Amazing Race 13
Episode Four:
La Paz, Bolivia to Auckland New Zealand.
Phil reminds us that nine teams set off from Fortaleza, Brazil, for La Paz, Bolivia…bra-wars…bike spills…seriously bad clue reading…eight teams remain, who will be eliminated next?
Before we start, a little review as to how far the teams have travelled since leaving LA. The leg from the pit stop in Fortaleza, Brazil to the pit stop in La Paz, Bolivia covered 4,556 miles, so those teams that went through Miami have travelled 12,755 while the teams that went through Chicago have travelled 13,348.
Perhaps as interesting is the duration of the legs. Travelling from the Coliseum in LA to the first pit stop at Forte Sao Marcelo took 31 hours. The next leg, from Forte Sao Marcelo to the second pit stop at Cidade da Crianca took eight hours. And the third leg, from Cidade da Crianca (Fortaleza) to Mirador el Monticulo (La Paz) took 32 hours. I think the duration is interesting because teams will be more likely to make mistakes on the legs of the Race or do poorly on a Road Block or Detour when they haven’t had a decent rest—and I don’t count sleeping on planes as a decent rest—for multiple days.
The teams arrived at the Mirador el Monticulo, a hill-top park in La Paz starting with Ken and Tina at 12:33 PM. Toni and Dallas were second at 12:59, and for the third time, Terrence and Sarah arrived in third place at 1:04 PM.
The Southern Belles arrive fourth at 1:05 PM with Aja and Ty, Nick and Starr, and the Frat Brothers each arriving an additional minute apart. Finally the Divorcees, who were the last non-eliminated team, arrived at 1:20 PM. This is still a really close race, with the teams arriving at pit stops within an hour of each other—this time the separation between the first and last team is 47 minutes.
Route Info: Auckland, New Zealand
As Ken and Tina open the clue at the end of the mandatory rest period, Phil tells us that the teams must now travel 6,900 Phil miles to Auckland, New Zealand. For those of you keeping score at home, this is the third time that the race has looped through New Zealand. Once there, the teams have to drive themselves to Gulf Harbor Marina, where they will have to untie a Gordian knot to retrieve a clue inside.
Before a brief knot-tying lesson, let’s look at how the teams might have gotten from La Paz to Auckland. First it is likely less then 10 miles from the pit stop to the airport in La Paz, as shown on this map:
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On the way to the airport, the Southern Belles give us this week’s episode title: ‘I Wonder if They Like Blondes in New Zealand?’ I think the next line was even better: “I’m sure they have blondes, we’re not rare or anything?”
At first I thought that the teams might have to backtrack, maybe as far back as the starting point in Los Angeles to get a flight to Auckland, but there are direct flights across the southern Pacific from Santiago, Chile. This probably shows how little I know about the Southern hemisphere.
For $2,983.10 you can catch LAN flight 965, which leaves La Paz (LPB) at 10:00 AM for Iquique, Chile(IQQ). This looks like an interesting city on the coast of northern Chile, the airport is quite a bit south of the city which seems to be on a thin strip of land between the Pacific ocean and the Andes mountains. The flight arrives at 12:05 PM. This leg of the flight covers 288 miles and takes 1:05.
LAN flight 965 continues on, leaving Iquique (IQQ) at 2:45 PM, arriving in Santiago, Chile (SCL), at 5:00 PM. This segment is 910 miles and takes 2:15.
LAN Flight 363 leaves Santiago (SCL) at 11:05, and thanks to crossing the International Date Line, arrives in Auckland at 4:15 AM, two days later. This last segment covers 5,999, hey let’s just round up and call it 6,000 miles what with the taxing of the plane on the runways. The flight takes 13:10.
The total distance was 7,197 miles and took 16:30 (25:15 with connections) and the basic route is shown on this map.
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When the teams arrive in Auckland, they have to drive the specially marked cars approximately 66 miles to the Gulf Harbour Marina, which is north of the city center.
