Kaikohe Speedway

 

Sunday – Day 8 – Kaikohe, New Zealand and Monday’s trip back to the states!!

 

Track #6 – 2013 New Zealand trip

 

Kaikohe Speedway – Kaikohe, New Zealand (North Island)

 

 

A very interesting day of trackchasing.

The next morning Paul and I would be flying from Christchurch (South Island) to Auckland (North Island). The interesting thing was that we would be doing that on different airlines! My flight left at 6:30 a.m. Paul’s was even earlier. We got Paul checked in and safely put on his plane. A bit later I jumped on my Jet Star flight to Auckland.

 

 

When I landed Paul was waiting for me. We had concocted a crazy logistics plan if Paul’s Air New Zealand plane arrived on time and mine did not. Then we had another plan if the reverse happened. The rental car was in my name. We had to keep things moving. Today’s destination was the Kaikohe Speedway about three hours north of Auckland. Racing started there at 1 p.m.

 

 

Fortunately our decision to fly on different airlines worked very well. Paul was waiting for me in the domestic terminal in Auckland when I arrived. In no time we were being whisked away in an Ace Rental Cars shuttle bus to get our rental car.

 

 

Souvenirs and right side drive ’58 Chevys.

We made a quick pit stop at another Wild Bean Café. There I picked up some souvenirs for those twin grandbabies of ours. As luck would have it a local car club was having a display of their treasures in the parking lot. There were lots of hot rods to see as well as a beautiful right side steer ’58 Chevy Bel-Air.

 

 

New Zealand a beautiful place.

We spent the next three hours gazing at the North Island scenery. The scenery is much different from the South Island to the North. I believe that Paul liked the South best. I prefer the North but like them both. The North Island is noted for Mountainous; volcanic (including active volcanoes in the central part of the island); beaches and islands; forests and bush. Whereas the South Island is famous for Southern Alps mountain range, snow (in the winter), glaciers and lakes. You can’t go wrong with either and if you have time should see both.

 

 

We found this most rural racetrack #899 for Mr. Weisel.

Soon we were pulling into the most rural Kaikohe Speedway. We parked our car high above turn two with a great view of the place. We didn’t know it at the time but parking there would knock Paul out of seeing his 900^th lifetime track. I missed seeing an extra track as well with this decision.

 

 

For some odd reason they had a local scout/Jr. military group managing the parking. These boys were diligent if nothing else. They would not allow any spectators to enter or exit the parking lot (which was loosely located beyond turns one and two) when ANY racecars were on the track for any reason. That meant when we entered we had to wait to park in a small grass field. When we exited we waited an extra five minutes before the boys would allow us to leave.

 

 

It was easy to see everything at the Kaikohe Speedway.

The Eastern Stampede is the big event at the Kaikohe Speedway. We noticed that from the t-shirts on the wall of the clubhouse. Refreshments were somewhat limited. However, when I visit tracks like this I want to try things I’ve never eaten at a racetrack. I couldn’t remember ever having a piece of banana cake at a track….so now that box is checked.

 

 

Many of the tracks we visited on this trip had old photos and posters of racing at their track from days gone by. It was fun to see what types of cars used to race at Kaikohe. Saloon cars were the top attraction today. They were supplemented with both a men’s and ladies division of “C/Pros”. There were some junior racers too.

 

 

A very informative driver’s meeting.

Paul and I stood in on the driver’s meeting before the races began. That’s always a good thing to do. You can learn a lot from those meetings. It seemed as if the local folks could sense that “Paul and I weren’t from around here”. Our “cover” was soon blown and we were being welcomed by everyone at the Kaikohe Speedway. We met a lot of nice folks. I interviewed several of them. You can hear what they had to say on my YouTube video from this track. I asked them questions about their remembrances of New Zealand racer Steve Williams too. Don’t miss it. It’s special!

 

 

Toward the end of the driver’s meeting a very unique piece of trackchasing information was shared. It seemed that the track down the road in Dargaville, called the Findlayson Park Speedway, was racing this afternoon as well. When that little tidbit of info was shared Paul and I immediately looked at each other! Wow! What an opportunity.

 

 

However, we thought about things just a little bit more. The Findlayson event was beginning at noon. Racing at Kaikohe was not set to start until 1 p.m. The two tracks were about one hour and ten minutes apart. I have a pretty strict rule that requires that I stay for at least an hour of racing before leaving for another track. Lots of other trackchasers are content to see one heat race and leave for the next track. That’s not how I roll. The racing was beginning a little bit late at Kaikohe as well.

 

 

Paul and I concluded that trying for this double would not make good sense. Paul respects the fact that I won’t leave after being at one track for 5-10 minutes. That being the case we set about to enjoy the racing and ambience of the Kaikohe Speedway.

 

 

Walking, talking and meeting people.

