kroniq reviews

Extreme Indoor Karts

A friend of mine organised for a group of us to go karting the other weekend. He rang around a few places and tried to hustle a good plan to get us on the track for longer than any of their advertised rates. After negotiating with them all we decided upon going to Extreme Indoor Karts in East Tamaki. None of us had been there before.

We arrived at the track and were told that the guy we had negotiated a price with had gone home and so the offer originally agreed on was not going to be honered. We managed to get an extra 10 minutes track time for free but this wasn’t as good as we had originally planned for.

Not spending as much time on the track probably worked out for the best. The karts were in very poor condition. During my time there I swapped in and aout of no less than 5 karts. The first one had very stiff stearing, not allowing you to turn easily to the right. The kart after that was good… untill the break cable snapped! The following kart was an older generation and had a full steal frame which made it much slower than everyone else on the track. Each new kart presented another new problem, and before I knew it I was back at the first one. I think we calculated that they probably had 2 good karts.

Putting the actual karts aside and looking at the track it was well laid out. It had plenty of good passing opportunites. It included split option to either go quicker on the outside or cut inside with an extra turn, both ways had a similar time but it was nice to be able to out-manouver a slower driver. It also had a small upper level section of track with added a little bit of extra interest.

Overall the experience was let down by the lack of quality karts. The guys there were flat out trying to keep them up and running but were fighting a losing battle. I probably wouldn’t go back there again as there are lots of other options available in Auckland.

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Oakley GASCAN Sunglasses

I’m a big fan of sunglasses, I wear them every day. I make a point of not leaving home without them, as anybody in New Zealand knows, the weather can change in a heartbeat, so you don’t want to be caught out squinting in the sun… especially if you are driving!

I was in need of a new pair of sunglasses and was lucky enough to receive them as a gift.

My pair of GASCAN’s have a transparent crystal black frame with black iridium lenses. They look great on most people as they don’t have any outrageous features, just a sleek square straight look.

The are comfortable to wear, but occasionally slip forward if you are doing anything which involves a bit of extra movement, so can’t recommend wearing these if you are playing sports. They are suitable for wearing over a long periods of time without any discomfort.

The lenses are fine. I switched from yellow tinted lenses to these darker ones, so it was a bit different initially but it didn’t take long to adjust. They remove all the glare and keep everything nice and sharp. After several months I still don’t have any scratches but I do take care of them. They clean easily with a dry cloth.

The overall construction of them is solid. The hinges feel like they will last the life of the product and the arms are wide so have plenty of strength.

I can’t comment on the price as they were a gift, but most Oakley sunglasses will set you back a couple of hundred dollars. This is about average for a brand name pair of sunglasses.

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Indoor Cricket

Since moving to Auckland I have played a variety of indoor sports (football, netball, cricket etc..) and at various venues so I feel I have reasonable experience as to what a venue can offer. Action Indoor Sports has many locations but I will be reviewing the one on Dominion Rd.

First off, location. It’s located on a main road so is pretty easy to find. It’s tucked behind a Caltex petrol station, so if you know that you will have no troubles finding it. It shares a car park with an Asian supermarket which is both good and bad. If you have an early game, you might find yourself competing for parks, however anything after 7pm and you have more than enough car parks to choose from.

The facilities are excellent. The 4 available courts are well maintained. Since I have been playing there they have re-turfed the floor and replaced the nets. There is plenty of seating for spectators and players, plus they have extra seating in front of a large projector screen which always plays Sky Sports when a game is on. They sell beer as well as other refreshments and snacks.

The staff are always cheerful and seem genuinely happy to be working there. They provide umpires and referees for the games, and as with all officials at any level of the game they can make decisions which you might not feel are correct, but overall they are knowledgeable and usually consistent and fair.

The organisation of the sports are excellent. They provide a website which lists your game times and which court for the whole season. You are also able to view the ladder and past results. The games run on time every time. At the end of the season the top 4 teams play off for prizes. The winning teams then get to choose from trophies, bar tabs or t-shirts.

Most teams which play at this venue continue to return each season, and that speaks for itself.

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