The hostel we ended up staying at was a great choice. We've met some really nice people from around the world--Ireland, Germany, France, China, and a few Americans. Not surprisingly, the one person here who was rude was an American girl from Arkansas--who did nothing but perpetuate the bad stereotypes about Americans--loud, dumb, rude, and selfishly assuming everything should be the way she wanted it. Otherwise, many of the people have been very helpful and offering up advice and good conversation. Even the owner has been so helpful. John and I booked this morning to stay here an extra night but found out the spaces we booked in a 5 bed dorm-style room had already been taken--so she put us in one of the private rooms for the same price--which we are currently enjoying right now. The hostel is a fun atmosphere but we are ready to start having our own place . . . AND a car which brings me to what has consumed much of our time over the past few days.
John and I have delved into the challenge of bargain car buying in NZ. I am now knowledgeable in everything from: WOFs to cambelts to Kms to regos, to use the local lingo. We started on a website here called TradeMe where anyone can list something and it's put up for auction. We singled out one particular car we were interested in, as it was in good condition and at a good price, and ventured out yesterday, using the bus system, to see it in person and take a test drive--stopping at Wagamama for a nice, cheap lunch and a very friendly waitress! It is true, though, that things are much more expensive here--of course not as much as they seem since the US dollar is more valuable, but we have still spent as little as possible, buying cheap food to cook: pasta, noodles, frozen or prepackaged small meals. Though, all the other kids in the hostel are the same way and it's not too bad.
Anyways, back to the great car hunt! The car was actually an old 1991 Honda Legend sitting in a Mitsubishi Dealership lot, but the people were very friendly and took us for a spin and even offered us coffee afterward. The car was good, so we went home and put a bid on it for NZ$750--yeah, that didn't last. To keep our options open we went to a small car fair this morning in downtown Auckland where we saw one car in our price range. It was a 1991 Mitsubishi, in good condition, it had been well serviced, it had a back seat that folded down so you could sleep, and it was only NZ$1225 to boot. Seemed perfect. Well, that was until we got in to take a test drive and it was a manual. Now the old Kiwi couple that was selling it were very nice--telling us all about it, showed us the one thing that was wrong with the window, and let John take it around the block. It would have been great except for the one important fact that I don't know how to drive stick. Now the lovely people assured me that I could learn quickly, (he could have me driving in a day!) but obviously they don't know me or about the last time I tried to learn stick in the states--didn't turn out well. Eventually John (who has had experience trying to teach me a knew, challenging skill--i.e. snowboarding--something I will never do again) and I decided that trying to combine me learning how to drive stick AND also doing so on the left side of the road was just a recipe for disaster. Essentially I would be learning to drive all over again-and counterintuitively, I may add. It wasn't worth the stress and certain elevation of tempers that would ensue, thus we had to pass and stick to an automatic car. Yet, when we got home for the final minutes of the auction for the Honda, some jerk comes in and ups the bid in the last minute to a price that was simply too high for us, considering it didn't get the greatest gas mileage. So now we are determined to find a car tomorrow at the big, main car fair just outside the city at a racetrack. Apparently locals and others bring hundreds of cars there every Sunday for people to buy and trade--and they have a good amount in our price range. So cross your fingers!
Other than that we have been able to explore Auckland a bit. We took a nice walk today down the main road as it was a very pretty day. They say the nickname for the city is "The Concrete Jungle" and this is pretty true. From downtown, it resembles any other big city. High rise corporate buildings, stores, restaurants, cheap stores, cheap restaurants--a very eclectic mix. It may be the big city where a lot of the population lives, but I think it will pale in comparison to other parts of the country that we are keen to explore. However, we were also able to walk down to the harbor, which was pretty, with sailboats and such floating around.
So yeah, that has been the bulk of our first full days. Hopefully by tomorrow we will be making our way to Wellington!
Big hill we walk up to get to main, "K'Road"--real name is: Karangahape Road. The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it's STEEP and LONG. You are breaking a sweat and out of breath by the time you reach the top.
sitting down by the harbor:
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