Paul went back to the car to watch the races from the turn two area. I spent my time walking back into the pit area to take pictures and talk to folks. I also did a few one on one interviews that I think you’re going to enjoy a lot. All the while race after race was going on.

 

 

Wanna try for the double?

Finally when I had seen all there was to see in the pit area and talked to just about anyone willing to talk to me I headed back to where our car was parked. The first words from Paul when I arrived back to his seating area were, “Wanna try for the double?” He had been waiting patiently for me to see “all I could see”. Now he was recommending we try for the double.

 

 

It was a very sunny and warm day at the Kaikohe Speedway. We had been at the track for more than two hours. The good thing about Paul’s recommendation to drive to Dargaville was that it was in the direction of Auckland. Tonight’s hotel was in Auckland. That made the decision easier. “Yes!” I told him. “Let’s get going”.  Away we went, or tried to go, through the dense green forest of the northern part of the North island.

 

 

Not so fast Americanos.

You can see from the pictures what a beautifully sunny day it was in Kaikohe. When we attempted to leave our parking spot the Boy Scouts held us until every last car left the track after the preceding race. I would guess they held us for nearly five minutes until a few back markers finally pulled back into the pit area.

 

 

Then we were off. We were passing through large forests of evergreen trees on winding two-lane roads. I was driving just fast enough to get there quickly without getting a speeding ticket. The driving distance was 77 kilometers or about 48 miles.

 

 

You’ve got to be kidding me.

However, the closer we got to the small town of Dargaville the worse the skies looked. At first it looked as if the dark clouds were a long way away. However we were driving directly into the bad weather. I still wasn’t worried. I knew how much further the racetrack would be and the bad weather looked well beyond that. I guess it’s a good idea I don’t work for the Weather Channel. Just as we got to the north edge of Dargaville it began to sprinkle.  It appeared the rain clouds were just over our heads.

 

 

Success!

However we still weren’t out of it yet. We had no idea where the Findlayson Park Speedway was located in Dargaville. Luckily, just as we hit the north edge of town we saw the track on the left. Even luckier we could see the racing surface from the highway. A race was going on and we could see it. That made the track “countable”. We had seen competitive racing. Whew! I breathed a sigh of relief.

 

 

We found a parking spot and walked on in. There were a good twenty cars in the pit area. A few drivers were buckled in waiting to go onto the track for the next race. All of this was so good. We had seen a major part of the program in Kaikohe and made it down here in good shape. We had even beaten some totally unexpected bad weather.

 

 

The devil is in the details.

However, they say the “Devil is in the details”. It turned out the “race” we had seen from the highway involved just one racer. Apparently all of his fellow competitors had slept in leaving him to be the only racer in his class. Or maybe by the time we got there all of his fellow competitors had dropped out of the race. If there were the case, and I don’t know that it was, then we would have seen a countable race right?

 

Unfortunately, according to trackchasing rules, a “one competitor” race is not countable. You would be surprised at the number of races I have seen where just one racer in a class showed up. The promoter usually lets the driver race since he/she paid the entry fee.

 

 

Despite the fact that the “race” we had seen from the highway would not count the drivers were now pulling onto the track for the next race with several competitors. We were within 15 seconds of seeing that race. That’s when it began to rain harder. It wasn’t that hard but then it doesn’t take much for a dirt track to become incapacitated by moisture.

 

 

Not success.

Soon the track was calling the program complete because of the rain. As you will see from the photos the concrete wasn’t even covered in rain. We had missed counting this track by 15 seconds. Had the Boy Scouts not held us up by five minutes trying to leave the Kaikohe Speedway we would have made it. The trackchasing gods had spoken in the only way they know how to communicate. We were forced to accept their decision.

 

 

So…off we went toward Auckland. In about two hours we were entering the north side of Auckland the biggest city in all of New Zealand. By now the skies were as clear and as blue as any you might see. We had left a sunny place (Kaikohe) and ended up in a sunny place (Auckland). However in the middle it chose to rain on us (Dargaville) and knock us out of a track we never expected to get in the first place.

 

 

No #900 today; no #900 this year!

I think Paul might have been the most disappointed of the two of us. It was he who had waited for me to see and talk to everybody at the Kaikohe Speedway. It was Paul who had missed out on his 900^th lifetime track. Now he will have to wait until the next calendar year to make that dream a reality.

 

 

Nice dinner bad driving.

Nevertheless, we had a nice farewell dinner on the water. While we were eating I saw a young kid get in his car and back directly into mine. Everybody in the restaurant saw it. I immediately ran out to confront the assailant. The kid could not have been nicer. Even though it seemed like he hit my car hard there was no noticeable damage.

 

It wasn’t long before we checked into the Airport Travel Air Motel near the Auckland airport for our last night in New Zealand. As I looked back on this trip everything had gone very well.

