Scootin' around

I do almost all the planning for anything Rob and I do. For the most part, I enjoy planning. However, lately we have been doing a lot of things that require a lot of planning. In addition to our normal day-to-day activities-around-town, we have taken two trips and started booking our Christmas travelling. Oh yeah – and we moved halfway around the world, which required previously unsurpassed levels of planning.

A bit overwhelmed, I asked Rob if he could plan something for us to do last weekend – and man did he ever! I was expecting a nice meal or maybe a picnic, but he surprised me by renting scooters for the entire weekend!! We had been told that you can't rent scooters in Auckland Central, but Rob called all the scooter stores in town until he found one that would rent us two scooters. And so I present to you the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of scooter-ing around Auckland:

The Good:

Weeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!

Scooters are so much fun. The first time I rode one was in Sorrento, Italy in Summer 2007, and I’ve wanted one ever since. I even designed my wedding dress around the idea of riding a scooter in it! Rob and I got our motorcycle licenses before leaving Chicago (because they are much easier to get there than anywhere else) so we could buy scooters wherever we ended up moving.

The price

We rented our scooters from Scootling in Grey Lynn. Rob wanted to rent them for Sunday only, but they're not open on Sundays, so we had to pick our scooters up on Saturday and return them after work on Monday. It was supposed to be $36/scooter/day (including helmet and insurance), which is pretty good, but we got an even better deal - they charged us $36/scooter for all three days! That's cheaper than one stick of MAC eyeliner over here!

Of course, now Rob wants a scooter too, so it may end up being the most expensive $72 we've ever spent.

The City

Above is a map of where all we went on Sunday. It may not mean much to non-Aucklanders, but rest assured say - we went everywhere. Or at least everywhere you can go without getting on a Motorway. Scooters are an excellent way to explore a city. You have the convenience of a bike and the speed of a car (well, kind of). In Auckland, scooterists are allowed to ride in bus lanes and can park pretty much anywhere for free. 

Also, Auckland is an ideal city for scooterists. The weather is fairly mild year-round, it isn't too crowded, and most importantly, there are no Chicago cab drivers here. There are a lot of people scooting around, so drivers and pedestrians alike are used to seeing scooters and seem to know how to share the road.

The Bad:

The Scooters 

The scooter rental shop only had two scooters left - two of their Suzuki Mollet 49cc scooters. A 49cc scooter has a maximum speed of 50kph (about 35 mph), which also happens to be the speed limit in much of Auckland. This was especially problematic on Auckland's many hills, as inclines lower the speed even further. As far as smaller scooters go, these particular ones were lacking any acceleration power, which felt slightly dangerous at points. 

Unfortunately for most people, a motorcycle license is required for anything with a 50cc engine or larger. Fortunately for us, we have our motorcycle licenses, and so any scooters we purchase will be at least double that.

Unmarked motorway entrances

The speed limit on the motorways is at least 80kph, and usually 100kph. Small scooters such as the ones we rented are not allowed on the motorway! So the two times we nearly ended up on the Motorway (I swear - there were no signs warning us it was coming!) were slightly unnerving. Thankfully we realized our direction in time to correct it.

The Ugly:

Roundabouts

Ugh. Roundabouts are the WORST.

However, the good outweighed the bad (but nothing can make up for roundabouts), and we're already scouting out places to move that are a scootering distance from work!

Obviously I'll have to ask Rob to plan things more often. I've asked him to be in charge of planning our trip to Fiji for my 30th birthday/Thanksgivukkah - I can't wait to see what he comes up with!