Doger's Dispatches: Cars and caves (and the birds you didn't see last time)

CARS [Dora] After a busy 3-day week, Friday night brought an EV-themed reward in the shape of the Motor Trade Association's centenary car show (MTA100) Opening Preview - free food, wine and an exhibition of new/future cars, including one self-driving, lots of electric cars and some high-end cars. We (work colleagues) roved the exhibition with wine and sat in a lot of cars, tried out the sound systems, annoyed the interpretative dancers, 'accidentally' turned a petrol one on (noisy) to the enthusiasm of onlookers, and even made it into the autonomous Rinspeed that we definitely weren't supposed to be in (where there were peanut M&Ms!). Mayor of Wellington Justin Lester kindly offered to take a photo of me with the Rinspeed (prior to the sneaking in):

Test drive of the Ioniq or Leaf anyone?

On Saturday morning I helped out at the MTA100 electric car test drive area, taking people out in Meridian's Hyundai Ioniq and Nissan Leaf - this involved a huge range of drivers and a huge range of questions. Some were surprised that the inside of the car was "normal". I was the only woman running test drives. Speeding off to get lunch at the Mojo next to work, I ran into a colleague friend Angus studying for his finance diploma so had a nice surprise joint lunch.

An aquatic car comes back from a harbour spin

A few more test drives later and I met my friend Sophie (the other half of Roger's running friend Tim) to see the new Beauty and the Beast film. It was standard Disney and somehow they made the Beast attractive. So much so I was concerned that Beauty wouldn't be into the weedier man-version. After B&theB Sophie helped me charge the Leaf and then I headed (not in the Leaf) to friends Matt and Laura's for his 30th birthday celebrations, which had age-appropriate yummy fajitas and chilli con carne, and entrepreneurial and sporty chats.

The next morning I went to the rest of the MTA100 exhibition not covered tipsily at the Opening Preview. The Rinspeed was still coolest, but they also had a replica of Burt Munro's fastest Indian and bits from the real one (I assume!) in the Famous Kiwi Cars section.

Rinspeed and segway - in the future you're not allowed to walk

I then shot to brunch on Cuba St with Tom Corser, in the sudden sunshine! We had excellent waffles and caught up at an outside table at Fidel's (hipster) cafe.

Back at MTA100 I did more test drives in the Leaf and Ioniq for the duration of the afternoon, including videoing and chatting for two vloggers (video bloggers) while they drove. I had lots to say! So my voice should be famous on YouTube soon.

E.g. in this video I have a good old chat on the test drive: https://youtu.be/OoezTVifZDI

This week I also RAPID charged the Ioniq (photo right), which (for anyone who has not been chatting to me recently) is VERY exciting - first time for me and the car. Empty to 80% in 30min!

CAVES [Roger] My weekend started with a lengthy drive up to Waitomo with Tim. We were running a 35km trail run, so a pit stop at McDonalds seemed appropriate.

The lava tunnel race start

A comfy sleep on hotel beds set us up for a 5:30am awakening. We were bussed out to the start line, which was in an ancient lava tunnel. The start of the race didn’t go so well, as some wayward markers led us in a circle back to the start. Once our geographic problems were resolved, however, we headed off into the misty hills.

The ‘super long’ version of the Waitomo run goes through streams, into lava caves, over mountains and into valleys. Indeed, there’s very little land that could be described as flat. The striking scenery kept me distracted for the first 22km, but then my legs began to send me not-so-gentle reminders about their lack of training. I finished in a respectable position nonetheless, while Tim strayed from respectability into downright impressiveness.

We failed in our attempt to bribe a campsite to use their showers, and headed 2.5 hours down the road to New Plymouth for cider, burgers and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

6am the next day (seeing a theme here?), we arose in search of a weather window in which to climb Mt. Taranaki. Unfortunately we found it, so come 10am we had walked and clambered up the 2,518m summit, my legs protesting about their workers’ rights. We snapped some photos then dashed down just ahead of banks of clouds bringing wind and rain.

A pie in Whanganui was the highlight of an afternoon’s trip home. I arrived back in the flat flattened, my legs by now on strike. Thank you Tim for not letting me slack, and helping hours of driving fly by with a mixture of techno music and half-decent chat.

BIRDS

Photos from Kapiti Island that there wasn't room for last time