Changing the world, one ride at a time.

Founded in 2013, World Off-road Riding Department is a youth mountain bike charity based in Wellington, Wānaka, and Ōtautahi, Aotearoa providing amazing life changing adventures for 7-17 year olds.

The charity you wish you had when you were a kid…

What started as an outsider with a crazy idea in 2013 has now exploded into the largest youth mountain bike charity in Aotearoa. WORD has taken a different approach to youth sport... Focusing on the adventure, connections with each other, self, and the environment, leadership, and a no excuses approach to gender equity, we are super proud to be truly making a difference to young people and their whanau in our communities.

Come join us for the ride!

Our Values

Youth Centered

Young people are at the heart of ALL decisions. For youth, with youth.

Adventure

We’re fun. We’ve got grit. We’re risk takers. We’re bravely kind.

Connection

Connection to self. Connection to others. Connection to the environment.

Fight for Equity

We create access, support, and celebrate diversity + equity - always.

Embracing change

Embrace change: Gather the knowledge to inform and guide. We adapt. We are agile.

Changes to WORD Ōtautahi for the upcoming season 2024

WORD Ōtautahi has made the difficult decision to pause its Term Programmes and Holiday Camps for the remaining summer season.

Due to current challenges and constraints we are no longer able to continue operating in the same capacity. However, we are still deeply committed to our mission and will continue to explore ways to serve the community and youth in the future.

We also remain committed to delivering a couple of key projects within the Christchurch community over the next few months – read more about it here.

That’s a wrap!

What a year it’s been! We’re stoked to have had over 1000 rangatahi and tamariki riding with us across Aotearoa! Everything from our core term programmes and holiday camps to special events like the Thumb-riaser and Bike-a-palooza. Thanks to extra funding we ran new programmes specifically targeting girls and young women like the Dirt, Soul, and LOLs in Ōtautahi, and The WONDERS in Wānaka, a 4 week programme with the grand finale of a bike packing trip!

Check out our wrap up report for more goodness!