I posted last Friday to avoid having to remember back after my busy weekend in Auckland for the SX Open Supercross race. Little did I know I’d experience literal memory loss, and not from alcohol consumption, although maybe indirectly.
The cafe was busy Saturday morning due to rain. I put in my lunch order before noon and started eating immediately when my shift ended. I stopped for ice on the way out of town around 12:30. It took 3 and a half hours of driving through heavy rain and wind to get to Mt. Smart Stadium in Auckland.
I squeezed my van into a questionable parking spot right in front of the venue. Thankfully I didn’t end up getting a ticket for it, but admittedly it was a slight roll of the dice. Dayton met me out in front of the gates with my special guest pass. He had to work after that, so I meandered through the booths and got a free Monster, which I poured out after two sips. Fact: A can of Monster has nearly 60 grams of sugar. Yuck.
The track looked more like a lake from all the rain, and they had to cancel the freestyle show and postpone qualifying while the crew desperately tried to save it for the event. Luckily the rain had stopped before I even got there, and the weather was supposed to stay clear long enough to run the races. I had been watching from the grandstands thinking I my pass entitled me to sit wherever, but then Dayton texted me saying I could go down to the white tents where the riders and mechanics were getting ready. That was pretty cool. I had brought a salad in a Tupperware for dinner and chowed down while surrounded by pro motocross riders. Ben Townley was there, a NZ moto legend who had been at last weekend’s party in Taupo. I got the chance to meet him formally. I even ran into Dayton and Ronnie (in costume) who gave me a high five and a hug.
I was behind the starting line when they kicked off the 250 race and got sprayed by dirt when the gate dropped. Sweet!
Some of the guys from Taupo sent me a Facebook message, so I joined them where they were sitting in the grandstands. Dayton came and watched the 450 race with us too.
Everyone went out to party when the race ended, but I was exhausted from my day and had to find somewhere to park for the night. I navigated to a park nearby that was supposed to be OK for freedom campers, but there was no signage indicating it was when I got there. It wouldn’t have been an suspicious place to park, but the street was very busy. I drove through a local neighborhood and found a house that had just sold to park in front of thinking it wouldn’t raise any red flags to the neighbors. Locking myself inside and drawing the curtains, I crawled over my sink and into bed.
The next morning it was raining, so I crawled back over the sink and drove to a nearby Countdown. I was in Auckland, but I had no plan for the day. I made breakfast in my van and went inside for some groceries. It was a directionless mood I was in. Auckland is the biggest city in the country, but unless you’re walking around on a nice day, everything costs money. I felt trapped. Back outside, I realized the grocery store had an underground parking garage, so I went underneath to clean up my van a bit which had been a frantic mess since leaving Rotorua. There was something therapeutic about getting it cleaned out and rearranged. Now that I’ll be living in it full time it needs to feel a little less shabby.
I wanted to call my dad so I figured I’d go park up at Mount Eden with a pretty view. When I got there he only had a few minutes to talk and the sun was out, so I chose to walk up to the crater after our conversation. We agreed to call again later.
Next I went to Ponsonby where I spent my first 6 days in New Zealand at Verandah’s Backpacker’s Lodge. This was pretty emotional. There was parking out front of the hostel, but I couldn’t go inside without a key. I decided to take a stroll down the block and see if I was within the time frame for the $5 pizza special at Freeman’s. I was not, so I chose to go down to the swings in the park next to the hostel. As I was walking down to them, it started raining. I sprinted up to the first one and jumped on. By the time I made it back to my van I was completely drenched, but I didn’t want to give up the opportunity to swing. Who know’s when I’ll be back. Wet and dejected, I undressed and pondered my existence. There was another Countdown by the corner, and I knew it had a garage. Off I went. Lunch was eaten underneath the supermarket after which I called my sister out of loneliness.
