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Greetings from Auckland, New Zealand
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Waikaraka Park International Speedway – Lifetime Track #1,145
Our visit to the Wiakaraka Park International Speedway wraps up our 2006/2007 New Zealand visit. We knocked off 12 tracks and drove all over one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Since we were “in the area” we stopped off in TAHITI just to have some more fun. Photos from that adventure can be found at the bottom of this post. Below the photos you find a very complete description of the Tahiti adventure. After not reading about that portion of the trip for seven years it reminded me of travel memories I had long forgotten. Carol is generally a pretty quiet and reserved person. That was why I was so proud of her tonight. She had her first ever “at the track” interview. It was in front of a couple thousand people. Have you ever had the chance to speak in front of a group that large? She did great! Adam the announcer, although a relative youngster, was a real pro. Waikaraka was also a professionally run track with an outstanding racing program. Don’t miss the photos all lined up for your viewing enjoyment behind the “Event” tab. We saw some unusual looking cemeteries during our trip. The entrance to the Waikaraka Park Speedway was one of my favorites on the entire trip. I couldn’t believe how every oval track we visited had a capacity crowd. The track overlooked a cemetery and the Hauraki Gulf. We sat in the top of the double decker grandstand. The pit area was jammed with race cars. I wish you could have met the track commentator, Aaron. He could talk a mile a minute…..or would that be a kilometer a minute. Aaron was very entertaining. Just another 20+ car stock car heat race! The saloon cars are a crowd favorite. It was fun seeing Steve Williams race again. Unfortunately, he broke during his heat race. By the way, Steve ended up winning the seven day DHL saloon car speedweek championship by one point. This is Phil Towgood. I spent a good deal of time talking to him at Stratford. He won last year’s saloon speedweek title and finished second by one point this year. The Waikaraka Park International Speedway was our 12th New Zealand track of the trip. It was also our last of this trip. We can’t wait to come back again soon. After seeing 12 tracks and driving over 4,200 kilometers across both islands of New Zealand, it was only right that the trip should end with a bang. It did. Carol has just completed her first ever track interview. It was live directly from the grandstands with track commentator, Aaron. GREETINGS FROM PALMERSTON NORTH, NEW ZEALAND (THAT’S WHERE THE DAY BEGAN) Part V Saturday, January 6, 2007 TOURIST ACTIVITY Carol ended the day with 301 career tracks. Forty-five tracks within her total have been seen outside the United States. That means that nearly one track in every six she sees is located in a foreign country. There is no other United States based trackchaser who comes anywhere close to this total. I only see about one track in eleven outside of the United States. The best thing about trackchasing outside of the United States is that it gives us the opportunity to experience other cultures. We also get to see some really beautiful and unusual sights. The track visits themselves take up about three hours a day. The rest of the time is spent exploring. That’s what we did in New Zealand. It’s a beautiful country. If you have the chance to visit, do it. Following our two weeks in New Zealand we stopped over in Tahiti for two days. We didn’t see any tracks there…..because they don’t have any. We just relaxed. If you would like to read a little bit about what Tahiti was like check out the tourist activity section below for January 7-9, 2007. TRACKCHASING-AFTERNOON TAUPO MOTORSPORTS PARK, TAUPO, NEW ZEALAND – RANDY’S TRACK #1,144 & CAROL’S TRACK #300 – 1/6/07 This afternoon we saw racing at the the Taupo Motorsports Park. This was a special track for Carol. It marked here 300th lifetime track. Below is a listing of her other milestone tracks. SUMMARY OF “MILESTONE” TRACKCHASING ACHIEVEMENTS # 1 – Davenport Speedway (1/4M) – Davenport, Iowa – circa 1970 # 50 – North Wilkesboro Speedway, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina (Neil Bonnett – winner) – April 21, 1985 # 100 – Barford Raceway, Barford, England – August 6, 2000 # 150 – Southern Speedway, Hattiesburg, Mississippi – May 28, 2004 # 200 – Bay County Fair Derby Arena, Bay City, Michigan – August 10, 2005 #250 – Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas, Nevada – June 3, 2006 #300 – Taupo Motorsports Park, Taupo, New Zealand – January 6, 2007 We never would have seen the Taupo track without the heads up from Colin Smith, sportswriter for the Bay of Plenty Times. Today’s program was not one of their major events. They were prepping for an A1GP event in two weeks. Here is what they had to say about the recent renovation of the track for that event. TRACKCHASING-EVENING WAIKARAKA PARK INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – RANDY’S TRACK #1,145 & CAROL’S TRACK #301 – 1/6/07 This evening we picked up our second day/night trackchasing double of this trip. The afternoon