The ISDE 2006

Lake Taupo
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Lake Taupo is in the center of the North island of New Zealand... about 4 hours drive south of Auckland.

I took an intercity bus from Auckland down Motorway 1 to Lake Taupo. The bus ride gave a good opportunity to see many of the towns along the way... but, only from a bus window.

Terry, the busdriver, had a difficult-to-understand accent.. as I am just getting used to Kiwi-English. Other people must've had some trouble as well, because he left a few on the roadside with little warning other than a "we're leaving at 1PM".. and we did.. wonder if they ever made it?

Team USA at The ISDE
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The Kiwi have lots of "new" words for things and sayings.

Sweet-as (sounds like sweat-is) is = cool good-on-ya = good for you give him tha stick = make fun of someone

Tough to keep track.. but getting used to things... as I listen more.

Ended up in Taupo for the International Six Days Enduro, a large motorcycle race that winds it's way through some 200 km of forest each day for 6 days.. and includes fast timed techincal sections. It is the equivalent of the Olympics for motorcycling... and it was great fun.

The Parc Ferme, 600+ Motorcycles locked in
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Sean Clarke, NZ's legendary off-road riders, and his wife Adele, put together a truly great group of volunteers to set up the race course, organize the paperwork, shipping, parking, feeding, etc.. that goes on to put such a huge event. They did a super job and were fun people to talk with.

The volunteers all camped out in a large field near the Parc Ferme (the pits to us from the US)... I met Alan and Roma Chant (longtime NZ enduro organizers and all-around great people), Spider (Set up Crewleader and sheep shearer :), Sarah (Organizer extraordinaire), Darren and Dan (Fine Welshmen and fun drinking buddies), Bernard/Adrian/Regina (Volunteering cooks for 150 hungry workers), Rory, Moe and Brian the Taranaki Hardcore, Olaf, and The Fabulous Flying Freddy (Parkinglot attendee to the gods :)

Glider duty
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The New Zealanders I have met are all extremely friendly people.. and that trait apparently is countrywide. With all that good-nature, the race went off without a hitch.. unless you count the weather.

It seriously went from 80 degrees and sunny to 35 and hailing in 10 minutes.. then back to Sunny and 80.

If you ever come to NZ in the spring, bring warm, cold, sunny, and rainy weather clothes because you will need it all. Maybe in one day!!

Met some big riders (Joel Smets, Steffan Merriman, Russel Bobbit, Jeremy Ketchum)... and drank good beers (Tui's aren't bad... and neither is Monteiths).. at The Shed.. race headquarters.

Tar Hill Special Test setup
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Freddy let Dan and I run off to the ISDE practice track at Digger McKewen MX track and take a few laps on our wopped out TTR 250. It was fun, even on a bike with almost no suspension. But, it wouldn't have been worth a damn on the real course. Some of the areas had ruts that were HANDLEBAR deep!

You can't possibly imagine the strength of the riders to get through 1700+ KM of that kind of torture. Amazing just to finish.. and many did!

Congrats to Jeremy on his Bronze finish!

Back to the story.. No luck with the NZ ladies as of yet.. Turns out, they don't seem to like the US accent all that well.. guess that is the breaks :)

New Zealand is also known as Aotearoa: Maori for "Land of the long white cloud"
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While in a rainstorm at Taupo, Ben Weathers and Jeremy Ketchum (KTM friends) let me crash at their hotel in Taupo while my tent and clothes dried out.

We even got to head to Tongiriro National Park for a sunny day.. Ngauruhoe is the mountain used as Mt. Doom in The Lord of The Rings... really stunning moutains with snow capped peaks late into spring. Even got to throw some snowballs at each other at Whakapapa ski Area... BTW, WH is pronounced F.. so, it is Faka-papa... try not to snicker too much!

Practice
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Weirdest Food thusfar, Steak and Kidney Pie. I thought it'd be kidney bean. Turns out, it is Sheep kidney. The lady at the Bakery in Taurangi actually laughed after I ordered it. Maybe I should have taken the hint??

One of the volunteers, Andre, offered a ride to Christchurch in the Southern Island. We headed down on Monday after the cleanup from 600+ riders, countless crew, and spectators.

Tons of trash, but it looked respectable when we left.

The end of the race was sad, in a way. I felt as if I had really met some friends in the short time here in Taupo. Putting people together to get something accomplished really helps to forge a "family" feeling.. and there are people I met that will always be special.

The US team and supporters at the Opening Ceremonies of the 81st ISDE
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On to Christchurch!