I’ve long read about the Segway and how people in various parts of the world are using them, but it was only today, while walking by the waterfront, that I had an opportunity to try one out. $10 for 10 minutes was enough to get a taste, and I’d have to say it was a heap of fun.
Did I feel like a dork? Well, of course not. [I jest — I did, but I tried not to care.] And I got the guy hiring them out to grab a quick photo of me with my crummy cellphone camera. Click the pic for a larger version.
It seems like if you can stand upright then you can ride one of these things. Segway Tours gave me their leaflet, but all I can get on their website is a blue background and the title says Coming Soon. The HTML suggests there should be a flash item or something, but I’ve had no luck with Firefox, OmniWeb or Opera, and I’m not going to fire up Windows just for that. The chap did mention the princely sum of NZ$10,000 to buy a Segway. For that I could buy a halfway decent second-hand car, or a couple of G5 Powermacs! Cool toy, though.