portion of this double was totally unexpected until last night. Nevertheless, that’s the best kind of double…..the one you didn’t plan on getting. I had been talking to the promoter of the Waikaraka Park International Speedway in advance. They were looking forward to a visit from the “World’s #1 Ranked Trackchaser.” This was the last track of our trip. Waikaraka was our 12th track of the trip. The track is a ¼ mile flat dirt oval. Virtually all of the oval tracks we have seen in New Zealand have been like this. The facility is located in an industrial area of Auckland. It’s only a few kilometers from the airport. That was awfully convenient since we would be flying out of the Auckland airport tomorrow afternoon. Tonight’s racing included saloons, street stocks, modifieds and winged mini-sprints. The weather was overcast with a temperature of 66 degrees. We had some difficulty finding the track since we were dealing with an urban, more congested area. I needed three stops (that’s not too bad) to find it. A European Indian cabbie was the most helpful. Upon entering the track, I was whisked up to the commentator’s booth. There I met a young announcer named Aaron. Aaron was enthusiastic. He whipped the crowd into a frenzy with his energetic style. Aaron had the same enthusiasm for trackchasing. This really transferred well to his audience. We talked about trackchasing for several minutes. I even got an email upon my return from an American couple who were in the audience. They were excited and surprised that anyone did such a thing as trackchasing to this extent. Aaron offered what would normally be a unique idea. He wanted Carol and me to take a ride in a two-seated sprint car. Obviously, he didn’t know we had done that just five days before. I considered his offer and declined. We had been there done that. I really didn’t want to press my luck since that ride was a little bit on the edge. Aaron understood my position. The sprint car ride they were offering was the very same car driven by Rob Allen that we rode in at Meremere. However, tonight the car took its passengers around the track with no other competitors to contend with. Riding in a sprint car at speed with other cars nearby made our ride at Meremere extra special. I did several newspaper and track interviews during this trip. I was asked several questions, some expected and some not. Aaron came up with something I’ve never been asked, “Have you ever been too the Chili Bowl?” Yes, I had I told him and the crowd and went on to describe the outstanding event held in Tulsa each January. Following my interview, Aaron arranged for me to watch several races in the track’s infield. There were only a few race officials and the track photographer in the flat dirt/grass infield area. It was a little intimidating standing out in the open like that. I’ve seen and read about people getting hurt in these situations. I was able to watch the saloon heat race and give a wave to its winner when he headed back to the pit area. Who was that? Steve Williams! Steve had ended up winning the seven night DHL Saloon Series Speedweeks by one point after the last two nights were rained out. This was an open competition event for Steve who tries to race about thirty times a year between his golf gigs. We had a fun night of racing but we were about ready to experience something that had never happened to me in nearly 1,150 nights of trackchasing. What could that possibly be? Could it be that the track commentator would sit down with me in the stands and do an interview? Nope, I’ve already done that. How about if the track commentator came into the stands to interview Carol? Yes, that’s it! Carol has never had an interview before. She just missed her chance earlier in the trip at the Blue Chip Speedway, but when the show ran late, she got cut. Aaron, tonight’s commentator, had told me earlier in the night that he planned to come up into the grandstand and interview Carol. I was excited for Carol to hear that. I didn’t mention anything to her about it. I didn’t want her to get nervous. After ten or twelve races, who should appear at the corner of the double-decker grandstands? It was Aaron. I gave him a nod and soon he was sitting in the row in front of us next to Carol. It wasn’t long after that when Carol was talking a blue streak about the New Zealand trip and her trackchasing career. This was Carol’s first ever interview and she did a great job. Finally, the Waikaraka Park International Speedway shared this on their website (http://www.waikarakapark.com/) regarding our trackchasing visit. “We also had Randy “Ranlay” Lewis present at the track. Randy Lewis is from San Clemente, California (USA), and is currently ranked as the #1 Track Chaser in the world, having visited over 1,000 tracks worldwide. The commentary team interviewed Randy over the PA and he was very interesting to listen to. Randy’s website is also a good read. Thanks for visiting Waikaraka Park Randy, and we look forward to reading about your travels to NZ on your website with much interest!” LIFETIME TRACKCHASER STANDINGS UPDATE: These worldwide trackchasers are within 100 tracks (plus or minus) of my current trackchaser total. * Warning, you are within 50 tracks of being removed from this list. ** Special exemption. Other notables These worldwide trackchasers are within 10 tracks (plus or minus) of Carol’s current trackchaser total. 2007 TRACKCHASER STANDINGS Tracks have been reported from three different worldwide trackchasers through January 6, 2007. CUMULATIVE TRAVEL DISTANCES: AIRPLANE Los Angeles, CA – Sydney, Australia – 7,490 miles Sydney, Australia – Auckland, New Zealand – 1,340 miles