This was a very reflective day for me. Staying with Mike and Kath was a great chance to get my feet under me when I arrived, but now that I was in the van full time I’d have to do it again. With fewer hours than I expected at Zippy’s, I spend most of my time twiddling my thumbs, especially when it’s raining. I’ve been told this has been the wettest November in 100 years. Great. I’m not leaving the North Island till the 4th, so I have to make some lifestyle adjustments or I’ll go crazy here. Annie had the idea of trying WWOOFing. This gave me some hope. With my current number of hours and gas and food expenses, I come just short of breaking even each week. If I’m woofing at a farm near the forest (within riding distance from the trails), I can greatly reduce my fuel and food expenses and maybe keep working at Zippy’s on the weekends. If I can start living at the library, that’s another way I can make productive use of the next 5 weeks. Annie helped me get back on track a bit. I called my dad again afterwords and shared my ideas.
One thing my sister helped me realize was a shower would help me feel better. I found a public pool and got that taken care of. She was right. I checked in with Annie and Dad again to share the positive news. After researching freedom camping spots, I took off from Ponsonby for Eastern Beach.
I got there while it was still light out. It wasn’t raining and there were families with kids walking up and down the beach. I found a nice parking spot by the water and made dinner. Little did I know my night was about to take a turn for the worse.
I drove to the end of the beach where the public toilets were located. I needed to wash my dishes and use the sink for my toiletries. There was one other car in the parking lot, and I could see people swimming down at the beach. After finishing eating, washing dishes, and brushing my teeth, I was ready to go find an overnight parking spot down the road a little. I could hear the people who had been swimming showering off on the other side of the toilets. As I was about to hop in the others came back to their car which was parked next to mine. Making friendly conversation as I always do, I started to ask how cold the ocean water was. The guy, a Maori or Pacific Islander about twice my weight, did not look happy. He accused me of watching his misses showering which I denied. He didn’t believe me. There was no way to convince him. Then, completely to my surprise, he slugged my in the jaw and sent me flying to the ground. He was enraged. I was terrified. From the ground I pleaded that I hadn’t seen anything. His girlfriend screamed at him to stop. Luckily he didn’t continue to beat me. I got up and closed my passenger sliding door and somehow got in my van (even though the drivers door was right next to their car). I don’t remember exactly how. In a daze, I exited the parking lot and drove down the street knowing I was injured. I spotted some fisherman on the beach even though it was dark out. I turned around, parked behind their cars, and stumbled onto the sand, seeking their help. I sat down on a bench and explained my story. This is where my memory lapsed. All the sudden I was sitting on a bench at the beach at night surrounded by two strangers, without a clue of where I was or what had happened. My head and jaw ached. There was blood dripping down my chin. Then I remembered what had just happened. The part of the story between getting hit and “coming to” were slowly remembered over the next 20 minutes. Simon, one of the Japanese fisherman, called the police for me. While waiting for them to come I tried calling Annie who miraculously picked up even though it was 4am in D.C. At this stage I was still super confused and unable to fully recount what had happened. Through talking with her I was able to piece it together. I was so grateful for this call. She ended up getting ahold of my Dad afterwords who kicked into parent mode and did his best to help me remotely.
It took half an hour for the police to arrive. When they did, I got in the patrol car and one of the officers got in my van. We went to see if I could identify the car in case it was still in the lot. The gate had since been closed and the police didn’t bother to go back and check for cameras. It was a busy night for them, and I had a feeling I was low on their priorities. (I thought about going back to search the next day, but with my family’s advice have decided to let it go and move on.)
The cops drove me to the closest clinic where the nurse took one look at my jaw and said I needed to go to the hospital for x-rays. I got in the squad car once again. We drove across town to Middlemore hospital, one of Auckland’s largest public hospitals. The police parked my van just outside of the hospital so I’d be able to get to bed easily. After being processed I sat and waited. And waited. And waited. I was exhausted, scared, and injured, unsure of whether I had a brain injury or broken jaw. Keep in mind the incident happened around 9:30 pm. At 2:30 am I was taken back for x-rays. I was told I’d be called back in to see a doctor once they had a chance to review them. At around 3:30 am the nurse told me they were super slammed and nobody would be able to see me until 7 am. They said I could discharge myself, get some rest, and they could call me when a doctor could see me later in the morning. I was pretty pissed because I’d been there all night with out a concussion assessment, but they reassured me that because it had been more than 4 hours since the trauma without any serious problems that I’d be alright. I made it to my van at 4am with dried blood on my face, having received next-to-no medical attention.