 

 

Monday – Day 9 – Auckland, New Zealand.

 

Three’s the charm.

Today my third trip to New Zealand wraps up. In point of fact, it worked out exactly how Paul and I had planned it from nearly 10,000 miles away. He did the track planning; I did the hotel planning. You can’t ask for more than that. Will I be back to NZ soon? It’s never a good thing to try to predict the future.

 

 

Paul does own the lifetime trackchasing lead in New Zealand. I’m only a couple of tracks behind him. I promise this. If and when I return to New Zealand for trackchasing I will invite Paul to join me. That way he can maintain his country lead in NZ. However…..if he declines my invitation I just might pass him up!

 

 

Today my day began at 6:15 a.m. (9:15 a.m. San Clemente time….yesterday!). If all goes well I’ll be home about 27 hours after I left this morning’s hotel. This is just about the farthest place I can travel too in the world from my home base in Southern California.

 

 

Nice benefit.

When I rented my car from Ace Rental at the Auckland airport the agent had some good news for me. Since I was staying overnight at a motel near the airport I could leave my car at the motel. They would come and pick it up. That’s a first. In more than 4,000 nights of staying in a hotel/motel I couldn’t recall that ever happening before!  With a large room we got a good night’s sleep and were off to faraway places the next day.

 

 

I would take the 7 a.m. shuttle for my 9 a.m. flight to Sydney. Paul would take a later shuttle since his departure wasn’t until 7 p.m. this evening. The shuttle ride was short and soon I was standing in a long slow line of coach passengers wanting to fly on Qantas Airlines. It was my mistake not to understand that as a “sapphire” member of the “One World” airline group that I could have gone directly to the business class line. Only when I reached the head of the coach line did I understand that info. Oh, well. I still made the 3.5 hour flight to Sydney in good shape.

 

 

Hanging out in Australia.

With a four-hour layover I had plenty of time to visit the private Qantas Club. There I ate, drank and relaxed. I took the time to download the still photos I had taken with both my iPhone and my Panasonic Lumix still camera. Once I had narrowed it down to my favorite 877 photos I moved onto other things.

 

 

The flight from Sydney to Los Angeles would be nearly 13 hours long. That’s a long time to fly in coach. However, when faced with situations like this, what choice do you have? I did have two iTunes movies downloaded on my laptop. That would keep me busy for at least four hours.

 

 

When I landed it didn’t take long to grab my checked bag. Then I used my Global Entry membership to pass through U.S. Customs in less than 60 seconds. I’m glad I followed up on J.J.’s recommendation to join that club.

 

 

Thanks to my sponsors.

Then I mosied over to the Los Angeles World Parking headquarters for a sponsorship appearance. They’ll be sponsoring my trackchasing airport parking again in 2014. Thank goodness for sponsors.

 

 

Thank you.

If you’ve read this far you have my appreciation and thanks. Hopefully, you’ll find these adventures informative and entertaining. If all goes really well you’ll be able to learn from the best things I’ve done on this trip and avoid the things that didn’t work out for me.

 

 

Thanks to Paul Weisel for inviting me to come along on this trip. We had a good time….even if our political choices are a bit different. Thanks to the Caddyshack Racing Team. I pull for them wherever I watch them race.

 

 

This is my last trackchasing trip of 2013. It’s been a good year…..109 tracks in 7 countries and 23 American states. I met my goal of taking 23 weekends off from trackchasing. Within my hobby I have a lot to be thankful for.

 

 

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

World’s #1 Trackchaser

From San Clemente, California were all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.

 

 

Randy is a freelance journalist who winters in San Clemente, California and sometime flies in coach.

 

 

 

 

TRAVEL DETAILS

 

 

AIRPLANE

Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – Brisbane, Australia (BNE) – 7,204 miles

Brisbane, Australia (BNE) – Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) – 1,424 miles

Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) – Queenstown, New Zealand (ZQN) – 636 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR 

Queenstown Airport – trip begins

Invercargill, NZ

Dunedin, NZ

Cromwell, NZ

Ashburton, NZ

Templeton, NZ

Queenstown Airport – trip ends – 745 miles

 

 

 

 

 

AIRPLANE

Christchurch, New Zealand (CHC) – Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) – 463 miles

 

 

RENTAL CAR 

Auckland Airport – trip begins

Kaikohe, New Zealand

Auckland Airport – trip ends – 312 miles

 

 

AIRPLANE

Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) – Sydney, Australia (SYD) – 1,343 miles

Sydney, Australia (SYD) – XX Los Angeles, CA (LAX) – 7,528 miles

 

 

 

Total air miles – 18,598 (6 flights)

Friend’s rental car miles – 745 miles (1 car)

My rental car miles – 312 miles (1 car)

 

Total miles traveled on this trip – 19,655 miles 

 