RENTAL CAR – AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND Auckland International Airport – trip begins Driving all over New Zealand Auckland International Airport – 2,648 miles (4,236 kilometers) – trip ends AIRPLANE Auckland, New Zealand – Papeete, Tahiti – 2,540 miles Papeete, Tahiti – Los Angeles, CA – 4,110 miles Total Air miles – 15,480 miles Total auto and air miles traveled on this trip – 18,128 miles TRACK ADMSSION PRICES: Western Springs Speedway – $20NZ Blue Chip Speedway at Baypark – Free Upper Hutt Family Speedway – $20NZ Stratford Speedway – $15NZ Huntly Speedway – Free Meremere Raceway – Free Meeannee Speedway – $15NZ Top of the South Speedway – $12NZ Woodford Glen Speedway – $12NZ Robertson Holden International Speedway – $20NZ Taupo Motorsports Park – $20NZ Waikaraka Park International Speedway – $15NZ Total racetrack admissions for the entire trip – $149NZ That’s about $102.81US. UPCOMING TRACKCHASING PLANS G’by, mate. Yep! Our trip could not have been any better. The people were great, the scenery was beautiful and the racing better than in the states. However, all good things must come to an end. However, I won’t be on the trackchasing sidelines for long. TAHITI Before we could leave New Zealand for Tahiti we had to pay our $25NZ departure tax. Many airports like Auckland’s offer a wide selection of shops, some of which are duty free. This is the airport that handles all large planes coming into Tahiti and the other 117 islands that make up French Polynesia. We stayed at the Le Royal Tahition Hotel in Tahitii. Obviously, Tahiti has a tropical climate. The lily pads seemed to like it here. There’s nothing like a topless hotel swimming pool. This served as both the breakfast and dinner room at our hotel. We also ate breakfast outside overlooking the ocean. We spent two afternoons hanging out at the Sheraton Tahiti. They had a better pool! We had some great meals at the Sheraton with gorgeous water views. I’m always saying that Carol eats like a bird. Our drive around the island found us getting closer to what the locals see and do. Nice catch! What a beautiful pasture. I believe this might be the only golf course on the island. This was a nicely decorated Tahitian cemetary. The churches were the best kept buildings on the entire island. We took our time to watch the surfers do their thing. The fruit and vegetable market is a major attraction in downtown Papeete. Tahiti is the largest city in French Polynesia. This is one of the more major side streets. Which one do you like? We stopped in this local hangout for a drink and some Chinese food. This is an example of the “truck taxis” that run people all over the island. Sometimes it was a little cramped on a near 90 degree day in the “truck taxis.” Well, that’s it, the end of our 17-day journey to New Zealand and Tahiti. It was a fantastic trip. Thanks for taking the time to share in the fun by viewing these pictures. Sunday/Monday, January 7-8, 2007 TAHITI TOURIST ACTIVITY The Waikaraka Park Speedway is just 5 kilometers from the Auckland International Airport. After the races, we grabbed a motel nearby. Our trackchasing in New Zealand was finished. I returned our Subaru Outback rental car with 4,236 more kilometers on it than when I picked it up two weeks ago. We stopped to fill-up seven times (only after the orange light was illuminated on our fuel gauge) with a final top off near the airport. We used 381.12 liters of petrol. That meant we got 11.11 kilometers per liter. I guess that’s about 29.87 miles per gallon. I think that might be about $3.52 per gallon U.S. but I’m not sure. When I had made our flight reservations for this trip, the agent told me, “I can’t get you back to the U.S. after your final day in New Zealand without having you layover in Tahiti for two days.” Rats! Those rotten airline people! I’m finished trackchasing and they want Carol and me to stay over in Tahiti for two days at no extra charge. All right. You’ve twisted my arm, we’ll go to Tahiti for two days. By the way, New Zealand charges a $25NZ departure tax when anyone leaves the country. This fee is not only assessed to tourists, but everyone leaving New Zealand. I asked the agent about this tax. She told me that rather than access various airport and other taxes, they simply use a departure fee. We had our first ever flight with Air Tahiti Nui Airlines from Auckland to Papeete, Tahiti. They used a Boeing 747. I must say I was not very impressed with Air Tahiti. Getting our boarding passes took a long time. Then I convinced Carol we needed a chocolate sundae at McDonalds in the airport. We were casually eating our sundaes when we heard this announcement, “Air Tahiti flight 102 to Papeete is ready for departure.” I looked over at Carol and in mid bite, a full panic attack came over her. That made a full panic attack come over