The plane touched the runway of Auckland International Airport almost exactly 11:00 a.m. Our packages were sniffed by both the fruit dog, and the drug dog. Fortunately neither found anything interesting in our bags. In the same plane with us arrived a school trip class from some Japanese girl school. The guy in customs seemed very happy to see us in the middle of this giggling black-haired mass of these lookalikes in their school uniforms. At least this was our conclusion, when we received a friendly smile and surprised comment: "Finland? Welcome to New Zealand."

We had some snack in the airport before going to the Shuttle Taxis. That was a wise thing to do, since we were the first people for the next taxi, and we had to wait for fifteen minutes before the taxi was so full, that the driver decided to leave. With us there were, surprise, seven Japanese in the Taxi. We told the driver to take us to the NZ Motorcycle Rentals, and he knew the place, and also wrote us a receipt, since he also knew they either fetch you from the airport, or compensate the Shuttle Taxi fee in your rental.

We arrived to the rental shop at 1:00 p.m., and the guys there started already to push our bike out, but I reminded them, that we are taking it the next day, and just brought our riding gear there, and wanted to do the paperwork. Darren and Gordon were happy about our decision to do the paperwork ready today, since the next morning there would be twenty Americans starting for a guided tour.

The bike was a BMW F650 Funduro. It was equipped with a considerably large top case, but for two people it was not enough, so we took a pair of soft nylon panniers for it for 20 $NZ a piece. Then I took an additional insurance for the bike for 5 $NZ a day, so the total cost for the bike was 140 $NZ a day plus the panniers, making 1160 $NZ for eight days. The also debited my Visa card for the insurance excess of 950 $NZ. I had to calculate my limit for a moment, but this time our Visa card was left valid for the rest of our tour.

Mark Bodell

I then dug my GSM-phone from my bags, and after some "network search" it confirmed, that my Finnish operator, Radiolinja, has a roaming contract with BellSouth NZ. Only thing that was pity was that our planned backroad filled route and the BellSouth coverage didn't overlap so often...

After finishing the paperwork, I called Gavin Legge, a friendly dude from nzbikers mailing list, who had promised to pick us up from the rental shop, and take us to Mark Bodell's place, where he was flatting. Mark had promised us some air mattresses in the room under his stairs to stay overnight. There we stood in front of the rental shop watching the coming cars, and guessing, who would be Gavin. Then there came this beautiful red Datsun "Stepside" Pick Up, and out came a barefoot almost skinheaded guy in T-shirt and shorts, smiling like a full moon. "That must be him", we thought. And he was.

The car was registered for three people, but it was not designed so. I sat in the middle, and Gavin couldn't use the second gear at all. He took us to Mark's house, and told us that he has to return back to work for yet few hours, and meanwhile we can borrow his VF1000R, and go sightseeing around Auckland. Can you imagine. A couple comes from other side of the world, and first thing this guy does, is to offer his beautiful Honda for a ride. We had left our riding gear in the rental shop, and didn't want to risk crashing his bike, so we turned down this so tempting offer. Then Mark Bodell called, and told that he will be home in any minute, so Gavin left back to work, and we waited for Mark. Then Mark arrived, and we took the "Stepside" to the nearest booze shop to fill his fridge.

Mark liked a lot my previous trip report, where I told he is almost fifty, but looks like twenty years old. He asked, where I had got that idea, since he was almost forty, actually 38. I was a bit embarrassed, but both Mark, and later also Gavin told, that it was just a good joke. I tried to remember, where I got this idea of Mark being almost fifty. We thought with Mark, that only Doug Rinckes or Andrew Broome could have said that to me during my last visit. We gave Mark a small Brandy bottle, that looked like some cheap perfume bottle. I don't know what it was, but it was definitely Japanese, and there were letters V.S.O.P written to it.

Gavin, Greg, Tero, and Doug

Mark had agreed another appointment for this evening, so he could not join us to the pub. Gavin called Doug Rinckes, and we agreed to meet in the Wakefield's. It was closed, so we just left the car there, and started to wander around searching for another good place. While walking, I asked Doug: "By the way, have you any idea, where from I got this understanding, that Mark is almost fifty?" He replied: "He isn't? How old he is then? 44?" Gotcha!... We ended up in one English pub, but they had already closed their food bar. We had just one drink there, and decided to go to The Loaded Hog. They sell also food. After we finally decided, where to stay couple a beers, I called Gregory Lynne, who we had met also last time in New Zealand. He was staying in Auckland for some job assignment. He joined us half an hour later.

Auckland Tower nightlighted

In the pub I asked Greg, if he was interested in riding with us tomorrow. We wanted to find a coastal road, that goes all the way around the Firth of Thames. Gavin had recommended it to us, and Greg also knew how to find that road, although they normally ride it towards Auckland, seldom the other way. We agreed, that I call Greg next morning, and ask if he has arranged things so that he can come. For Greg we had made a picture of his son Griffin on our rental bike from our last visit. Also we offered some Finnish chocolate, called "Geisha". The guys started to imagine what kind of girls Geishas are, and soon they offered each other chocolate: "have a slut!"... Geishas are not that bad...

Gavin drank so little that he could drive us back to Mark's place. So we didn't have to take a taxi. Before going to sleep, we looked some maps, and Gavin showed us a small ball-like toy. An arm exercise device called "DynaBee". According to its instructions, the gyro inside the ball can rev up to over 8000 rpm. Gavin didn't believe this, so they carved a small magnet to the gyro, and with a bicycle speedo measured the speed. They could make it spinning over 10 000rpm! Time to go to bed, we thought.