Monday, September 21, 2009

We own a car.

Friends! Family! Relatives! Hello all. So alot has changed since I last updated.After we stayed in auckland for two days, not that we didn't like the city, but we needed to get outof there because it was draining us and the city. After all we didn't come to NZ to be in a city. So after being thouroughly frustrated, which we rightfully should have been, about our transportation situation (no car) we decided to get out of there and camp on Whaikeke, which is an island 45 minutes from Auckland. It was the greatest decision we had made on the trip so far. We got there and took the bus to the last stop and hiked into this place called rocky bay campsite. It was wild, we had this whole freakin beautiful beach to ourselves with only one other camper who we thought was a homeless dude. It turned out that he was not homeless, and his name was Mark. He was pretty interesting/bizzar, he works on an organic farm and built his own house. The relationship between Mark and us grew quickly, and we even exchanged items. He needed a hook for fishing, so we gave him a few, and when we got back to the campsite after a hike we found that he left us two dead and very rotting fish to use as bait. Thanks Mark!

The next day, we hiked across the island to Onetangi beach. We came back and cooked food with four Canadians. It was actually really great. We had drinks with them and got a chance to play guitar with them as well. The next day we all went to the market in Ostend and got to talk to these ladys that are doing a peace walk across Whaiheke. They are carrying a tourch that has been all around the world (think olympics), used in parades and cerimonies to promote peace. Cool stuff. We ended our day by parting ways with the Canadians, hitting up the beach in Oneroa, packing up our stuff and heading back to Auckland to try to score a car at the sunday car mart.

We stayed at this place on Saterday called the Brown Kiwi, that is outside of central Auckland in this district called Ponsonby. It was pretty rad, the hostel was filled with basically only french and german people who wanted to talk to us to practice their english.

We followed some of the germans to the car mart on sunday morning, and ended up buying a car. Yes. Jay and I are now both the proud owners of a 1989 Sizuki Chitlin. It's really some to behold. It has a wopping three cylinder engine and tops out at about 115 kmh. But we love it, it is so sweet. We can now get around NZ freely, and also live on the cheap by camping at night. Transportation is so expensive here. We basically had to buy a car or we really would have blown our money away and not been able to get a full kiwi experience. In two days we have already saved 120 bucks, so its slowly but surely paying for itself.

We are currently at a campsite in Tauranga (im actually in the tent right now), that is south of Auckland on the Bay of Plenty. It was a fun trip road trip down, and after getting used to it driving on the other side of the road it was cakework. We climbed Mt. Maunganui today which gave us unreal views of the coastline and the surrounding area. Its amazing, this country is so active and health concious. Its a tough hike to the top, but we saw so many older people and younger people doing the hike. As jay said it, its like they value their lives more than we do in the states by living healthy lifestyles.

We are currently going to spend the next few days looking for work in the area. We are in good spirits right now and are looking to get more involved by either volunteering or working. There are lots of nice people here including about 5 other backpackers and their cars doing the same thing we are. We also met this very nice lady Dee, who seems like the campsite mom. She helped us cooked tonight and gave us advice about our travels. Well thats pretty much it right now, we miss you all lots and hope to update soon! Happy B-day Christy!

3 comments:

  1. YEE HAWWW!!! Dont drive too fast in that speed machine, space time spanners!!

    think vincent gallo-- "spanning time, we are just spanning time. living our happy married lives, spanning time." Wait, you guys arent married. Be safe- PEACE

    PS JAY goin to see jenny play a show in brooklyn on thurs night, Ill let you know how goes. -sjm

    ReplyDelete
  2. Right on Dude!
    Your trip sounds awesome, essentially the exact oppisite of my life right now. Well except the Adventure part.

    Hope all is well, as it seems to be, keep us posted. I expect another music based slideshow.

    ReplyDelete
  3. it appears as if you got yourselves a 1989 suzuki swift. good choice, heard the upholstery holds up very well. make sure the all the diodes are firing at the right rate, if not its a simple tweek of the lamper and you're good to go.

    Gene

    ReplyDelete