me. Aucklanders were now seeing two worldwide trackchasers in full panic. Yes, a couple of elderly women had to be sacrificed so we could make our flight. We made it to the back of a very long and slow security line. When we were about twenty people from being screened, this announcement was made, “Air Tahiti to Papeete is now in the final boarding stage.” With our combined blood pressures reaching 1,500/1,250, we cleared security and ran like crazy. I think Carol was cussing at me all the way, but my heavy breathing seemed to drown her out. We pushed to the airplane’s open door only to find that we were nearly the first people on the plane. Then, we sat in our seats for 25 minutes before the flight took off. I have no idea what these people were up too. I know I can’t prove it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Gordon Killian had something to do with this. By the way, I hope trackchasing’s censure police (and that is NOT Will White) read far enough to pick this up. By the way, New Zealand airport security did not check for liquids, require us to remove our shoes or ask me to take my computer out of my briefcase. I don’t understand airport security. One of the sample questions on an airport placard of what might and might not be allowed on the plane included, “May I carry a tear gas bomb in my handbag.” Please! I really didn’t like Air Tahiti. Their flight attendants did not speak English well and the P.A. announcements were nearly impossible to understand. When we landed and stopped at the gate, the first passenger was not allowed to deplane for 15 minutes. They told us there was something wrong with the ramp. We had a very long wait to get our luggage in the Aeroport De Tahiti FAA’A. Clearing customs also took a long time amidst a crush of people. When we reached the head of the line, the customs officer simply waved us through without a word. Talk about racial profiling. When we landed at past 10 p.m., the airport was going crazy. The temperatures were tropical and nearly everything at the airport was outdoors. I went to pick up the rental car. I feared our two hundred pounds of luggage would not fit in our Smartcar. Therefore I upgraded to a Peugeot Pilot. It looked like a mini-delivery truck and had a manual transmission. I would have preferred automatic but it worked out O.K. It was now nearly midnight. The next challenge would be to find our hotel, the Le Royal Tahitian. This was supposed to be a four-star hotel located in a somewhat run down part of Papeete. Papeete is the only major town on the island of Tahiti. Tahiti is the largest of the 118 islands that make up French Polynesia. French is the official language and the Pacific Franc is the currency. Tahiti is essentially a third world country. I liken it to Tijuana, Mexico a city just 74 miles from my home. We finally found our hotel but it wasn’t easy and we didn’t find it right away. There were virtually no road signs and the streetlights were hit and miss. When we checked in we heard music coming from the bar. We hurried over to have a drink and listen to the music. There must have been 30 people on the dance floor dancing to island music. These folks were local. They were outstanding dancers. I asked our server if he could bring us some nuts or chips to go with our drinks. He left for a few minutes and came back with a saucer full of black olives. That’s O.K. I come to these far away places to experience their culture not mine. I paid our bill that totaled 1,850 Pacific Francs. That seemed a bit high for just two drinks. My server gave me a credit card bill to sign for 2,000 Pacific Francs. Along with the bill was 150 Pacific Francs in coins! By the way, French Polynesia is reported to be the second most expensive place on earth behind Tokyo, Japan. On Sunday morning, remember we did Sunday twice because of the International Dateline, we had breakfast at the hotel. This was a beautiful outdoor café that had us overlooking the Pacific Ocean at a distance of five feet! I overdosed on their delicious French bread. Then Carol laid out in the sun before we embarked on our drive around the island. Tahiti is located between New Zealand and Hawaii. It’s a little closer to New Zealand. There is a circle road that encompasses the island. It’s about 130 km in length. The landscape is most similar to any Caribbean island you may have visited. Every thing is very run down except the churches. They are in pristine condition. There are lots of stray dogs and roosters! Just before we took off on our ride, we had lunch at the Sheraton Hotel. It’s located somewhat near the airport. The Sheraton is one of the nicest resorts on the island, if not the nicest. Our lunch was delicious in a small building with large windows that extended out over the ocean. The most basic room at the Sheraton went for more than $300 a night. Our rental car comes with a mileage charge. There was no way for us to avoid it. It would cost us about 60 cents U.S. for each kilometer we drove. That would make our 130km drive around the island somewhat expensive but it was worth it. We sort of wanted to complete our drive by dark. Carol told me, “We don’t want to go out at night, because we’ll be eaten by wild dogs.” That doesn’t sound like the bravado of a