 

 

TRACK ADMISSION PRICES:

Riverside Speedway $7 NZ ($8NZ pensioners discount)

Beachlands Speedway – complimentary admission

Central Motor Speedway – $20NZ

Ashburton Speedway – complimentary admission

Ruapuna Speedway $20NZ

Kaikohe Speedway – $15 NZ (estimated)

 

 

Total racetrack admissions for the trip – $62NZ

 

 

 

 

LIFETIME TRACKCHASER COMPARISONS 

The three most important trackchasing comparisons to me are:

 

Total lifetime tracks seen

Total “trackchasing countries” seen

Lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

 

 

Total Lifetime Tracks

There are no trackchasers currently within 350 tracks of my lifetime total. Don’t blame me.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 1,922

 

 

 

Total Trackchasing Countries

There are no trackchasers currently within 10 countries of my lifetime total.

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 67

 

 

 

Current lifetime National Geographic Diversity results

 

1. Randy Lewis, San Clemente, California – 5.10

 

 

 

 

That’s all folks! Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report

 

 

 

 

2013 – NEW ZEALAND TRIP PLANNING

 

 

I made this trip at the invitation of trackchaser and friend Paul Weisel. We met lots of nice people, saw some great scenery and very good racing. In reality it came close to being a perfectly planned and executed trip.

 

 

As you read along please don’t miss the photos and videos. They will make the stories come alive. If you get the chance to visit New Zealand….do it!

 

 

 

PRE-TRIP

 

 

ADVANCE PREPARATION

 

THE RACE

 

 

 

New Zealand was not part of my original 2013 trackchasing plan.

 

I had no intention of traveling to New Zealand this year…..until I received an invitation to travel down under with fellow trackchaser Paul Weisel. Paul had done a good deal of research and come up with a two-week plan that would involve eight days of trackchasing. “Would I like to go?” he asked.

 

 

Carol and I had been to New Zealand two times previously. Our first visit was simply to tour the country, no racing involved. Our second visit to NZ came over the 2006/2007 Christmas holiday. On that trip we ended up seeing 12 New Zealand racetracks, mostly on the North Island.

 

Maybe it was time to go back to New Zealand.

Maybe it was time to return to NZ. However, I didn’t have two weeks to spare. During the 2013 trackchasing season I will end up traveling overnight nearly 190 nights away from home. I didn’t want to make it MORE than 190 nights. Additionally, I only had one trackchasing weekend left for the year if I wanted to make my goal of taking at least 23 weekends (Fri/Sat/Sun) away from trackchasing. Finally, during the first week of Paul’s trip, he would see three tracks. I had already seen one of those tracks (Woodford Glen) and another one would end up being rained out. Of course I didn’t know that when I was considering the trip.  One week of racing (5 trackchasing days), which would be Paul’s second week in NZ, would be just fine for me.

 

 

THE VISA

 

Visas…they get you one way of the other.

Visas can definitely be a hassle and at expense to the trip. As far as I could tell I wouldn’t need any travel visas for this adventure. However, sometimes “transit” visas are required.

 

 

Let’s say you are traveling to New Zealand. Your plan is to first fly into Australia and connect to a flight taking you to New Zealand. O.K. this is a real life example! Australia allows travelers just eight hours to layover in Aussieland. As luck would have it my flight schedule called for a 9.5-hour layover in Australia. I figured they might let me “slide” on this one. Wrong!

 

 

When I showed up at LAX at the Qantas Airline ticket counter my boarding pass wouldn’t print. The problem? I needed a “transit” visa because my stay in Australia was 1.5 hours longer than the maximum of eight hours allowed. Rules is rules right?

 

 

The transit visa would be good for one year. The cost? $50 U.S. Then I had a bright idea. I had been to Australia recently. I had visited the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland on a whirlwind trip where I left home on Thursday night and returned home Monday morning. How recently was that? I thumbed through my passport. My last entry into Australia was December 1, 2013. Today was December 8, 2014. I had missed being able to use my old visa (and save 50 bucks) by seven days! The funny thing is that when I got my Australian visa last year the cost was only $20 U.S. O.K., I guess it wasn’t that funny.

 

 

 

TIME ZONES

 

 

I could work with the NZ time zone.

During the past two months I’ve made separate trips to both India and Georgia (the country!). Those locations are 12 and 12.5 hours off our Pacific time zone in California. That’s just about as bad as it can get. As an example when it’s noon at home it’s about midnight, or it IS midnight in these two places.

 

 

New Zealand would be 21 hours AHEAD of California’s time zone. When it was “today” in California it would be “tomorrow” in New Zealand. However, is one sense that would not really be such a bad thing. When it was noon in California it would be 9 a.m. in NZ. So, even though NZ was a day ahead it was really only three hours off my body time in California. I could work with that.

