Wade nearly dies on a Moped

So the second day in Taupo, since Tongariro crossing was closed, was open to all sorts of possibilities. Alex and Kim approached me thinking of exploring a bit and possibly renting the mopeds next door for some self guided fun. I had told Alex(g), Sarah and others that we should meet up for b-fast in the morning, so Alex(m) and Kim went off and I told them to come back at 11 to check if we were back from b-fast.
Breakfast time came and went. I check with the girls to see if they were ready. They basically were still in bed. Disheartened and hungry, I resigned myself to getting some quick b-fast (which wound up being McD's) and waiting for Alex and Kim. Luckily, they saw me on the walk there. So I shoveled some food and rented the other bike for incredibly cheap ($37 NZD for the whole day) and we planned our adventure.
First stop was food. Figured we should go and get some supplies for food and drink for the afternoon with lunch out by the falls/dam. So we took off toward Woolworths. We proceeded to the end of the street, put on blinker and "turned" right. I say "turned" because the girls did this flawlessly. I, on the otherhand, more vered...and vered right onto a sidewalk that ran diagonal from the intersection. Nearly taking out some pedestrian, I play it off so smoothly walking the bike up to the information center that it led to, contemplated the posters displayed, and conclusively walked back to the road as if this whole adventure was completely intentional. The girls were waiting down the road wondering where I had vaporized to. I explained that I had not mastered the art of "leaning into the turn" as it was my first time on a moped. Whoops...
Now a pro, we get to the store, make our purchases and head back out to the mopeds. The mopeds, I may add, were a little difficult to start. Mine took a certain finesse with the electric start and throtle whereas Alex's more often than not required a kick start. About this time, the owner of the bikes pulls up next to us, introduces himself as such and gives us a half condecending half helpful demeanor with the starting of the bikes. We proceed up this long country road with nothing but paddocks and mountains a kilometer or 2 away. The sensation was incredible. My bike could get up to (as I later determined) over 70 kph (42 mph?) Impressive considering that the max speed on the road we were on was 80kph. I was thrilled! Alex and Kim, on the same bike had less luck with speed as they had 2 ppl to carry and I was often limited to the intricate task of matching their speed.
We continued out to the Hukka falls (or some falls, I forget the name) where the dam was. The dam was open when we got there so we proceeded onward to a glass blowing factory slightly down the road. Cool place, lots of nifty glass structures, all expensive and daunting in their fagility. We watch their presentation and forgo buying anything.
Upon leaving, we took our left hand turn out on the major highway we had already been on (this one was 100kph limit with lots of big trucks...lots in relation to nothing). This time, I attempt to turn around the girls to get on the other side. Instead...I wind up on the other side of the road plowing through daisies and tottering on a small hill. Joy! I take a sec to steady myself and continue on my way unharmed. The girls get a kick out of this as well. We went back to the falls and had a little pic-nic lunch. We waited a bit longer and got to a good lookout to watch the dam open. It might not sound like a spectacular experience, but seeing these small pool with large rock transform into a raging river of might was pretty intense and captivating. We get our fill and hop on the bikes. We stop to get some gas for Alex's bike and continue on to this spa/resort/waterpark place on the other side of town. I told the girls that if the price was right and they had availability, they would get massages on me. Fortunately and unfortunately, they had no availability so we headed down to the lake front for a viscious game of put-put. Kim began by whooping our asses, followed by a slight comeback by myself with Alex struggling on some holes. Don't worry, we laughed our asses off at ourselves.
With hours to kill before we had to turn these bad boy bikes in, we headed first to a museum near our hostel but found out it was closing in <10 min. Instead we enjoyed the rose garden right next to it litterally "stopping to smell the roses." With few options left, we went up to a cheap internet/gaming center that the girls had found the day before. We walk into this simple computer lounge with a couple small kids deeply submerged in their game of World of Warcraft. I take some of this time to email and crank out some blogging before I forget some of the finer elements of great stories. The girls left before I did and the night wound up being rather uneventful night. Mostly spent the rest of the night blogging and then sleeping.