iPad - Add to Dictionary? Yes please.

Wonder how many people saw this dialog box today?

New Zealand backroads - Kihikihi to Lake Taupo

X marks the spot on a pirate's map. Luckily Google maps have both X's and Y's, as it makes finding and navigating New Zealand's last remaining back-road treasures a lot easier. Here's one of my favourites to try the next time you have to get South from Auckland and want to avoid traffic, plus see some of the kiwi heartland.


View Larger Map

We traveled this route a few days into 2010, keen to avoid State Highway 1 on the well-worn track from Hamilton to Taupo. The road condition is brilliant, through the rolling hill country of the South Waikato region. State Highway 1 reported delays in some small towns of up to half an hour. Avoid!

Lots of personal memories for me motoring this way - starting with an early Split Enz concert at the Te Awamutu race-course, playing to a few hundred people in the sun on a Saturday afternoon.

A few kilometres South-east of Kihikihi keep an eye out for the ghost filled Orakau battle site, the scene of one of the last desperate battles in NZ's war for land and resources in the 1860s. From memory the road runs right through the middle of it. Hmmm.


View Larger Map

The drive also kindles memories of visiting farming family friends in the Owairaka Valley, hiking in the Pureora Forest, and learning of the destruction of lowland podocarp forests while on a University environmental geography camp to Barryville. Stopping to stand on top of the Waipapa hydro dam listening to the hum of the turbines, and laughing over what tourists (and now our 8 year old) think of a name like Whakamaru pronounced with an F.

But you don't need to have grown up in this area to enjoy the drive. The road is beautifully engineered, you'll need your wits about you if you're pushing on as the lanes are narrow. There's a seriously winding bit going down to river level at Waipapa and climbing out the other side. Brilliant on a motorcycle, likely to be spew inducing on a weak stomach in the back seat I'm afraid.

Watch out for cyclists - they're smart to take this route to Taupo if they can hack the climbs. Te Awamutu has bred some world class cyclists trained on this countryside. There's a store at Wharepapa South for a break.

The turnoff at Owairaka Valley Road 10km out from Kihikihi is going to give your GPS-brained TomTom sat nav device the heebies and you should steadfastly ignore its demand you stick to the main road, and turn right. It'll forgive your defiance when you rejoin the highway further along.

And of course, if you have the time, take a few side roads along the way.

The Best Things in Life - Them Crooked Vultures perform in Melbourne

The photo is technically rubbish I know. Standing behind 1,000 people at Melbourne's Festival Hall, most of whom seemed to be 6 feet tall, glaring lights, greenish cast, and only an iPhone to hand ... Mark_LP would be horrified. But the memory is locked away in vivid 3-D Blueray.

Being thumped in the chest for 90 minutes by John Paul Jones' bass (who clearly got in on Robert Johnson's contract with you know who - he looks 30!); entranced by the speed of Dave Grohl's man-possessed percussion; and jaw-dropped at the antics and vocals of Josh Homme. Did I ever imagine you could climb on the bass drum and whack cymbals while playing lead guitar?

Invited along as part of my musical education by Rich Durnall, I thank my lucky stars for the chance to see what amounts to one of the all-time greatest rock bands. The live act exceeded the 2009 CD's quality several times over, no mean feat. I came away with swirling metaphors of having 3 of the greatest geniuses in any one field of endeavour not only in the same room, but working together to create something few will hope to match. None came.

Supporting the superstars was Alain Johannes, no mean guitarist and musician in his own right. Interesting to see the contrast between 'great' and 'super-nova brilliant' on the same stage though.

Half way through the night I was plotting to just come home, quietly pack the guitars away in a cupboard and retire quietly to less creative pastimes.

By the time we'd got back to the car, the chance to be just a 1% part of the emotional crash-cart that outstanding rock music can be convinced me to at least strum a few power chords in the morning. And as luck would have it, thanks to these little beauties, I could hear them.

Them Crooked Vultures live 10/10. Rich Durnall, teacher 10/10 . Hearos musician's ear protection 10/10.

Bikes I love: Benotto Modelo 3000 c1980

Between 2004 and 2007, the gang at R+R in Wellington NZ undertook a variety of vintage racing bike renovation projects.

The full story of the history of this Benotto will be told by Robbo at some stage, but needless to say it is a beautiful thing. To be accurate, they are beautiful things. In the end two bikes were completed - when in true Murphy's Law sense, after a year of searching the globe 2 came up in succession on eBay - one in Minnesota and one in California.

Robbo's intent was to rebuild a bike dear to him from the early 1980s in Europe - with his original Campagnolo 50th anniversary groupset, one of the few that must have actually ever been raced (as opposed to locked away in a cupboard to admire from time to time).

Having taken so much guidance on what was authentic on my restoration of a 1979 Bianchi, we knew the result with the Benotto would be spectacular. After securing the bikes back to NZ (most of the parts from which were set aside, as they'd been modified over the intervening decades), the hunt was on for NOS (new old stock) components to fill the gaps.

One of the most interesting was the Benotto handlebar tape. I took up cycling later in the 1980s when this horrible stuff had been surpassed by gaudy padded cork tapes, and never had to endure gripping the cold slippery, hard as nails stuff.

Some evil petrochemicals must lurk in the recipe for this tape as the package arrived in the mail with the colour unfaded after 25 years on the shelf.

New decals were prepared by Photoshop guru Brent Backhouse from scratch, the frame painted by the late Ross Bee (after much debate on the precise colour - Dave was pretty sure Ross had some left over in his garage from a respray of the original bike!) and suitable rims obtained for the hubs. A missing front hub from the 50th anniversary set took 9 months to find on the web.

All in all, I suspect Signor Giacinto Benotto would be as proud of the result as he is showing the world the Benotto 3000 Tour of Italy special edition on this advertisement. Bella!

Tintin Coincidences - #2 in a series

This one from Flight 714, where Tintin, Captain Haddock and the Professor hitch a ride with eccentric millionaire technologist Laszlo Carreidas from Djakarta to Sydney.

Our CEO at Lonely Planet is Matt Goldberg, New Yorker, and a true champion of the telephone as a communication device.

Wellington's Cafe L'Affare Turns 20 in 2010

One of the institutions that led Wellington NZ into being the coffee snob capital of the country is Cafe L'Affare. We were there this week on our last day of our annual kiwi Christmas holiday, sitting at a table that has been part of the place since early days - including a massive amount of graffiti - and we noticed this wonderful bit of coffee art carved simply into the surface.

It is hard to believe they are turning 20 this year - but among our friends we can put together an oral history of their various phases (even back to the original days with Askew's design store taking up half the space), the people and events that have made it world-class for food and coffee.

In my R+R days we spent many an hour noodling ideas at the tall table in the window, or out the back by the coffee machine retail area. I hope I'm ordering a petit pain, Caesar with chicken and extra anchovies, with a latte to follow, in 20 years from now.