 

 

 

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

 

 

I didn’t have to do much to make this trip a good one.

Paul Weisel was my main “boots on the ground” contact for this trip. I didn’t do any of the track planning. That is most unusual for me. Ever since my international trip with Belgium’s Roland Vanden Eynde (trackchasing countries #5, 6, 7, 8) I’ve done all of my own race plans. Considering that I’ve now seen racing in 67 countries that’s a lot of international race preparation.

 

 

I also utilized the resources of “New Zealand’s #1 Sportsman” Steve Williams. I met Steve during our trip to NZ in 2006/2007. I always tell people that Steve is the #1 saloon (stock car) driver in New Zealand. He drives the famous #21H Valvoline sponsored Ford Mustangs all over his country and in Australia as well. However, I first “knew of” Steve before I ever learned he was a racecar driver. Steve’s “day job” is as a professional caddie of some note. He had caddied for several of the top PGA touring professionals including Greg Norman and Ray Floyd. The most famous golfer for Steve to work with when I first met him was Tiger Woods. Steve, aka “Stevie” as he is known in golf circles was on Tiger’s bag for more than ten years. Now Steve caddies for Adam Scott an Australian golf pro. Only recently Adam Scott became the #1 golfer in the world. Prior to having Steve on the bag Adam didn’t seem as if he had reached his full potential. However, since Adam hired Steve they’ve won the 2013 Masters golf tournament in Augusta. As this goes to press Adam is currently the #1 ranked golfer in the world.

 

 

For this trip I asked Steve, who would be racing at most the tracks we would visit during this trip, where the best places to stay would be. He came back to me with a very complete list of hotels in each of the cities we would visit. Thanks to Paul (race plan) and Steve (hotel plan) all I had to do was get on an airplane and ride. I wouldn’t normally handle an international trip like this but for me it felt like I was taking a “busman’s holiday”. I would just sit back and enjoy it.

 

 

 

THE TRANSPORTATION

 

 

Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand to Queenstown, New Zealand to Christchurch, New Zealand to Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles.

 

I haven’t used my main airline sponsor for any of my international trips this quarter. That meant “scraping together” a plan to get to India, Georgia and now New Zealand on my own dime so to speak. Remember I’ve been retired for going on 12 years. Can you imagine where the guy who lives next door to you would be if he hadn’t worked in that time period? Would he be going to these faraway places every month? Of course, since I don’t live next door to you my situation might be different.

 

 

For this trip I would be flying round-trip from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand with Qantas Airlines. Because I spent the better part of my working life riding on an American Airlines plane I had enough frequent flyer miles to make this trip. Then I bought a couple of cheap tickets on Tiger Airways to get to and from Auckland (North Island) to first Queenstown and then Christchurch (South Island). I was in good shape.

 

 

 

CURRENCY

 

 

Do you know the official currency of New Zealand?

It’s the New Zealand dollar (NZ$). As we speak my iPhone currency app tells me I can get about 1.14 NZ$ for each U.S. dollar. Another way to look at it is when I see something priced in NZ$ I will know that it costs about 85-90% of that price in U.S. dollars.

 

I love America.

In the hobby of trackchasing personal financial reports have never been required or submitted by any trackchaser. Despite that being the case I have consistently been accused of being some “rich guy”. Top ten trackchaser, Allan Brown, even contended that I would never “stick with it” in the world of trackchasing. Allan missed that guesstimate by a yard or two.

 

 

There’s one thing that for the life of me that I don’t understand. Do you know what “class envy” is? The simplified definition is “poor people feeling resentful toward rich people”. For the life of me I can’t understand that feeling. I grew up poor but never resented rich people. Who buys the most lottery tickets? Poor people. Poor people WANT to become rich but they don’t like rich people? Wow. I need some more explanation around that one.

 

 

Since financial reports are not required of trackchasers I can’t prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that my fellow competitors, and even those “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers” are rich. This is what I can tell you. During the time that I’ve been the “World’s #1 Trackchaser” (beginning in 2006) I’ve never had a job. Zero income. On the other hand all of my fellow competitors have worked, or are working, during most of this time period. Most of them even have spouses working full-time to help add to the coffers for their trackchasing funding programs. Maybe as an “unemployed” trackchaser I should resent these well-heeled trackchasers. However, I don’t roll like that. I believe in America. I believe in the American capitalist system. If someone is smart enough to make himself or herself financially secure I say “bravo”. If they’re lucky enough to be living off their spouse’s inheritance I say…..they’re lucky enough.

 

We pay our bills on time.

I’m not going to try to tell you that Carol and I don’t have enough money. We’ve been able to pay our bills on time. Heck, when I was going to college I would get a check from my parents for $15 U.S. at least 2-3 times per year. I worked in a Caterpillar Tractor Company factory, along with a host of other jobs, to pay for the rest of my college education. Then I got a great job, worked there for 30 years while Carol and I saved our money and invested it wisely.

