8am BC time. Means 3am and 12hrs on this plane so far. It's still pitch dark outside. All cabin lights have been illuminated and an announcement about breaky choices has been made. We land in 2 hrs.
I had an ok night. Not fully rested but definitely had worse nights sleep in transit. Could've been better if the damn fasten seat belt warning bell didn't keep going off every half hr or so.
I watched a movie last night before sleep..The Way Back. True story bout a group of guys who escape a syberian gulag back in the 40s and walk to freedom. Now that would be epic.
Anyway, it's 10am saturday BC time now...5am Sunday morning here. So...19 hrs ahead? I am 19 hrs in the future. Ha! You guys are all livin in the past man!
Had a good cheese omelete breaky..we are about to land. Have to put this away.
This is going to be one long day:)
It was a long day. Gets dark early here too. Say by 7 I guess. Pretty knackered by then anyway. Only 150k...very hilly.
Was riding away from the auckland airport by 7:30am.
Was a bit confusing getting out of Auckland but didn't take too long to get oriented. Spent the day getting used to riding on the WRONG side of the road. In towns it take some concentration. Especially with roundabouts etc. But out on the road you get used to it pretty fast. Every once in awhile, I'm looking around at the surroundings, a car comes at me from around a corner up ahead and it's on the right hand side...sort of startling. Especially if you notice there is a kid sitting where the driver is supposed to be and he ain't even paying attention to the road:) your instinct isto swerve towards the right hand shoulder. Probably a fatal error that would be.
I had to exit hwy 1 almost right away as no bkes allowed. Idve gone for it anyway but had a polite conversation with a NZ copper bout the pros and cons of riding illegally on the freeway and wisely decided against it. Then a confusing bit of business trying to locate and stay on "The Great Southern Roadway". A very scenic but meandering hilly,bumpy road winding through the countryside passing grazing cows, horses, sheep, goats, etc. Signs indicated a possum problem and the number of possum road kill seemed to substantiate the claim. Lots of birds and forest. I kept thinking Pauls artwork of me riding the globe looks much like my first day in NZ. He even had the flowers right.
Doto an oversight, I had no idea what time it was all day. Just kept riding. Stopped around lunchtime and had a banana and an ice-cream. Did a long stretch of road between tuakau and ngaruawalia that did me in. That is where I spent the night. Had a burger close to motel. Was asleep by 9.
Bruce Gordon
www.globebent.org
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