Wanaka Trail Ride

29/10/2023

A little trip down memory lane. The early years of Wānaka Trail Ride. 🔥🏍️

26/10/2023

THE END OF THE ROAD

It has been quite a ride, but all things must come to an end.

After nine years and seven incredible trail rides, Wānaka Trail Ride has come to the end of the road. We will not go ahead for the 2024 ride and, most likely, will not hold any future rides.

We first held the Wānaka Trail Ride in 2015 and thought we’d only do it for a few years! Well, the support was incredible, and here we are nine years later.

Wānaka Trail Ride has relied on the generosity and support of the incredible landowners who each year open up their properties not only for the event itself but for months prior for the team to set the trails. The event asks a lot of these working farms, and from next year we have lost a large portion of our terrain. Without suitable terrain that would challenge our technical riders and also provide fun tracks for kids and novices, we are not comfortable with going ahead. That’s the appeal of this ride, something for everyone. Understandably, this was never going to be something we could do forever.

We have loved every minute of this event and want to thank all of you who have joined us— whether it’s been for one ride or every ride. Thanks for your energy, enthusiasm, and laughs.

The Wānaka Trail Ride will be remembered as a community-driven success story. There are so many people who have volunteered their time and hard work over the years. From our sponsors and committee members to the volunteers who turn up on the day to help with marshalling, comms, food, registrations, and clean up. A special thank you to Stonewood Homes and Maungatua Contracting Wanaka Limited who have been long-term supporters.

And lastly, the biggest of thank yous to Denis and Sharlene Nyhon and Simon Maling and Lucy Annan. Thank you for opening your farm gates to us. Your incredible generosity has enabled us to raise $180,000 over the years in support of Wānaka Primary School and Montessori Children’s House Wānaka.

Thank you

19/06/2023

Te Wiki Tūao ā-Motu National Volunteer Week is running between the 18th and 24th of June and honours the collective energies and mana of volunteers across the country.

The Wānaka Trail Ride is run entirely by volunteers and today we'd like to give a big shout out to all our volunteers for all they do to make the event so epic!

24/04/2023

On this ANZAC Day, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Each year Wānaka Trail Ride donates $1 from every ticket sold to our local RSA. This year we were able to donate $527, thanks to all of you who came along to ride with us.

We will remember them.

02/04/2023

02/04/2023

Wānaka Trail Ride is an entirely volunteer-run event. So, here's cheers to the team who worked so hard behind the scenes to pull it all off yesterday. And a big tip of the hat to all of the volunteers who have worked at Wānaka Trail Ride over the years, especially those who had the foresight to put such a fantastic community event together. Thanks, and we'll see you next time.

01/04/2023

What a day!
Thank you so much to everyone who came along to ride the trails today. What a cracker.

There are so many thank yous to go out to everyone who made this day possible.
Huge shout out to Wānaka Lions Club who did an incredible job serving up hot food all day long.

Thanks also to the landowners and neighbours who generously allow us access into this incredibly beautiful part of the world. How lucky are we?

Thank you to the hard-working marshal and comms team who kept everyone safe and having fun.

Thank you to St John Wanaka (who thankfully had a quiet day) and helicopter pilot Mark from Rotoworx for getting a few bikes off the tracks.

Great to see Men-Love Berries, Wanaka Powersports and Yamaha Powersports Wanaka out for the day.

And of course thank you to the 20+ volunteers who filled all the extra roles and helped the day run like clockwork.

Looking forward to doing it all again in 2024.

01/04/2023

Anyone lose some goggles? Get in touch if you're missing a pair and can tell us where you lost them!