 

Carol’s got all the money.

Yes, we have enough money to pay our bills. However, we really have even more money that I thought we did. Whenever I re-visit a country or group of countries (European Union) that I’ve already visited I ask Carol if she has any leftover currency from our last visit. When I asked her about New Zealand I was in for a great surprise!

 

 

I have no idea where Carol keeps all of this “leftover” money. However, for this trip she dug out some 98NZ$ for me to take on this trip. Maybe we aren’t poor. At least Carol seems to have some money. I’ve trackchased in 67 different countries. What if she has the equivalent of 98NZ$ for every one of those countries? That would be enough to just about cover the retail value of this trip!

 

 

 

WEATHER

 

The rain worried me.

The weather forecast was of some concern. Normally, when I trackchase in foreign countries I’m seeing racing on asphalt road courses. Those folks race in the rain.

 

 

However, in New Zealand all of the racing will be contested on ¼-mile dirt ovals. If it rains in those places the races will be cancelled. During our last trip to NZ we had one event cancelled by rain and two others shortened by the wet stuff. This past weekend Paul Weisel had one of his three planned days of trackchasing rained out.

 

 

My plan is to go trackchasing on five separate days in NZ. I hope to see six tracks race during that time. The weather forecast calls for a 30-40% chance of rain nearly every day. Back home, if I had any other alternative, I would not visit any track with a 30-40% change of rain. That’s why I’ve only been rained out once in the past 250 tracks (or so) that I have visited. I wouldn’t be surprised if we are rained out on one or two nights during this trip. I hope it isn’t any worse than that.

 

 

 

OVERNIGHT ACCOMMODATIONS

 

 

We would have a place to stay every night.

I’ll be traveling overnight away from home for eight nights on this trip. Due to the magic of international datelines and other things that I do not understand so much I will only need a hotel for five nights.

 

 

Paul, understanding my skill set in this area, asked that I book the hotels for the nights we would be traveling together. I tried to use Steve Williams’s recommendations but by the time I asked him for his thoughts most of those hotels were booked. Traveling at this time of year in NZ requires advanced booking.

 

 

Nevertheless, I was able to use both booking.com and hotels.com to get highly recommended lodging choices. I really like using these sites. I can balance off user recommendations with location and price to come up with a solid lodging plan.

 

 

 

THE RENTAL CAR

 

And off we went…on the wrong side of the road.

These folks in New Zealand will be driving on the left side of the road. That always makes for a fun trip. Did you know that 42% of the world’s population does that? Paul will rent the car while we’re on the South Island. I’ll go with Ace Rental Cars for our short time on the North Island.

 

 

 

NAVIGATION

 

We wouldn’t get lost.

Navigation will be provided via Google Maps! and made available via my iPhone. Since I’ll be in the navigator’s seat for much of the trip it should make finding places pretty easy. By the way, I purchased a “data plan” to enable us to have the benefits of Google Maps! while we are so far from home.

 

 

 

THE TRAVELING COMPANION

 

I guess you could call us international jet-setters.

Carol won’t be making this trip. It IS her birthday month and she doesn’t like to travel around Christmas. She’s already traveled overnight some 98 times this year. She would finish the year with 103 overnights. How many folks, who travel, wish they could get their spouse to do that?

 

 

 

THE SUMMARY

 

My “world map” is filling up fast.

I’ve seen racing in 67 different countries. Nobody can match that number. When I first went trackchasing in NZ it was my 9^th different country. That was a long time ago. I’ve been able to re-visit nearly half of the countries where I have trackchased. I was very much looking forward to another trip to NZ.

 

 

 

Pre-New Zealand

 

One of my goals was to NOT go trackchasing.

This being Carol’s birthday month I had lots of things to do before I could jet off to New Zealand for a week just in advance of the holidays. Recall I have a major entertainment diversification goal of NOT trackchasing for 23 full weekends this year. Folks, that’s almost half the year that I won’t be trackchasing. The goal was established to remind me to keep my trackchasing time in perspective. Setting goals like this works very well for me.

 

 

Entering the week of the New Zealand trip I stand at 21 weekends away from trackchasing. With no racing after I return from New Zealand I will exactly meet my goal in this important area. As we used to say back in the corporate world you “get what you measure”. That’s very true!

 

 

However, I have done a good deal of traveling during my last four weeks of non-trackchasing activity. I flew up and returned the same day from Portland, Oregon just to buy a new computer. Why do that? I wanted to do a dry run with my brand new airline sponsor….and save paying any sales tax.

