Smart and easy Waiheke travel – e-bikes have arrived!

Jan 09, 2015
Smart and easy Waiheke travel – e-bikes have arrived!

BarbC

My request on Monday for guest blogs has brought new blog authors. You’ll meet them over the next few days – they all have great ideas for cycling around Auckland. This is the first.

I’m delighted to introduce this Waiheke team, as I spend most of the summer on Waiheke. Since the demise of the local ‘bike racks on bus’ service, Last summer I commonly found red- faced people collapsed beside their bikes in a patch of shade, contemplating yet another hill.

Waiheke has a busy summer programme, with Headland Sculpture on the Gulf starting on 23 Jan and running until 15 Feb. The island is heaven for cycling – terrific beaches, vineyards, eating places and stunning landscapes, but the hills are a constant and unavoidable feature. Waiheke ebikes 2

E- bikes have made a quiet cycling revolution on the island – the place is now full of smiling tourists of all ages on e-bikes. More people biking = more pleasant and safe road conditions for all, including people cycling.

With that intro I welcome Darleen Tana and Christian Hoff-Nielsen. (That’s Darleen in the photo above)

Guest blog from Darleen and Chris, owners of Onyabikes – e-bike hire on Waiheke Island.

We’re celebrating:) We’re celebrating because we see the tide is turning. Since we started renting, selling, and developing e-Velos (electric-assist bikes), we’ve had people travel more than 250,000 km around the island. (We’re also about to set up shop in Newmarket as well.)  Waiheke ebikes 4

 

It’s a veritable feast in innovative engineering worth celebrating on our little island (population 8,000) where we welcome upwards of 1,000,000 visitors during the summer months!!

Waiheke ebikes 5You can spot the e-Velo traveller or commuter from a mile away. They’re the ones with the ear-to-ear, face-splitting smiles – especially as they breeeeeeeze up them hills, yeah baby! They’re also smiling because they’re enjoying loads more time seeing the vistas of sea, bush and vineyards, hearing the tui, and feeling the breeze than if they had journeyed by car, or bus, minivan, or scooter.Waiheke e bikes 1

Come over to Waiheke and feel it for yourself.

Editors note : Darleen and Chris have a big and growing fleet of e-bikes of all sizes and are based in Oneroa, the main shopping area near Matiatia. They will soon have bikes at the ferry wharf. In the meantime it would pay to book your bike when you get on the ferry –+64 9 372 4428; +64 220 502233; booking@ecyclesnz.com

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