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Kia Ora koutou and Happy Matariki!
I hope you all had a great long weekend surrounded by Whanau and friends! It was so good to have the sun shining for our Matariki Whanau Ride on Friday! Mat, Dave and our team of wonderful instructors were super stoked to welcome 80 people for fun laps, good chats and delicious sizzles! Thank you so much to all who joined us, it is so heartwarming to see a community coming together!
Unfortunately I missed out on the Whanau Ride since I was already booked on a big gang trip to Rotorua (not so unfortunate actually) with a dozen of my Welly riding friends! How cool is it to think that mountain biking makes people "ageless"!? Or sort of...Surely I'm not the only one, but when I sit on my bike, it's like if I were 12 years-old again and all I want is to go play bikes with my friends until the sun goes down! We spent three days doing laps on laps on laps in the Whakarewarewa Forest and I'm pretty sure we could all have kept going for another three days! I guess we could say it was like a WORD holiday camp, but for adults?
Speaking of WORD holiday camps, in a week from now young riders will be dropped off for their first day of camp and I really hope they leave hungry for more when they get picked up to go home. If you've been on the fence with wether or not joining the holiday camps, it's not too late, there are still a few spots available for boy and girls of all abilities! Schedule and availabilities are listed below and you can read more on our website.
See you out on the trails and Ngā Mihi,
Claudia and the WORD Whanau!
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Thank you for your support!
WORD being a charity, we rely on participant fees, grants and donations to keep our operations running. We cannot be thankful enough for all the kind and generous souls out there who keep supporting us year after year, helping us get more tamariki and rangatahi into the outdoors and saving the world one ride at a time! This month, we are especially thankful for three of our awesome friendly bike shops, big Aroha to you all!
- Get Lost Cycling has donated $1000 worth of fancy parts for us to sell with all proceeds going straight into our operational costs.
- FS Cycles has put together a set of two evening mechanic workshops at a very low price for our teenage participants and instructors. These will be held on 9 and 16 of July and there are still two spots available if you're interested. Book Here
- My Ride Wellington, thank you for constantly spreading the WORD (pun intended) and for always supporting everything we do!
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July Holiday Camps!
Bookings are still Open!
And here we are counting down to the start of the holiday camps! If you're staying in Wellington for the holidays, check out our great lineup of day camps, we still have a few spots available for both girls and boys! New places will be explored, new skills will be learned, friendships will be made and many snacks will be eaten! These school holidays won't be short of adventures! Check out more below:
7-9 year olds
8-9 July : Know your Local - Full
10-11 July : Van Camp! - Full
11-12 July : New to WORD - 5 spots left
15-16 July : Know your Local - 3 spots left
10-12 year olds
8-9 July : Know your Local - 5 spots left
11-12 July : New to WORD - 3 spots left
11-12 July : Dig your Ride Mt Victoria! - 4 spots left
12 July : Shuttle Day! - Full
15-16 July : Know your Local - Full
16-17 July : Van Camp! - Full
18-19 July : Van Camp! - 3 spots left!
13-17 year olds
11-12 July : Dig your Ride Mt Victoria! - 4 spots left
12 July : Shuttle Day! - Full
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WIN A YETI 160E and help support WORD!!
Only 10 days to go before we draw the lucky winner of the mighty YETI160E! Thanks to our fantastic mates at YetiNZ and Dropping Inn, we’ve been able to raffle off this incredible ebike with all proceeds going straight back into WORD! This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and we are so stoked to have sold just over 450 tickets! The good news is...it's not too late, there are still some tickets available.
$50 buys you a ticket (you can buys as many as you like) for the chance to win this dreamy ebike worth $16k and help more kids come ride bikes with us at WORD! Talk about a dose of good trail karma! If you are drawn as the lucky winner, you will be able to choose your size and favourite colour, and get it shipped to you. You can also choose to upgrade your ride to a higher-spec model! Check out Yeti Cycles for more details on bike specs options. The winner will be drawn on 11 July at B.Social, Wanaka.
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WORD people doing cool things! - Emma Bateup
The WORD Whanau is full of wonderful individuals who make our organisation what is! Therefore we’d like to showcase some of the amazing and exciting things our people get up to!
At the end of this month our very awesome Emma Bateup will be jumping on a plane to Denver, Colorado and embark on what will be just another one of her epic adventures : The Colorado Trail Race. The CTR is a fully self-supported race spanning over 850km with a mere 24 000m of climbing (that’s about 3 Everests!) from Denver to Durango. Participants traverse through high alpine terrain, dense forests, rocky passes, and challenging mountain climbs. The trail is primarily singletrack, demanding constant attention and skillful navigation. Emma’s first goal is to simply finish the race, however, should everything be going well, she believes she could break the women’s record curently set at 5 days, 1hr, 53min. Dot watchers, you’ll be able to follow Emma’s progression on Trackleaders. Good luck Emma, the whole WORD team knows you'll totally crush it!
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Founder's Folly
Bentonville, it's a whirlwind
If you’ve never heard of Bentonville, then you’re in for a treat. Like most people in Bentonville, they have/are working for the $546 billion dollar(?!) Walmart corporation. Over the past 2 decades, The Walton Foundation have donated over $75 million dollars to build and maintain trails (and cycling infrastructure) to make Bentonville into a mountain bike destination. How much? Well…'the foundation supported the construction of 208 miles of natural-surface trails and 72 miles of multi-use paved paths’. Each year over 100,000 people visit the region bringing in over $140 million in economic returns… sounds like a good investment if you ask me. Read more about Ash's adventure in Bentonville!
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Huttcross - Two races to go!
28 July | 18 August
Huttcross Cyclocross racing is a 5 race series in the Wellington Region with grades to suit all abilities and all ages from kids race right through to A grade racing. In the kids racing, C and B grades you can ride any bike you like, so come along to the remaining races to see what cyclocross is all about. These friendly "races" are all about good vibes, trying something new, making new friends!
To understand more about Cyclocross or enter a race, head to Hüttcross website, but if you are a first timer and keen to give it a go, email huttcross@gmail.com to get your first-timer's code and a race for free!
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