Cycle crazy at the Aranui Bike Fixup School Holiday Programme
As reported by Steven Muir from A Rocha’s Christchurch local group.
A full video report is also available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1JHd6oXGyE
During the hot summer days of January earlier this year, the Aranui Bike Fixup group ran a five-day holiday programme for kids 8 years old and older. Led by Ezra and Steven Muir, the group met each day at Breezes Road Baptist Church before heading off to different locations for cycling adventures. Many volunteers contributed to the holiday programme which included doing safety checks on the bikes, teaching repair skills, fixing up bikes damaged during the week, driving vans, and looking after the kids. Thanks too to the volunteers from Breezes Road Baptist Church who provided packed lunches, sandwiches and morning tea each day!
Monday the group started off the week’s activities at Christchurch Adventure Park in the Port Hills. The Adventure Park generously offered them a free lesson and gear hire which meant that the kids got a great introduction on how to ride single tracks, protective gear and full suspension bikes. Most kids had never been to the Adventure Park before and none had taken the chairlift up so it was a novel and exciting experience. The ‘easy’ track was quite challenging for several kids who had never tackled anything like this before. The more capable riders were then able to tackle some harder tracks.
Tuesday began with an hour of bike maintenance lessons focusing on puncture repair. Lots of kids got the opportunity to poke a hole in a tyre with a drill or a sharpened screwdriver, then remove the tube and repair it. Few of the kids had done this before, so there was lots of learning about how to remove wheels, use tyre levers, sand the tyre, apply glue & patches. Doing it themselves meant the skills were well picked up. The group then went down the road to the Bexley Reserve BMX track where Les from the North Avon Christchurch BMX Club gave them some lessons on how to ride a BMX. Later that day, the group descended on Ascot Disc Golf Course for lunch and attempted to play frisbee golf on bike. It turned out to be harder than anticipated to teach the concept of how to play frisbee golf which was new to most of the kids, and they soon abandoned the idea of doing it by bike and just ran around the course instead.
Wednesday began with another session of bike maintenance before the group headed off to Bottle Lake Forest to bike out to the beach. It was a great day for the beach even though it didn’t quite reach the forecasted temperature of 31 degree celsius. Lots of swimming, sprints on the beach, and jumping down sand dunes made it a fun-filled day.
Christchurch woke up to heavy rain and strong southerlies but the rain stopped by 10am so that the group was able to have their bike maintenance session outside as usual looking at derailleur repair. They had a talk about how to enjoy biking in cold wet weather and what gear can be used to keep warm and dry while cycling, but they didn’t end up needing the spare jackets and balaclavas, as it ended up being another pleasant sunny day. The group was driven to the top of Victoria Park and the faster group biked east along the single track while the slower group took the Summit Road, getting great views over the city and harbour. Several kids had never been up the Port Hills before and everyone loved the scenery.
The final day of the school holiday programme saw the group at the Hornby Velodrome to learn from velodrome instructor, Hamish Ferguson about sprinting around the track with huge berms at each end. None of the kids or volunteers had ever experienced this, so it was very exciting learning to trust that the bike would not slip out from under you on the huge sideways slope on the track. The group then did time trials to compare speeds from mountain bikes to the variety of road bikes in the Christchurch Bike Library.
The final destination for the group was Halswell Quarry for lunch and a chat with Doug Ateremu McNeill about how cycling has benefitted his health and wellbeing. A bike ride was then enjoyed up the Crocodile, with some riders getting an impressive sprint right up to the top of Kennedys Bush, while others doing a smaller loop then heading over to explore the main quarry pit.
The holiday programme ended with cake and some delicious smoothies being blended on the bike blender, and some tools being given out to those who made it through the whole programme. A few kids dropped out over the week and a few new ones joined in, so they had 17 kids at the start dropping to 14 by the end.
Cycle power to operate the blender for milkshakes.
It was a fantastic week with lots of new experiences and a clear improvement in the riding skills of most kids (some were already very good). The feedback from the kids was very positive and the skills they learned are likely to benefit them for many years to come. It was a lot of work from many people to bring it all together, but everyone had a sense of it being a very worthwhile investment of energy for the joy that resulted.
A huge thanks to:
- The Tindall Foundation for providing funding to make the Aranui Bike Fixup school holiday programme free to all participants. Most kids could not have taken part otherwise.
- Nourish Oraka for loaning 25 lunchboxes.
- Chris Davies from Ascot Disc Golf Park for the frisbee hires.
- Oxford Terrace Baptist Church office staff who helped with admin.
- Delta Community Support Trust for the use of their vans.
- Christchurch Adventure Park for the free lesson, gear hire and lift ride.