Aotearoa Bike Challenge gets nearly 2300 Bay of Plenty residents and workplaces rolling

Rob Griffiths and team biking to work during the Aotearoa Bike Challenge. Photo / Supplied

Kiwis set their wheels in motion during the Aotearoa Bike Challenge throughout February, with 2040 Bay of Plenty residents and 228 workplaces making 2265 trips by bike.

This amounted to the cycling of 301,604km in total, saving 14,458KG CO2 (carbon emissions).

Nationally, the challenge inspired nearly 4000 new riders onto their bikes, and with more than 23,000 Kiwis from about 3000 workplaces taking part, an impressive 3,990,517km was cycled over nearly 270,000 trips.

New Zealanders saved 226,898KG CO2 (carbon emissions) entering our atmosphere – an improvement of more than 15,000KG CO2 compared to the 2022 Aotearoa Bike Challenge, showing Kiwis can play their part and have fun while doing it.

Rob Griffiths, who works at the Ministry for Primary Industries in Rotorua, managed to get more than half of his organisation signed up for the challenge.

For Rob the challenge was a great way to bring people in his workplace together for a fun and engaging activity.

“The Aotearoa Bike Challenge is great for us as a workplace as we are located in a bike-friendly location, so it’s perfect if people choose to ride to work.

“A lot of our staff also mountain bike in their personal time and our office is right next to the Whakarewarewa Forest, so it’s really convenient.”

He says they used a variety of methods to get people on board. For example on “Go by Bike Day” a number of the team met up on their way to work to ride to the office. Informally, some of the staff took the opportunity to clock a few kilometres riding in the forest at lunchtime.

“It’s great that the challenge is about getting out and riding overall, rather than just focusing on commuting.

“This really helped to get a range of staff on board, from weekend cycle warriors to commuters, people riding to the dairy on the weekend and someone even training for Ironman,” Rob says.

The challenge is now complete, however, it’s not time to hang up the helmet and retire the bike yet.

The Aotearoa Bike Challenge wishes to encourage Bay of Plenty residents to continue with their wheels in motion, to get creative with how they commute and incorporate cycling into their lives, and to enjoy the outdoors.

For more information and the 2023 results go to www.lovetoride.net.