Dying in a Ditch

Before this whole “Adderall Epidemic”, I was the ADD poster child. I couldn’t concentrate in class for more than 35 seconds and it has taken me over 9 years to clean my room. When driving a moped through scenic New Zealand, my lack of focus was still creeping up on me.

Mercury Island scenery

 On our way home from Australia, Sarah, Christy and I stopped in New Zealand for a week an a half of adventure. While exploring the Coromandel Peninsula on the North Island, we found our way over to beautiful Mercury Island. The first thing we saw as we got off the ferry was a scooter rental stand; “Scootabout”. Sarah and I convinced a worried Christy that this would be the best way to see the island. We signed our lives away on the insurance form and the wacky lady let us go for a trial run around a parking lot. Christy was having some issues steering and the lady told me to keep an eye out for her. Well, she would eat her words later.

Me, Sarah and Christy on our scooters 

Mercury Island Beach

We took our mopeds around through some of the most gorgeous scenery I’d ever seen. While cruising down a scenic path later in the day, I was fascinated by how the Alp-like Mountains met with the crystal Pacific Ocean and did not pay attention to the “SLOW 35KPH” sign. I had my eyes fixated on the scenery and sped around the bend at 55 kilometers per hour. I realized I was going way to fast and I had 2 choices; cut the wheel and flip over or go strait into a ditch. The ditch it was. I flew full speed into a grassy ditch as my moped flipped on top of me. Sarah and Christy ran over to me with tears in their eyes to see if I was alive.

struggling to get up after my accident 

 I patted my legs, realized I could feel them, and told them to get that damn moped off me. After we realized I was alive and got the heavy scooter off of me, we busted out laughing and tried to absorb what actually just happened. My scooter had grass wedged in the whole left side, the body of the scooter was all dented, I was missing a flip flop and half my body was covered in blood.

We finally attempted to get ourselves together and head back to return the scooters when Sarah couldn’t find her moped key. An extra frazzled Sarah lost her keys when I had my accident. We began to look around the area, and saw no sign of the keys. She thought she had locked it in her seat compartment, so I attempted to break into the locked seat with a bobby pin. As I was trying to break into her scooter, a man in a red car driving by stopped and asked if we needed a hand. I can only imagine the visual he had of us 3 messes. I told him we were fine, but he insisted because his friend owns “Scootabout” and the scooter we were breaking in belonged to her. After a bunch of rambling lies flew out of my mouth, he was on his way and we finally found Sarah’s key in my ditch crime scene.

pre-accident pictures with our scooters

 As pulled back up to the Scootabout stand, the lady was happy to see we made it back. Somehow I snuck my mangled moped by her as her dogs licked my wounds on my shoeless foot. We never got a collision bill from her, but I was banged up for awhile and never forget when I nearly died in a ditch.

sunset on the Coromandel Peninsula

Throughout Australia and New Zealand they have many blunt billboards posted about the dangers of drinking and driving. One of the most popular read “Drive Drunk and Die in a Ditch”. Not to mach drunk driving, but I almost soberly died in a ditch.

typical Australian/New Zealand drunk driving billboard 

scenery while scooting around Mercury Island