Advertisement
Published: April 6th 2006
Edit Blog Post
The old van
The Green Machine I know this was more than a month ago but I haven't had the energy to sit down and write a bitter story about the first van I had. A month later it's much easy to write and laugh at the situation.
Feb 21: I getting ready to leave Waiheke island on my journey through New Zealand in my newly purchased Van. I bought the Van about a week before from a local guy on Waiheke island who seemed like a pretty cool guy. He was selling his van because he was moving down to the south island to "get back to nature", ie grow pot and live a hippy lifestyle, cool. So I buy the Van for $2000, it was a 1985 Mits diesel 4x4 with 7 seats, not bad. The guy is even nice enough to lend me his tools so that I can build a bed in the back of the van. I built a sweet bed in the van using free wood I got at the local lumber yard. So we load the van up ready to go the morning of the 22nd.
Feb 22: I drive to pickup the other members of our traveling party. There
Building the bed
This is me proudly building the bed in the van is myself my roommate Laurence and three friends from Argentina; Leandro, Diego and laura and all of our stuff. The Van was loaded like the Griswold's station wagon and we were off! We take the morning ferry from Waiheke to Auckland. We stopped in Auckland to pick up some supplies and a map. In the process of leaving the city I had to put the van into 4Low to get up a hill, this was the first indication that it was going to be a long and slow journey to Napier, which is 450Km from Auckland. We hit the motorway at about noon the were in good spirits. As we drove at a speed of about 60kWh the van started to smoke a lots out of the exhaust. I looked down at the gauge on the dash and noticed the temperature was a little high( more like it had passed the high point and circle back around). But it was still little optimist that it was just work through some bad fuel!(Ya right, good call) Seconds later the van filled with smoke and decided it was time to get of the motorway and figure out what was wrong with the
The low point
This is me feeling really good on the side of the motorway! van. Of course at this point I'm still in denial that there is any chance the van is fucked, it's just overheated, no big deal happens everyday. In the back of may mind I'm remembering back to a spring break road trip when I was 17 and my friend Eddie's van was in a similar situation. Although there were a few differences that kept me thinking positively (I didn't drive around for a week with the oil light on, sorry Eddie!). Once we got the van turned off I headed for the nearest service station to get some water and coolant. In the service station I decided to purchase some motor oil, thinking that it was possible that it was low. Of course after may return to the van I was proved correct when I pulled out the dip stick and couldn't get a reading. Flashbacks to springbreak were starting to look painfully similar. But, I hadn't given up yet! I walked to a local garage to talk to a professional and hoped he would give me some good news. I explained the events and symptoms to the mechanics and got the response I feared but expected, they looked at
At the garage
Laura and Leandro sit and have smoke after a long day. We played with the shop dog who was deaf and blind me shock their heads, tried not to laugh and told me the van was FUCKED! Sweet! I still wasn't 100% convinced especially since they had not looked at the van. I was able to convince one mechanic to come and take a look. By this time and van had cooled down and she was full of oil and coolant. The mechanic took of the radiator cap off and started the engine. The van started, but exhaust gas was coming through the radiator proving his point that the van had a melted gasket and was FUCKED! I thanked him for his help. But we were very determined to get to Napier. At this point we had made it 10Km of the 450km journey. Since the van was fucked anyways we decided we would keep going and stop every time it over heated and wait for it to cool(Good plan,eh). We made it 20km down the motorway before the van heated up again, almost caught on fire then stalled on the side of the motorway, awesome. Ok at this point a finally decided to give up and call a tow truck. I was able to use my BCAA card, so the tow
Drinking in the motel
We decide the best way to deal with the problem was to drink. was free, which was nice. We did however have to what 3 hours for a special tow truck which could take 5 people. This gave me lots of time a think about what had just happened(that was the low point of my trip thus far). By the time we got towed to a garage it was 5 o'clock and the everything was closing. The guys at the shop were very nice because they let us keep the van in their shop overnight even if we weren't going to fix the van. We were also informed that we were in the ghetto (the place was called Manukau in South Auckland) and that we shouldn't camp in a local park as originally planned. We stayed at a small motel and got really drunk and tried to forget what happened.
Feb 23: The next morning the mechanic called me and told me his friend was selling a van for $1600 and was I interested. The mechanic told me he had done all the work on the van and that it was a sound van. After a test drive and some negotiations a had purchased my second van a 1996 ford econovan for $1400. We loaded up the new van, called a wrecker to take the old van to the scrap pile and we were on our way!
Lessons:
Don't by a vehicle from a hippy! That doshbag had being driving that van around for who know how long without any oil.
Never start a road trip without checking the oil first.
The new van is still running(knock on wood)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 15; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0674s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Emily Kydd
non-member comment
Welcome to the Club
Hey Ian, just wanted to let you know that you're that the only one who has basically blown up a car in the southern hemisphere. my poor little '84 Corolla sure was pissy when that fiasco went down, and the mechanics sure aren't very sensitive hey? but glad to hear you have better wheels, you should get some when you go to Australia too, its the best way to get around. Drop me an email if you want some people to hook up with in aus. I've met a bunch over here. talk to you later, have a great time!