How Fast is 130km/h Anyway?

Melbourne was hard to leave, very hard. Even now when I was in the Auckland airport I thought, maybe I'll skip Taiwan and just get a ticket back to Melbourne instead. From there I could make that my new home and start exploring all the cities in Australia that I missed and all the things in Melbourne that I missed. New Zealand, however, was a magic all on it's own. I awoke this morning and considered staying another day or two in the wilderness. Maybe I would move on to another park, keep driving south, go to the South Island and just keep driving and hiking.

Unfortunately I knew reality was only a few short days away, the push notifications from my coworkers a painful reminder that beyond this trip my real life - my apartment, my job, my family - were waiting patiently for my return. I had already looked up high demand occupations in Australia and found mine on the list, which is the only thing that keeps me from not going home - the promise of coming back, maybe even for something longer term. These were all the things I thought of and I pushed them out of my mind just as quickly as they entered. There was a lot of road to cover and a long flight to Taiwan on the other end of it.

When I checked out of my 1970s backpacker hostel the receptionist slash owner asked me where I was headed next ("Taiwan then home to NY") which then launched her into a whole story about weather and snow. Apparently this past July they were completely snowed in for 10 days - with no way out and little food - by a foot and a half of snow. I wondered, by the end of her story, why they didn't own a plow on the premises if they're so easily forgotten due to being off the beaten path but thought better of it otherwise I may still be standing there hearing her tales. I thanked her profusely and left.

After stopping off to fill up my tank for nearly $40 (for half a tank) it was off to the winding country roads. Thankfully it was just the one which made it easy to navigate, but the road itself was only two lanes - one north, one south - and the towns I drove through were often just a few stores before opening back up into the wide open sheep and cow fields. I thought the cows must be happy and delicious spending all their days roaming the great outdoors and eating grass. I even nearly ran over a sheep that was just aimlessly walking across the road. I stopped a few times to stretch and grab food from McDonalds where I had a delicious mince pie, and wished that we had more of them back home.

Eventually the country road turned into a two lane highway. It was like going from a nice scenic drive to the fast and the furious - the road was straight as a pin. I went from cruising to zooming past the cars in the left (slow) lane to get to the head of the line. No sooner had I gotten there then I look up and see a blue sports car in my rearview and the lights turn on.

I pulled over to the side of the road and suddenly the handsome man behind the wheel turned into a cop by putting on his vest and hat. He walked out of the car and our interaction went like this:

Cop: Hi there!
Me: (hands over license) hi.
Cop: Did you know you were going 130km per hour?
Me: (thinks: how fast is that?) uhh no I didn't realize I was going that fast (internal shrug still questioning if that's fast or not)
Cop: Well the limit is 100km per hour. Can you state your name and address for me? (shoves iPhone looking device into my face)
Me: uhhhh Clocks The Travelling Fool
Cop: Where are you headed?
Me: The airport
Cop: Are you running late for a flight?
Me: um...no actually I'm on time.

Fast forwarding a few minutes, the cop by now had moved to the other side of my car, scanned and copied the address on my license, asked for my phone number, and told me I'd be getting a ticket in the mail to my US address in a week or two and had a month to pay it. I spent the rest of the trip very carefully not going over 100.

Soon enough I was nearing the airport but had a couple more hours on my rental. I decided to go to the botanical gardens and walk around for a while, knowing that I would appreciate it later when I was stuck on a plane for 12 hours. The gardens were gorgeous with sculptures from local artists scattered around and plenty of local flora and fauna. I enjoyed the exercise and the sun on my face once again before moving on to the airport.

I dropped off my car, got the receipt (a very painfully expensive one - rentals are notoriously expensive around Oceania) and walked towards the terminal. With 5 hours left to kill I noticed a small gazebo and grassy area where some backpackers were sprawled out on the grass in the sun. I thought to myself that sounds like a good idea and spent the rest of my afternoon napping in the sun with the cool wind blowing through my hair.

Now it's off to Taiwan. I'm spending the time before the flight in one of the best airport lounges I've ever been in with delicious food, plenty of drinks, and unlimited wifi which is a rarity in this part of the world. I'm dreading the flight and a bit worried about being in a country where English isn't the primary language but mostly I'm just excited for the adventure ahead.