 

 

I joined Paul Weisel and John Carroll for a night of midget racing at the Perris Auto Speedway on Thanksgiving night. Remember, racechasing is not trackchasing. I found the program somewhat disappointing. They charged $40 general admission for what is at best a $25 show and eight bucks for parking. I can go to virtually any NASCAR Sprint Cup show for $20 and park for free. There wasn’t much passing and there seemed to be a yellow flag delay every 2-3 laps. Add on cold temps and it wasn’t a very entertaining show.

 

 

The week before I left for New Zealand was busy. We did two Christmas cruises with our kids and grandkids. These types of cruises are popular in SoCal. They go up and down the famous Newport harbor (Newport Beach) after sunset. Homes in this area start at about $4 million. Normally the boat in front of the house goes for another million…or more! One home we passed was on the market for $24 million! It’s fun to see the Christmas decorations on these cruises from these mega homes.

 

 

During the pre-New Zealand week I also ventured up to the World Golf Challenge golf tournament at the Sherwood Country Club. My good buddy George Robertson did the driving. With just 18 golf professionals and a fairly small gallery it was easy to get close to the game’s top players including Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy. We finished off our day by stopping at an L.A. based restaurant that served khinkali aka khinkali. I first started eating this in Georgia during my trip their last month.

 

I’ve got a pretty busy schedule.

 

As if, in the seven days preceding this trip all of the above wasn’t enough I flew nearly 4,000 miles round-trip and drove another ten hours to see my alma mater Northern Illinois University play in the Mid-American championship football game. Frat brother Mike Skonicki picked me up at the Chicago airport and we motored over to Detroit, Michigan for the big game.

 

 

Unfortunately, the NIU Huskies couldn’t close the deal against Bowling Green University. Actually, they were blown out 47-27 in a game that might not have been that close. Had Northern won they were headed to a major BCS bowl game just like the Orange Bowl where they played last year. A silver lining to this cloud is that Northern Illinois ended up in the Poinsettia Bowl game played in San Diego. Schedule permitting you’ll find me at that game.

 

Just 40 more hours and I would be there.

On the day of my departure Carol and I grabbed a movie and dinner in San Clemente. Then the “work” started. I was looking at 40 hours of travel to meet up with trackchaser Paul Weisel. I would depart San Clemente at 8 p.m. Sunday night (5 p.m. Monday in NZ). I wouldn’t arrive until 12 noon or Tuesday (9 a.m. Wednesday in NZ).

 

 

What can I conclude from all of the above? I’ll take the high road and simply say that I am passionate. Doing the cruises was a great way to spend time with family over the Christmas holidays. Making such as effort to see my college play football was something I loved doing. Finally, traveling for nearly two days to get the chance to watch racing with a friend in such a faraway place would be fun. Life, when properly planned for, should nearly always be fun.

 

 

 

Sunday – Day 1 – (San Clemente to Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia)

 

With a kiss and a hug I was soon backing out of the driveway.

Carol was giving me a kiss just before I backed out of the driveway at 8 p.m. (I can start off “day 1” with the preceding sentence on every trip when Carol doesn’t tag along….and I do.

 

 

I would begin with a 65-mile drive up to the Los Angeles International Airport. LAX is my airport of choice because it offers so much service to so many places. As described above I would end up needing a transit visa for my short layover in Australia. I wasn’t too wild about that idea but you have to learn to go with the flow.

 

 

I did have the opportunity to use the American Airlines Admirals private club at LAX. I had a quick drink and was soon boarding my Qantas Airlines flight to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. My flight would be nearly 14 hours long. I would fly in coach on a virtually full flight.

 

 

Service on Qantas was very good. Most of the flight attendants were male which is a bit unusual compared to most flights I take. In anticipation of the trip’s length I had downloaded two movies on my iPhone and two on my new MacBook Pro. I’ll be flying about 37 hours before I return in eight days. I should have more than enough time to see those four movies!

 

 

By the way you might like to know that when you download a movie in this situation you will have 30 days to watch it. However, once you begin watching the movie you must finish watching it without 24 hours. During that 24 hours the movie can be viewed as often as desired.

 

 

 

Monday – Day 2 – (In the skies!)

 

This trip was all about getting from point A to point B to point C.

 

ITNERNATIONAL DATE LINE

I can’t really tell you much about Monday. It’s not that I forgot what happened on Monday. It’s just that when I left California on Sunday night it was already 8:30 p.m. on Monday in NZ. By the time we landed 14 hours later in Brisbane it was Tuesday! You might want to give this phenomenon some thought.

 

 

Tuesday – Day 3 – (Brisbane, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand)

 

AUSTRALIA

 

I would have nine hours in Australia….at the airport.

I landed in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia at 8:30 a.m. My next flight would not be leaving Brisbane bound for Auckland until 5:25 p.m. That meant I was facing a nine-hour layover. In international flying parlance I was a “transit” passenger. That meant I didn’t have to clear Australian customs, which made my having to get an Australian transit visa a little tougher to accept.

