RTB (giving up)

We kept on going for a while after we said bye to helpers. The road had slope from centre to the edge, which makes it much harder for manual wheelchair to go straight. I, on a manual wheelchair, was much slower on this part. A police car was following us from Parnel, and the car was only 2m away from me. I almost asked the policeman to push me with the bumper.

Another thing tempted me is, to take a selfie with this police car. But I didn't. If I do, it may be rude for the policeman and others who are "waiting" for us to go. they would say "Hurry up! don't waste your time to take picture". This is the same feeling with my swimming experience. I love ocean swim, but I swim very slow. Whenever I participate in a swimming event, one of the rescue kayaks keeps beside me. whenever I stop for enjoying the view, they say "keep on", which means, "DO NOT STOP. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO ENJOY THE VIEW, BUT HURRY". Very awkward, always..

Just before Royal Akarana Yacht club, a race organiser caught us up. "You are doing well but too slow. can you go up on the footpath, please?"

Really? It's only 11am. Road closes until 1pm. Why now?

After long story, I found that there was a misunderstanding of me.

-road opens at 12.15

-before road opens, the cleaning vehicle has to clean the road

I was quite upset because, I wanted to avoid going on the footpath before Kelly Tarlton. That's the only reason for everything I did today. I explained to the race organiser about the rough surface in front of Oahu Bay toilet house, and he said he would follow us to Oahu Bay. What's sad is, he didn't..

Then we faced the roughest surface on Tamaki drive, alone. Of course, some kind people gave us hand to push us through, though ;-) In Auckland, there are so many kind people that we will never left alone needing help for more than 3 mins.

Morgaina used toilet there. The event toilets were ready to be collected. then I didn't feel free to use them. We used the toilet house and it is not wheelchair accessible.. There was a step to go up to the toilet level. and none of the unit were wide enough to go in with a wheelchair. but we managed. we managed, but Morgaina's energy has run out.

(interview to Morgaina)

"I really cannot do this any more" she said. "OK, let's transfer into your chair (manual wheelchair, instead of COGY) then". I know I cannot push. If she think that's it, that's it. She has to keep the energy to survive the rest of the day. and she knows her limit. I don't.