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The distance from the airport to the marina is is about 41.3 miles, and according to the driving directions, takes 1:22.
Once at the marina, they have to find a knot that Phil calls a Gordian Knot, but I think is actually called a monkey-fist.
The knots are lying on the docks between the boats, so the later you arrive, the further you would have to go into the marina’s docks to find a knot. It appears that some teams were confused and were looking for the typical clue box, so I like this idea of hiding the clue in something like a monkey-fist versus a clue box.
On the way to the marina, Aja and Ty didn't just get a flat tire, he must have driven into the curb based on the damage to the rim. I wonder what they pay each race for damage done to the cars—a new rim and alignment for a Mercedes is probably expensive.
Ken and Tina get to the marina first, and begin to untie the knot. The Frat Boys arrive at almost the same time, and also begin to untie their knot. When the Southern Belles arrive at the marina, they show their blondness by walking past a knot several times.
Fast Forward
This is the first of only two Fast Forwards hidden on the race, the team that completes it first can go directly to the pit stop, skipping all the other tasks…
In this fast forward teams must go to the highest structure in the Southern hemisphere, the Auckland Sky Tower, and then climb to the highest point on the antenna mast above the tower’s sky deck to retrieve a Travelocity Gnome.
Both Ken and Tina and the Frat Boys head out for the Fast Forward, but Ken and Tina arrive first. It is 29 miles from the marina, back into downtown Auckland to get to the Sky Tower. This map shows the directions:
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It looks like Auckland may be calling itself the ‘City of Sails’ while the Sky Tower site implies it is the ‘Sky City,’ or maybe ‘Sky City’ is just the area around the Sky Tower.
I think it would have been really neat to climb up to the highest point. I imagine it has quite a sway with the wind. The tower is 1,076 feet (328 meters) tall. Ken and Tina complete the fast forward and get to travel directly to the pit stop by helicopter.
Route Info: Mount Eden
The other teams must now drive their way to Mount Eden, which is Auckland’s highest point where they will get their next clue. So the teams have to drive approximately 32 miles back toward the center of Auckland.
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Mount Eden is the English name for the location, and I had assumed that it was named for it’s ‘Eden’ like qualities, but it appears it was named after the first Earl of Auckland. The Māori name for this park is Maungawhau.
Road Block: Who Has an Eye for Detail
A road block is a task that only one team member…
In this road block a team member must match a Māori tattoo by choosing an image of a traditional Māori tattoo drawn on flat paper, and then walking between rows of dancing warriors, identify the warrior with that tattoo. If they are wrong they must start again with a new image; if they are correct they will get their next clue. This preview of a documentary on Ta Moko is quite interesting.
The Divorcees don’t realize there is a guy to open up the gate so that they can drive up to the park (it is just around dawn so maybe they didn’t see him) so they walk up the hill on foot. Doesn't really cost them a lot of time, but does cost a lot of energy.
Route Info: City Life Hotel
Once the roadblock was completed, and the teams had rubbed noses with the correct warrior, the teams were to make their way from Mount Eden Park to the City Life Hotel. This is about 10 minutes and two miles from the park.
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Route Info: Spot Gnome
Although this was called neither a Detour nor a Roadblock, teams must now locate a Travelocity Gnome, which is depicting an activity that tourists often do while visiting New Zealand. The Gnomes are visible from the top of the hotel, and the teams are given binoculars to help with the Gnome spotting. This is another task that favors the teams who arrive first, because as each team locates and takes a Gnome, remaining teams will have to search harder to find the remaining ones.
It is too confusing and frankly not worth figuring out which buildings the Gnomes were located on. What is interesting is how willing the building management firms in Auckland were to allow teams access to the roofs, let alone climb an antenna mast.
Route Info: Kiwi 360
Teams must now make their way to the town of Te Puke, and find Kiwi 360 a local attraction. Once here they will get their next clue.
