to achieve?
While we already have a great bike community, we would like to enable it to grow. The aim for Wao is to grow urban cycling in our district and the first step for this is to get people onto their bikes. If that means for people to find fun in recreational biking first, then that is the first step to getting them to consider commuting to work on their bikes. We like to work with groups and businesses to create a fun program for the whole community to get involved, get on their bikes and give it a go!

Why should people attend?
It is an opportunity for people to learn how diverse cycling can be and how many benefits it brings to their lives if they start biking. Biking is simply fun and it is an activity that many age groups can bring together. That is something pretty special, that is often overlooked! 

Events include a community ride along the Clutha Gold Trail to celebrate its 10-year anniversary...

...as well as to celebrate the opening of the new trail extension from Lawrence to Waihola.

What do you have planned for this year’s event?
It is exciting to see Biketober growing this year. There are events planned from Wānaka, Queenstown, Glenorchy, Cromwell and Alexandra. We will start off with our opening celebration ‘Boots to Bikes’ in Wānaka on 30th September to celebrate the transition from skis to bikes. We also have several social rides lined up, some informative talks, school holiday programmes that will focus on biking, as well as some maintenance sessions to learn basic bike care. There will be many more events with some still to be confirmed. Also, if there are other groups that would like to get involved, we would love to hear from them.

How can people get involved? (Both participate in events and host / run an event)?
To get involved just follow: Wao Aotearoa or ‘Get SMART, Get Moving’ Facebook and Instagram pages; or check out the Wao website.

If you would like to run an event, just email us at kiaora@wao.co.nz We would love to hear from you! 

Where can we find more information?
All the details will be published on the website by the end of July 2023. There might be more events added in the lead up to October so please keep checking the website for updates.

Wao Aotearoa Biketober

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