| Myrons Daily Journal - Page 3 March 6, 2004 Another easy day from Turangi to Taupo on Taupo Lake. Shiangold and I were stopped at a spot by the lake when somebody tapped me on the shoulder from behind and said, "excuse me sir." I turned around and there was Claudia and her friend Irene from Swissland. They are traveling both islands by car. This is Claudia third trip to NZ. Her first 2 were by bike. We met on the TransAm ride in 2000. Again in 2002 we passed each other in Louisiana. She was biking west while Jim and I were going east. She said the next meeting should be in Swissland when I bike Europe. I took Claudia and Irene out to dinner in Taupo. Shiangold joined us later. When Claudia first saw as at the lake, she warned us of the possible problem of finding a place for the night. There was a triathlon going on in Taupo. It is the second largest in the world next to Hawaii. There are over 1,400 entered from over 40 countries. Would you believe, as we were entering the town, our path coincided with the race! Never have I had so many greet me on my bike. The street was lined with 1000's of people. As I passed an announcer on a podium, he mentioned to the audience, "now, that's the way to travel on a bike." we stopped at the finish line where Shiangold took lots of pictures. You can imagine the crowd's reaction as a kiwi came in first. We are having breakfast at a sidewalk cafe next to the lake. I can see that many that are here are limping slightly. I feel right at home, because I am still sore from my tramp yesterday. I sure hope the weather continues to be as great as it has been. March 7, 2004 Today was an 86 kilometer ride from the north end of Lake Taupo to the south end of Lake Rotorua. Volcanic explosions formed these lakes. Lake Taupo, which is 606 square kilometers, was formed by one of the largest volcanic explosions of all times. The explosion occurred 25,000 years ago. In AD 181 there was another explosion that was the largest in recorded history for the world. It darkened skies in Rome and china. the locals of Taupo have a relay foot race around the lake each year. Some do the total 190 kilometers on there own without a relay. That’s what you call extreme running. This area has lots of activity. Fishing, thermal pools, rock climbing, sailing, bungy jumping, tandem skydiving, aerial gliding, horse trekking, mountain biking, tramping, lake cruises, jetboating (have only seen one jet ski), white water rafting and sledding. Mount Tarawera, near Lake Rotorua, erupted in 1886 for 5 hours covering 1500 sq. meters of land with ash, lava and mud. 153 People were killed. We will be biking toward the Bay of Plenty and Tauranga. Captain Cook named the bay in 1796 because he was able to get good provisions for his sailing ship compared to the lack of supplies from poverty bay several weeks earlier. March 8, 2004 Today is a 90-kilometer ride to Tauranga. Denise’s surrogate mom, and the coach she used while she was bike racing is Doreen Smith (William’s.) her mother Yvette Smith, lives in Tauranga. she has lived here for 17 years. I gave Yvette a call while on the road into town. She invited us over for dinner. Shiangold and I had a wonderful time. what a great lady. she has done a lot of traveling all over the world. At 77 years of age, she doesn't own a car, but travels all over on a motor scooter. It was too far to bike back into town to a hostel, so she invited us to stay over. she had been at a sick friend's home before we arrived so she hadn't any food for breakfast. When Shiangold and I got up we found she had gone to the market on her scooter and got food for breakfast. Shiangold fixed us all a great breakfast. After a great morning of food and chat she again got on her scooter and led us to where we could find our way out of town. Thanks Yvette. March 9, 2004 A short day today. 60 kilometers from Tauranga to Waihi beach. Lots of surfing here. Didn’t bring my board (joke.) stayed at a hostel where the owner is a surfing instructor. I wonder what Denise would say if I wrote, "I discovered surfing here and decided to become a senior surfing bum." I got an email from Shiangold's friend in Taiwan. There has been a change of dates for an important gold fair, so he will cut his stay in Australia I will do some of Australia solo. Considering the people of NZ; if you took away their accent and local slang, I couldn't tell them from the people of the US: and if you put the traffic on the right side of the road and took away the road signs like "slippery when frosty" and "give way," and oh yes, the roundabouts, you would think you were riding the roads of the US. Because I see NZ to be so much like the US, I am concentrating on the meaningful differences. I saw one today. A school bus (all school buses seem to be contracted commercial buses) stopped ahead of me to let off a 10 to 12 year old. It was a fairly busy highway. The bus took up half of its lane while stopped. Other than a small sign on the bus saying "school bus," you wouldn't know it was delivering school kids. While the bus was stopped, cars were all moving past. As soon as the child's foot hit the pavement, the bus' brake light went off and it was on its way, leaving the child to cross the busy highway by herself. This is an interesting comparison between how US kids are protected at school bus stops and how NZ kids are left to fend for themselves. Are we really helping our kids in the US or are we making them totally dependent on others for their safety. Is this the start of the attitude, "it's somebody else who is responsible for my safety, not me." if I spill my coffee, mc Donald’s is responsible. I bet no more school kids get hurt or killed here in NZ per capa, then in the US. In fact they could be safer because they learn to! Watch out for themselves, where our kids leave it up to someone else t o do what they should be learning. This applies to the drivers of the cars passing the school bus also. When I was in Japan in the navy I saw somewhat the same thing. Very little kids played in the streets with cars buzzing past. I remember asking; don't a lot of them get killed? The answer was no. March 11-16, 2004 Today (3/11) we cycled along the seabird coast of the firth of Thames from Merinda Hot Springs to Papakura where we caught a commuter train into Auckland (pronounced like Oakland here.) I asked the train attendant to let us know when we would get to the Ellerslie Station. The stations have no signs and there are no announcements aboard train. Shiangold’s friends, Mei (pronounced may) and Tony Kang met us at the station. Tony and Shiangold went to the same highschool in Taiwan. They own a very nice motel and five new houses here in Auckland. They are wonderful host and are putting us up in one of their houses. They took us to a very popular small Asian restaurant for dinner upon our arrival. We will be staying with Mei and Tony until 3/15, and then we will spend a few days on Waiheke Island as backpackers. Waiheke Island is in the Hauraki Gulf about 20 kilometers NE of Auckland. Tony and Mei have spent 3 days taking us everywhere. I think we have seen more of the Auckland area than most Auckland’s. Every morning Mei feeds us a 5 star breakfast. They have made us feel so much at home that in 3 days I thoroughly feel like a native kiwi who lives in Auckland. Last night I had the pleasure of taking everyone to dinner at the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower is the highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. You can see all the 5 councils that make up Auckland. It is the signature structure for Auckland. On 3/17 we will return to Tony and Mei's home and fly over to Sydney on 3/20. We will also be backpacking there. Shiangold wants to spend time off the bike. His knee has been bothering him. I believe he started out on this ride too hard. He had somewhat the same problem when he met Jim and me in Minnesota in 2002. At that time he used to big of a gear. I remember saying he should spin. This time I noticed he is spinning more. The ratio of Asians to non-Asians here seems to be 50% or more. Many of them come here for the universities. The north Island has the largest group of Mari. They are equivalent to our native Indians in the US. Almost all names of places are in their language and are hard to pronounce. Some people tell me they want a stronger voice in government. This desire is based on a 2-paragraph treaty given to them many years ago. |
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