Culturally Preconditioned

I usually abhor ads during the show, but can I just say that I love Hugo Boss’ new advert? It was weird seeing him ‘out of character’. I have a totally new found respect for Jonathan Rhys Myers after watching The Tudors.  They couldn’t have found a better King Henry VIII. Nope, not even Eric Bana was as good in The Other Boleyn Girl.

Okay, so this episode started off in La Paz. One of the things that I look forward to at the beginning of an episode is where we see their arrival times at the pitstop. Now, there were less than one hour sparating the eight teams - makes you realize how close the gaps were between these teams.. something sorely lacking in TAR Asia, I’m afraid. Teams received their clue to fly to Auckland, New Zealand. Was this the longest direct flight in TAR history? From La Paz, Bolivia to Auckland, New Zealand?

All teams were on the same direct flight and there didn’t seem to be much airport drama. Once in Auckland, teams had to drive to Gulf Harbour and untie some kind of knot. The knot itself didn’t look particularly difficult, as I saw one of the team untangle it like a ball of yarn. What’s interesting was that they put the strip of clue at the end of the knot, visible to the teams once unravelled.

A Fast Forward awaits for them. For the Fast Forward, teams had to drive to Auckland Sky Tower and climb up from the sky deck to the top. Can I just say that this was probably one of the most scariest Fast Forwards I’ve seen on the race? The way the tower was swaying in the wind.. wow. Major kudos to Ken and Tina who completed this challenge and rode a helicopter right straight to the Pitstop.

As for the other teams, they had to drive to the summit of Mount Eden (all except the divorcees who are “too stupid to live” who parked their car at the base of Mount Eden and walked right too the top - but even then they finished the challenge before Dan and Andrew who drove past them to the summit. I honestly can’t tell who’s stupid, and who’s stupider). At the summit, they had one of the more interesting Roadblocks yet. Teams were given a picture of a tattoo, and they had to match it with a Maori who’s doing the hakka dance. I can’t believe Terrence managed to complete this task during sundown. Wow. And it was way funny watching the warriors rin and take the clue away every time they gave a wrong answer. The nose greeting was kinda cute to watch too. Way to inject some cultural stuff into the show.

Next, teams had to drive and find the City Life Hotel, get on the rooftop and use binoculars to spot one of the Travelocity Gnomes spread throughout the city. I honestly don’t mind if the obvious product placements are obvious as this, if they do it right, and sparingly. But ohmagahd… I would’ve hated this challenge! It’s even worst than finding Where’s Wally. Madness. The gnomes were placed on different buildings, in parks, under trees, on balconies, etc. Again, a really interesting challenge in my honest opinion.

On finding the Travelocity Gnome, teams had to get their next clue at the Kiwi 360 landmark. Once there, a Detour awaits them. Teams had to choose between (1) A matter of time - where they had to crush kiwi fruits using their feet to yield 12 glasses of juice, and drink 2 of them, or (2) A matter of skill - where they had to assemble a flow cart (?) and complete 3 lapse around the track. All teams chose the first detour, but somehow, four teams decided to change the detour midway through - I’m not quite sure how some of the teams seemed to breeze right through the challenges, and the others did not. I noticed the more ‘weaker’ or ‘lighter’ teams managed to complete it with ease - Terrence/Sarah, Divorcees, Southern Belles. *shrug*

On finishing the detour, teams headed to the next pitstop where they were greeted by Phil’s Dad. Yay! In the order of their arrival at the pitstop :

Show Me The Spoiler

Well, that’s it I guess. I enjoyed this episode more in terms of the challenges and tasks. Here’s hoping that next week’s episode will be better.