Bike, Kayak and Culture Day

Spend a full day participating in the Samoan traditional way of life while cycling and kayaking

The day

Teams undertake an adventure journey that is unique to Samoa.   It combines cycling, kayaking and walking with involvement in regular village life.

This is intended as the primary activity day for the entire group and so is suitable for everyone, while also be something new and memorable for all.  

Activities 

Village Life:   Teams walk to a plantation where they will be involved in every-day activities such as planting and picking taro, making a basket, husking coconut and preparing an umu.

Kayak stage: Swapping the baskets for kayaks the teams negotiate a small stream through the mangroves to the main lagoon.  If the tides are right there is a good chance to see turtles in the main lagoon.

Cycle Ride:  Staying together as a group the team cycles 8kms around the village.  Along the way they will visit a fish farm, horticultural enterprise and banana plantation as well as have time to stop for a swim in the sea or local stream.

Evening:  Dinner that includes both traditional Samoan food (Umu cooked pork, tuna, octopus, taro, palusami, ulu etc) and kiwi BBQ fare will be followed by a traditional fiafia.  The fiafia dances culminate in a fire knife dance.

Event Focus

The focus of the day is to ensure everyone has a memorable and positive experience and leave knowing more about Samoa and hopefully more about themselves than they arrived.  The day is organised as a a shared experience, with an emphasis on mutual support.

Required fitness and skills

While participants should be able to ride a bike, there is no requirement to be a regular rider.    No paddling experience is required.  It is expected that fitness levels will vary hugely and activities can be adapted to work for people with significant physical difficulties.  This can include electric bikes and double kayaks. 

Participant numbers

By starting at 3 separate points we can accommodate up to 70 participants. 

Safety and Planning

We operate to New Zealand Adventure Tourism best practice, including culture, process and planning.  Demonstrable/documented processes include:

• Bike services sheets – all bikes formally serviced after each ride with comprehensive check-sheet records
• Formal kayak and bike briefing processes/documents in daily use
• Comprehensive documented kayak safety plan
• Ongoing staff training with emphasis on safety
• All equipment in good order

References

The company organisers from the previous tripos are available to contact directly.

Customised Day

While the above has worked extremely well it is intended as a starting point for planning.  We can customise this to suit specific requirements including:

• Creating a competitive element with a focus on solving through team-work
• Including other activities (social, cultural, sports, developmental)
• Incorporating aspects relating to the purpose of the day (e.g. awards dinner, product launch)

Examples include:

• Adding a treasure hunt aspect (teams must find/photograph items as answers to clues)
• Adding presentation requirements (teams must give a talk on aspects of the day)

Event Location

We prefer to run this at Via Villas on the South Coast.  The village is fully involved in the day, which adds considerably to the event and it is only 45 minutes from the main hotels including Sheraton Resort, Taumeasina Island Resort, Coconuts, Saletoga Sands, Sinalei and Tanoa Tusitala.

We can provide busses to/from the venue.