“For a country that prides itself on being a nuclear free zone, New Zealand sure makes strange ice cream!” So said John Jesson, one of our tour guides. The first day of the official ride was a mixed bag, and by the time we made it to the ice cream, we didn’t even know where we’d lay our heads that night.
As we enjoyed a delicious kickoff dinner at the top of the Skyline Tower, Cyclone Wilma ripped through the North Island, leaving more than 8” of rain, and much flooding and destruction in her wake. We pulled out of Auckland the following morning, beginning our first day of riding on the left, through the city, onto the motorway (interstate) headed for the Coromandel peninsula.
Wilma, however, had other plans. As we tried detour after detour, it became obvious that Coromandel was not to be. While Hugh enjoyed his radioactive ice cream, Chris Gladstone, our leader, worked it out for us to spend a second night in Rotorua, where we were supposed to have stayed on Sunday night anyway. So a bit of extra riding, fine. It was very windy, but little did we know what would be in store for us down the road.
Lessons from day 1:
Stay to the left!
You can whip around any old left turn, unless someone is doing it from the right.
Stay to the left.
Go around rotaries (there are thousands) clockwise.
Stay to the left.
Look for traffic to the right.
Stay to the left.
NEVER turn left on a red light.
Stay to the left.
132 looks REALLY cool on the speedometer! Yeah, yeah, it’s only kilometers, but still…
Stay to the left.
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