The Amazing Auckland Goldie Race

Teams, in no particular order:

Blue team: Davis & Anngee
Green team: Beauty & Beachbelle
Orange team: Ocfreckle & Katena
Red Team: Lesley & Emme

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Lotrfan says:

At 10Am, roughly, we had to wait for the team that just had to go, they were off.  Katena and Frecs, dashed away while others checked out their timetables, but in a couple of minutes they had all disappeared from sight.

I headed into the mall to buy a white t-shirt and dumped the pink one I was wearing in rubbish bin. I took off my black skirt, it’s OK, and I had a cream floral one underneath, and headed on the next bus, to Newmarket.

I sat at a table in the Rialto Cinema complex and jammed Minkie’s hat on my head: she left it behind on a visit. I donned my specs and sat writing gibberish in my notebook hoping I looked studious. It wasn’t long before I heard the patter of feet and a lot of chattering. Beachbelle rushed into the cinema complex; “this is it”. I glanced up just as Beauty passed me. She caught me eye then followed BB, closely followed by two other teams. I looked up a few times: I couldn’t resist a look to see what was going on. They were walking round and round, all chattering at once, looking at me and walking by. Then, BB leaned across the table, looked right into my face and nervously whispered: “Are you waiting for us?” I didn’t answer straight away and she nearly turned away, but I couldn’t keep a straight face any longer, besides I couldn’t lie, it would be against the rules. By that time all eight were there and were handed the next envelope. I headed for Elliott Street.

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Ocfreckle says:

Katena and I, really outsmarted ourselves at New Lynn … in an effort to lose the pack, we wandered off in the opposite direction to them which entailed a LONG walk with Katena dashing ahead … and then came BEEDLEBAUM! The result was that we shot ourselves in the foot. When we eventually arrived at McCafe all our rivals were sitting there stuffing their faces. Undeterred, we ordered our lunch and sat down to fill in the allotted twenty minutes before finding the next lot of instructions from an anonymous person who turned out to be AJ50, only to discover the other teams had all got theirs on the way in! Now my race-wise friend says “PROTEST!”

I spent another twenty minutes attempting to text our beloved Controller, who said “carry on” and told us where the next stop was, Elliott Street. To while away the time until the bus departed, we embarked upon a discussion with a lady of Eastern persuasion, which she appeared to find incomprehensible until Katena resorted to pantomime: had to be seen to be believed! Eventually, the Downtown bus arrived which inspired Ken to burst into song and, furthermore, inspired me to join in and entertain the other passengers!

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Lotrfan says:

I had plenty of time, ate lunch, then sat at a tall table with the Snakes and Ladders  on a tray, hanging onto it for dear life cause the service people kept trying to take it away from me. Climb a ladder for the next envelope, the teams were told.

It was here my phone went crazy. My text is a very loud wolf whistle and it must have gone off about twenty times, to everyone’s amusement. Good job I don’t embarrass easily. I passed the time texting anyone who has said they’d like to be at the end.

Green Team were the first to arrive. They played the game, took the clue and dashed of to the next stop. A wad of paper hit me on the head and Orange Team came down the escalator. I wondered why Katena was going up and down the escalator? “Get a move on, you’re second,” I yelled.

Not bad for a pair that were last at the previous stop. Davis by this time had lost her wallet and was on a mission to find it again.

Orange team were on their way again, this time to catch a butterfly at The Liaison Cafe: they were jelly ones from the $2.00 shop that stick on the window. Orange team turned up with a cut- out paper one endorsed by Di at the cafe. A few minutes later Lesley and Emme arrived and headed off behind them. Now I only had to go to the end and I had better get a move on or the first team would be there before me.

I made my way to the Link stop and found Orange Team looking for the bus stop. We boarded the bus together and Red team were on the same bus. I alighted at Victoria Park Market and walked off in the opposite direction to put them off the scent. Hehe.

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Ocfreckle Says:

Now, I have to tell you here and now, we were not only slow physically, but by the time we reached the last leg of the race, slow mentally, too. For some unknown reason, I had Victoria Market and a watering hole called the Pit Stop firmly in my mind, so there was Ken dashing hither and yon asking everyone in sight where the Pit Stop was, while I collapsed into a handy chair. I was just about to text our leader and demand to be told where this Pit Stop place was when my phone rang: it was her.  Neither, Katena or I had seen the TV programme and didn’t know the Pit Stop was not a garage! We went outside to see almost the whole gang coming down the path on the opposite side of the road. Eventually, we ended up at a watering hole and downed a nice cool beer!

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Lotrfan says:


I dashed across the park to see if any supporters had turned up, but no. I turned to see Beachbelle and Beauty dashing across the grass toward me: I was going to stand in the middle, anyway, in case the end turned out to be a foot race. I put the mat, a plastic butterfly tablecloth from the $2.00 shop, on the ground and grabbed my camera to record the event.

It was a hot day so we found a cool spot under the trees and waited for the second placers. I saw Red Team shuffling about the bus stop for a while until they spotted us and made their way to the pit stop. See above for team three. Davis and Angee joined us at the bar, La Zappa, where we all sat in the shade of the chimney guzzling beer or wine until we went out separate ways. What a day, so much fun.

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Davis says:

The word Amazing was well used in our Goldie race.
Amazing that we arrived at the start on time.
Amazing that we found out just how many places we could go to on trains and buses and all for FREE.
Amazing that at every stop there were toilets and all clean.
Amazing to all finish in such high spirits and to find that EVERYONE had had a fantastic day.

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Lotrfan says:

Thanks to everyone who participated, and to AJ50, Di at The Liaison Cafe, and The Salvation Army Shop, who all helped.

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