I woke up at 8 and checked my phone. The hospital had called at 6:09am, but obviously I had slept through my ringer. I walked back to the hospital where I found the staff had changed over and nobody knew my situation. My first visit had been covered by ACC because it was assault, but I wasn’t sure another admittance would be free. The nurse was so ignorant and couldn’t tell me directly. (I later found out that it would have been covered. Fortunately, it didn’t end up mattering in the end.) Then I got lucky. A nurse passing by had heard about me. She promised to dig up the x-ray report and let me know what it said. I chose not to re-admit myself both because I didn’t want to wait all day to get a head injury assessment considering (I was 12 hours out and feeling alright despite only getting 4 hrs of sleep) and the uncertainty of coverage (even though I have great insurance) to avoid a paperwork hassle. This may sound reckless, but I know my body best. I wouldn’t neglect the possibility of a serious head injury if I wasn’t certain I was OK. Plus, people get punched all the time, even knocked out, which I wasn’t. The memory loss was concerning, however.
I waited for a long time. When the nurse resurfaced I snagged her. The staff at this place was spread very thinly. This whole experience gave me a reference to compare to healthcare in the states, which I can now appreciate a lot more. She said she’d let me know in ten minutes, so I proceeded to wait another forty. Finally, I went up to her to *squeak* again and she mentioned the report said no fracture. That was all. Well, I had confirmed what I already knew myself, so my business was done. I left the hospital, put on my new theme song “King of the Road” by Roger Miller, (which Dad had sung on the phone the day before) and made tracks for Rotorua. I’m the king of the road.
I stopped in Hamilton mid-day to make lunch and grab a coffee. It was pouring and I was tired but somehow relieved. In Starbucks I got a call from Alex who I had asked earlier for medical advice (he’s a physio and so is Fran). He invited me to stay with his family until Thursday while I worked things out. I feel so lucky to have the Tagues looking out for me. This is not the first time they have welcomed me into their home.
Back in Rotorua, I pulled into a parking space in front of the cafe. I needed to be around people I knew. Rob, buying a coffee, was the first one I saw and got to explain my story to. I went down to the shop and filled Mike in too. Back at Zippy’s I got a lot of sympathy from the staff. My soreness and exhaustion were really setting in. Gary made me some food. Bless his soul. Morgan and I had our longest conversation ever. We talked about my situation and how I’m not working enough to be happy. I mentioned I was looking at woofing too. He really understands me. He told me quite frankly that if I were faster I’d have more hours. He appreciates my methodical approach, quality of work, and efficiency, but it’s no secret around the cafe that I’m not the “zippiest” dishy. Either I need to step my pace or I’ll continue to only get scheduled on the quiet days. Morgan also made it clear that my needs were the priority and if I needed to do something else it would be the least of his problems to have me walk off. You may not get a sense for how much of my respect Morgan has earned, but to sum it up, I wish he could be my boss forever.
Then I looked further into woofing. I needed to put my mind to moving forward. After signing up I started to peruse the bazillion farms around Rotorua. Good distraction. I even fired off a message to one family. We’ll see what they say.
It was so nice to be back with the Tagues. To jump right into a family scene was the warmest reentry to normality possible. They fed me and put me to bed.
I slept surprisingly well that night, likely due to my exhaustion. I worked the next day, and it went well. The forecast said it would rain when I got off, but I said screw it and went for a walk anyways. Finding routine was what I needed, and I was rewarded when it didn’t even rain the whole time. I played yard games with the kids when I got home. Afterwards, AJ helped me make dinner. Sweet kids.
Today I worked again. This time it was a bit more strenuous. When I finished at 3:00, I went down to the police station to get a copy of my incident report from the weekend. The cops who helped me out wrote the reference number on their business card. Then I went to check out the public library and get started before my memory got stale. The library has really nice facilities, and I intend to spend a lot more time there in the coming weeks. It’s right behind Zippy’s and Bike Culture, so I don’t even have to move my van to get there after work.
I write these posts once through without much revision, so as usual the details fall off towards the end. Thankfully this time most of what deserves detail was at the beginning or middle of the weekend.
The next few days will bring significant change. Time to embrace it, again. Stay tuned for the next post. Who know’s what will happen next.
Anders
My adventure in New Zealand 