Julian Kegel

Day 1

Today we are flying as far west as the map will take us. Not only will we be in a different cultural world. I’m not sure whether I will see the sunset for a whole day because over there is already Thursday. By the time we get there it will be 515 am Friday Jan 6th. Not only is just the flight time 23 hours but we also lose a whole 18 hrs with the trip. As so far as San Francisco-no hiccups Julian
We arrived into Auckland surprisingly awake. The plane ride was nice and smooth. Took bus into city in hopes of getting our bikes from adventure cyclists. Our hopes to get quality bikes to tour the north island soon we squashed when we walked in the door. It was so dingy and dirty. Almost nothing in the place was new. Each of the 10 people there all had dirty hands and didn’t know what servicing a bike or a customer was about. To top it off the bikes they were giving us such pieces of shit they wouldn’t work right in the parking lot. Brakes squealed didn’t shift and the seat clamp was from the 70’s couldn’t support 100 lbs. So after a lot of fuckin around we decided to exit the bike shop while the owner was out for lunch. We told them we were going to think it over but we knew we wouldn’t be coming back. So we spent our time in an internet cafe getting a bus ride to the coromandel peninsula and a place to stay at a place called the lions den. She said the only room left was the hippie hut. We reserved bikes in thames for a couple days. We plan on doing a loop of the peninsula. Hiccup #1 bike shop in Auckland blows. Puts dent in plans to do a big ride-oh well. At loeast it was a beautiful day.