 

 

I did entertain the option of storing my carryon luggage at the Brisbane airport. With such a long layover I could probably have 4-5 hours to bum around the city. Recall that just 12 months ago I was in the area for some outstanding racing at the Archerfield Speedway. However, after flying for 14 hours I didn’t relish the idea of going into Brisbane for such a short stay.

 

 

So what did I do? I headed straight to the private Qantas Airlines business club lounge. When I retired from Procter & Gamble American Airlines gave me lifetime status as a platinum AAdvantage member. It was the least they could do considering I had earned more than 6 million miles in their frequent flyer program. My platinum elite membership also gave me “Sapphire” status with their airline partner clubs including Qantas Airlines. If you are a road warrior now or were in the past you know how important having “status” is. Once in the Qantas club I relaxed with food and drink for the next several hours.

 

 

While in the Qantas Club I took full advantage of the complimentary food and drink. They changed their buffet style food selection about every two hours. They even had soup! Premium liquors were included in my “package” as well. There wasn’t all that much to do in the club for nearly 9 hours but at least I didn’t go hungry or thirsty.

 

 

I did notice a few most unusual items while staying in the Qantas Club. When I arrived in the morning the place was packed with well over 50 guests. However, after the earlier flights departed I was the only person in the club for much of the day.

 

 

There were several TVs in the club as there always are. I was surprised to see the Ellen DeGeneres Show playing in Australia. She had a guest on from Mission Viejo, California a town where our family used to live. What followed the Ellen show was even harder to believe. This was a dramatic show with dialog that included the “F-bomb” being spoken about every ten seconds. In such an upscale location this was beyond unusual! The club also had showers. I would have availed myself to this amenity but all of my other clothing was in my checked bag and not available to me.

 

Landing in Auckland….where did I sleep?

I finally did get on my flight departing Brisbane at 5:25 p.m. I landed in Auckland at nearly midnight. That’s a result of the 3-hour flight time and a three-hour time zone change. My window seat had zero legroom. It was definitely an uncomfortable flight. I passed the time listening to a movie (Starbuck) on my iPhone.

 

 

Clearing NZ customs took longer than normal about 30 minutes. By the time my slightly delayed flight and slightly tardy customs clearance activities were completed it was after 1 a.m. The Auckland airport is much more rural and somewhat dated compared to the terminals in both Brisbane and Sydney.

 

 

Nevertheless, based upon my online research this afternoon I knew exactly where I would be sleeping in the Auckland. I would sleep in the airport! I was headed to the “Viewing Point” area of the international terminal. This is a space at the very top of the airport building. If you ever need to go there you’ll find it easily by following the signs. On my way to this special spot I passed well over 50 people who had already camped out. Checking the Auckland website told me the airport welcomed folks who might need a place to sleep for a few hours before they continued their journey.

 

What do I have to do to prove I am an indigent trackchaser?

The viewing point area was a rectangular room at the top of three flights of stairs. It might have been 20’ wide and maybe 50-60 feet long. I was one of only four people sleeping overnight here. There were ZERO airport announcements to disturb my slumber. Airport announcements can be a real drag for overnight sleepers in some airports.

 

 

Remember, I wasn’t really doing this to save money although that was a positive outcome of this experience. It was really a decision based upon convenience. Who wants to leave the airport after 1 a.m., travel to a hotel and return to the airport by 5:30 a.m.? That doesn’t sound like fun does it. Actually sleeping on the floor of an airport is not my idea of fun either. However, it was “more” fun than trying to do the hotel thing. I did check out the Novatel Hotel at the Auckland airport. However, their $236NZ rate seemed a bit impractical for 3-4 hours of sleep.

 

 

I carry a five-foot long security cable whenever I travel with my laptop, which is 100% of the time. I was able to use this cable to secure both of my bags and my brand new MacBook Pro. I laid out my jacket, my Tempurpedic pillow, my airline neck pillow and a few clean t-shirts for bedding.

 

 

Last night I slept overnight in an airplane. Tonight I was sleeping on the carpeted floor of an airport terminal. Yes, I would very much be looking forward to tonight’s hotel room in Invercargill on the South Island of New Zealand.

 

 

To make certain I didn’t miss my early morning flight I set two alarms. Tomorrow’s flight leaves from Auckland (North Island) at 7 a.m. I’m bound for Queenstown. That’s on the south island of NZ.  I’ll land at 9 a.m. In Queenstown I’ll meet Paul Weisel. Our five-day trackchasing adventure will begin there. If you have the time plot your own timeline of what it takes to make this trip happen. Give it a shot. Then put your pencil down and try to imagine this trip unfolding. When you have finished doing that put down your coffee and get back to work!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Racing in the far north of the North Island!