woman who has just ridden in a real sprint car race, does it? Like I said this is a third world country. Although the circle road keeps the water in view nearly the entire way, there are really no good sand beaches. We were pleased to see there were very few street vendors and no beggars. They also don’t post any prices at their petrol stations. The tour book at the hotel posted these less than reassuring words, “Nowadays most of the cities of French Polynesia have not provided drinking water to their citizens yet. We invite our visitors to use bottled water instead.” Wow! No tipping is expected anywhere on the island. We passed the Tahitian Princess cruise ship during our drive. She was shipping out this afternoon. Tonight at dinner our table was situated next to a table of four people who had just finished their cruise. They were staying at our hotel for a night before heading back to their respective homes. One couple was from New Zealand. The gentleman offered this comment that we overheard, “I miss the cruise ship already. I’ll bet there’s some American sleeping in my bed right now.” Ouch! On Monday morning it was time to check out. Our bill came to about 45,000 Pacific Francs. Ouch again! This international jet setting lifestyle can be expensive. We needed to check out by 12 noon, but our flight wasn’t leaving until 11 at night. We spent the day shopping in downtown Papeete. Imagine Tijuana and you’ve got it. Tahiti is known for their black pearls. We stopped at one jewelry store where they show prospective buyers a 12-minute video on how the pearls are harvested. This is really a very nice experience. They put us in a private room about 12 feet square, sort of like a TV sound booth. They offered us refreshments and then shut the door for us to view the film in private. The harvest process takes 2-3 years to yield a pearl. The rounder and larger the pearl the higher the price. Following the film, I wanted to buy Carol some pearls. She didn’t want any claiming they were too large! I’m sorry I found her first, go get your own wife who turns down black pearls because they are too large. Next we stopped at an open air Chinese market for refreshments. This was a great place to hang out with the locals. One of the main types of transport in Tahiti is by truck. Imagine the types of trucks that you see our U.S. military riding in Iraq. Yes, the type where 20-25 soldiers are sitting in the back. This type of truck in Tahiti acts as a taxicab of sorts for the masses. I wanted to ride one of these. Carol didn’t. Finally, I convinced her to get on board. We paid a small fee and tried to ask the driver if they would return to the spot where we were boarding. We didn’t really get a firm answer on that one. Soon about 20 passengers had hopped in the back of the truck and we were off. The driver was taking the circle road that we had traveled yesterday. We were getting further and further from Papeete. Carol was getting than panic look about her. You know the one. The look pretty much says, “If this truck takes us to Tim Buck Too and we miss our flight, you’ll be trackchasing by yourself for a very long time.” Yes, that look. It was time to get off the truck! I pulled a cord and the driver pulled over. He dropped us off at the FAA’A airport. It was about 3 p.m. We decided to explore the airport, since it had been a mob scene two nights before. We were shocked to see the entire thing was nearly closed down. I guess most flights come into or leave Tahiti at night. Our airline would not even open for business at the airport until 8:30 p.m. We got another truck after only a short wait back to Papeete. This truck cost more than three times what the first truck did, but I was in no position to argue. We spent the rest of the afternoon eating ice cream bars and sitting at the Sheraton Hotel’s pool. It would not be too difficult to get the cheapest hotel possible, sleep there and use the Sheraton for all of your meals, pool time, etc. I was amazed there was very little English either written or spoken. Of course, the official language is French. There was one exception. All of the traffic stop signs were in English! What’s up with that? We spent our final evening in Tahiti having a very nice dinner at the Sheraton. Our flight from Papeete to Los Angeles would be eight hours long. It was also be a “red-eye.” That’s O.K. When we landed in Los Angeles, son Jim was there to pick us up. If you’ve read all five of my New Zealand trackchaser reports, you deserve a metal and have my full thanks and appreciation. We had a wonderful time over the past 17 days. If you don’t travel much, I hope you get some enjoyment reading about our exploits. Sometimes it’s almost as much fun to read about someone else doing something, as it is to do it yourself. If you are an active traveler, I hope we might have stimulated you to embark on an adventure like this to New Zealand and Tahiti or wherever your travel itch might take you. I’m signing off now, but it won’t be long before the 2007 domestic trackchasing season begins. I’ll be talking to you then. Thanks for reading about my trackchasing, Randy Lewis #1 Trackchaser Living West of the Mississippi Your best bet is to work your butt off, reach your goals and enjoy your rewards.
