From Grads to Nomads

This morning, arising bright and early at 8:30 am Rob and I headed down to the weekly Auckland car auction. It was a warm and sunny day, with perfect blue skies, and we arrived in the gravel parking lot to peruse the options set before us. We found the aisle marked "cars under $3000" and narrowed down our choice from here. I had quite liked the VW Golf in the other row, but at $8000, it was a little steep! In the row more aimed at "backpackers", we first spotted a Toyota with a sunroof and in fairly decent shape. We requested a test drive, but soon after leaving the parking lot the constant clunking noise coming out of the back made us both uneasy and whenever I questioned the owner about the car, he would only reply that "everything was good, very good." Including the extremely rusted windshield wipers. So this was a NO.

Next, we looked up and down, at many cars around 950$, but none seemed suitable and we wanted an automatic, to make driving on the opposite side of the road easier. There is enough to worry about besides shifting with the opposite hand. Anyhow, an 1989 Audi caught our eye, but some other backpackers had jumped on that, so next up was a Mazda Familia, which we are now the proud owners of. We took it for a test drive, nothing seemed abnormal, the car has remarkably solid power for its age, and seemed a good all around purchase. We negotiated the seller down to 1700 (1400 CAD) and were off to the bank machine and post office. 5 minutes and 9 dollars later the registration was transferred, and the car was ours. Oh and our car accumulated a parking ticket while outside the post office which the seller has promised to pay on his credit card, so let's hope he is honest and our car is not suddenly towed one day.

Getting insurance was ridiculously easy, as it took one phone call and 160$ for 6 months of full insurance, with 4 drivers listed on it. Insurance is not even mandatory for drivers here, crazy as that sounds! So tomorrow we head off for a 2 1/2 hour drive to Rotorua where we have a 3 bedroom house rented for 12 days at the low cost of 16 each per night....cheaper than a hostel- and we get privacy, a full kitchen and a lakefront house! It will be the first test of the road worthyness of the car. And a note about opposite side driving- the worst thing so far is hitting the windshield wiper when I want to hit a turn light, or looking to my right for a rear view mirror and temporarily panicking when I can't find one!

One last note for those interested in economics- can anyone explain to me why Nike running shoes are so expensive here- at around 250 NZD, which is over 200 CAD still!