A world-class adventure park
About Bike Glendhu
A MOUNTAIN BIKER’S PARADISE
Born to be tackled by two-wheeled explorers
Mother Nature spent the last 250 million years crafting her canvas into a mountain bikers’ paradise – our job was to add the finishing touches without ruffling her feathers and lay down a few rules to guard it for generations to come.
Starting with the most important part, our world-class mountain bike trails have been designed alongside ecologists to work within the natural topography of the land, including kanuka scrub, wetlands and rivers. We thought you might also like somewhere to share tales, refuel and refresh, so have built an off-the-grid hub called Base 334 that borrows and blends with the epic landscape.
Our mission is the better well-being and the environment through sharing our passion and this incredible playground.
Our Purpose
To better well-being and the environment through sharing our passion and our playground.
Values
Sharing
To challenge, to lead, to innovate
Brave
Our passion, our playground and our home
Family
Caring for each other
Excellence
Through the delivery of a world-class experience
Health & Wellbeing
Strengthening our environment, our people and our community
OUR STORY
Picking up where nature left off
2015
Where it all began
TIt was here in 2015, on this stunning piece of land, that our “two Johns” met and Bike Glendhu began. John McRae, an out-of-the-box farmer, was always hunting for ways to utilise the land in a way that respected and preserved the natural environment.John Wilson was a corporate-come-health-and-wellness expert with a love of mountain biking.
After attending a wedding at Glendhu Station and hearing the owner was keen to build some trail to offset his fencing plans, Wilson knocked on McRae’s door to ask for access to guide bike riders. The two blokes discovered a shared passion for the outdoors, all things sustainable and a vision to create Wanaka’s first purpose-built mountain bike park.
The deal: if Wilson made it happen then McRae would lease him the land.
2018
Sealing the deal
This was sealed with a handshake, and the work began. Three years of researching, concepting and environmental impact-analysis led to consent for 50km of trail and a base building being granted in May 2018.
2019
A big thumbs up
In 2019, we announced Bike Glendhu to the world and were pretty stoked with the support that flooded in. From local grommets to international athletes, every two-cents, thumbs up and pat on the back fuelled the fire – which came in handy over those first winter trail-building months.
2020
Opening BG
In 2020, Bike Glendhu MTB Park finally opened to the world. In the years since, “BG” (as the locals call it) has weathered floods, landslips, a wildfire and an international pandemic, but today, it is truly flourishing. With over 40km of trails built, a beautiful base area complete with café and beer garden, shuttles and a world-class ebike and full suspension rental fleet, we welcome all riders, from grassroots riders to international professional athletes.
LOOKING BEYOND
Future Vision
We are so proud that the MTB industry has been alit with talk of the renegade “new-kid-on-the-block” bike park tucked into the hillside in Glendhu Bay, a place for progression that is epic for everyone.
In keeping with McRae’s original vision for the land, the bike park is entirely pedal-powered, save for shuttling, which is offset by our Planting Promise to put 30,000 natives in the ground by 2030. The base area is solar-powered offsetting 40 tonnes of carbon per annum, and the park maintains a strict waste minimisation and management plan.
Today we are proud as pie to invite you to enjoy the fruits of our labour, ride the trails, join the community and share in the land that inspired Bike Glendhu. We’ll see you up there.
OUR GOALS
Environmental Goals
Our environmental goals include a comprehensive plan for making sure we can bike amongst these hills for the year’s to come. These objectives include powering our off-grid base with solar energy, planting native trees, reducing single use plastics and minimising waste to landfill.
Through the plan, we’ve been able to develop infrastructure at the park that supports minimising waste through reduction, recovery, reusing, recycling and composting. We’re also working to develop processes for waste produced by events at the park.
SUPPORTING LOCAL LEGENDS
BG Ambassadors
We’re very proud of the fact that our Bike Glendhu ambassadors reflect the community that we have out at the park. They don’t necessarily need to be the best riders (although they do rip), or have the most Instagram followers.
OUR BIGGEST SUPPORTERS
BG Partners
Many hands make light work and it takes a few partners to bring Bike Glendhu to life. We proud to partner with epic brands, who work hard to bring incredible bikes and gear, world-class trails, sustainability initiatives and good times to Bike Glendhu.
GIVING BACK
Donate a plant
Be part of our Planting Promise and help us achieve our Environmental Goal of putting 30,000 native plants in the ground at Bike Glendhu by 2030.