Te Puke, which is near the Bay of Plenty, is south of Auckland, and near another town visited on a previous race: Rotorua. The distance from the hotel to the Te Puke is 145 miles, and the driving time is estimated at 3:11.
This map shows a route from the hotel to Te Puke (Kiwi 360’ is just a road marker on the Whakatane highway).
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Detour: A Matter of Time, or A Matter of Skill
A detour is a choice …
‘In a Matter of Time’ teams must drive to a near-by Kiwi orchard, and with their bare feet, they must crush enough Kiwis to make 12 quarts of juice. Yup, that is what Phil said, 12 quarts. Although the two containers they had to fill didn’t look like they could hold any where near that volume, one of them was actually marked as holding 7.5 liters or 8 quarts, so a team had to fill one and a half containers. Now comes the freaky part—once they had made enough juice they each had to drink a glass of the freshly crushed juice, toe lint and all.
‘In a Matter of Skill’ teams must drive to Blokart Heaven, chose two blokarts, assemble them, and then complete three laps around a course to receive their next clue. Seriously, this looks like a lot of fun, and one source I found shows them fitted with skates instead of wheels for the winter.
Apparently the bottom of the vats with the Kiwis were lined with rocks, which most of the teams complained about. Some teams gave up on the kiwi juice task and decided to switch tasks, which I think is never a wise idea. Other teams weren’t thrilled with the rocks and kiwi mashing, but just buckled down and finished the task, in some cases surprisingly quickly.
And I really like Toni (Dallas' mom) who is old enough to make the appropriate reference “that it looked like more fun when Lucy and Ethel did it.” But she, like me, apparently remember this incorrectly. They could be my favorite team this race if only they hadn’t abandoned this task.
When Terence and Sarah arrived at Kiwi 360, Sarah is first to the clue box. She opens the clue box and begins to get the clue when we hear Terrence call to her to wait for him. As he arrives at the clue box he grabs the envelope from her and rips it open while telling her “babe, you can’t open the envelope, you are very bad at it.” Seriously, watching a control freak is just creepy, you know there is trouble ahead, no matter how the other person tries to accommodate them.
Route Info: Summerhill
Teams must now drive to Summerhill, a 1,000 acre sheep farm. The exact location is indeterminate, there is a Summerhill town, which is a significant distance from Te Puke (close to Wellington). But it doesn't seem like the teams have to drive that far from the detour to the pit stop.
I am guessing that it is either this recreational site, or is adjacent to it. Based on the address for the site, and for the Blokart racing place the following map shows the pit stop being about 10 miles from the detours. If you switch to satellite view and zoom it, you can see that despite being hilly there are some fields sheep would probably like.
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Because of the fast forward and the helicopter flight, Ken and Tina are team number one (again), and win a trip to Rio for the Carnival. Terrence and Sarah are second (the first team to complete all the tasks), and the Divorcees are third. Toni and Dallas are team number four, Nick and Starr are team number five, and Andrew and Dan, despite a total inability to build their blokarts, were team number six. We do not know the status of Starr’s hand, but the only instruction the teams were given was to not put their hands out if they were falling over.
In the end Aja and Ty are team number seven (arriving after dark and making it a long day for Phil and his dad). The Southern Belles, are eliminated, so there are now two less blondes in New Zealand.
Things that don't make sense: If a team member hurts their hand so badly that he or she thinks it is broken, then why does that person attempt to drive to the pit stop.
Things I just had to look in to: Who is Hayma Screech Washington, and what does he look like. You have to like a guy who doesn't shorten his professional name.
Things I like: Phil and his Dad at the pit stop.
Phil and his dad at the Amazing Race 13’s forth pit stop.
It was Phil’s dad’s birthday on or about the day of the pit stop, and Phil was able to take at least an extra day in Auckland to visit with him. Phil’s dad is a plant scientist and Phil’s video blog is worth watching to see a hamburger with beetroot.
Next: Terrence gets in trouble with the police—now isn’t that unexpected.