Goodbye New Zealand

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Hey there! My last week in New Zealand was full of some highs and some lows. Let’s start with the lows. Randomly as I was driving my van started to make a funny groaning noise every time a pushed in the clutch. Great! The last thing I wanted to deal with was another van problem and anything that includes the clutch usually costs a fortune. I took the van into Hamilton which is a good sized city and looked up a mechanic. He couldn't look at it until Monday so we spent the weekend in Hamilton. On Monday a drove to the mechanics shop. I lucked out because the mechanic ran the shop by himself and let me help out. After a test drive he deciphered that it was the bearing in the flywheel and not the clutch itself. It took us about 6 hours from start to finish; we also welded up my exhaust leak. It was a pretty fun day I learned a lot and we exchanged a few good stories and couple laughs. Unfortunately at the end of the day I had to give him $300NZ. But I was pretty sure with all things running well on the van I would have no problem selling it. I decided to try to sell the van at the Backpackers Car Market in Auckland and I also put up flyers at backpackers and internet cafe. Sadly so where hundreds of other people all of us trying to escape the New Zealand winter. The notice broads were two layers thick with ads for cars and most were very cheap. I was pretty sure that I was going to be able to sell mine easily since it is a 1996 and only has 147000KM compared to the other ageing vehicles that where for sale. Friday I headed for the car market. It was pretty busy about seven vehicles got sold and I had some interest in my van. The atmosphere in the place was pretty gloomy most people who where selling their vehicles where selling for significantly less then they paid for them. Other people had been at the car market for six days and were starting to lose hope. There were a couple meters of rope hanging from the ceiling, which we figured was used to hang yourself after you could make a sale. To make things worse all the sellers where convinced that the people running the market were saying bad things about their vehicle and then when you could not make the sale and you had to catch your plane the market worker would offer you one thousand for your van. Saturday and Sunday at the market were the worst no one sold anything! On Sunday, until about 10 minutes before closing there where no buyers in the market. After the weekend of no activity I decide a was not going to spend my last day in New Zealand in the car market. In the end I was lucky that I had friends who lived in Auckland and I signed the van over to them. They would sell it for me in November during the high season. I real was happy that I would not have to go back to the car market.
I had good fun during my weekend in Hamilton. I met up with a friend from Waiheke and she showed us a goodtime. Hamilton is a University town full of young people and good places to go out, even if everyone who lives there says it's a shithole. After Hamilton I returned to Raglan and surfed for two more days before heading to Auckland. The water was starting to get really cold by the time a got out of the water on the last day. In Auckland I stayed with my friends from Argentina. They all live in different apartments in the some building. I use the word apartment lossly, one was definetly a garage; it had a roll up garage door for a front door. The building was also located on K road which is home to Auckland's trany prostitute population. One morning when I was letting the van warm up I was approached by one. I guess she/he assumed I was looking for a goodtime since I had been sitting in my van for about 5 minutes. I saw it walking down the road towards me, thank god for central locks. I was able to lock the doors just in time; she tried to open the door to get. She was huge! About 6'4" 220. After she figured I wasn't buying what she was selling she left me alone. There was never a dull moment on K road, there is lots of bars, clubs and places to eat. One friend's apartment was above K road, he is DJ so he would play music while we watched the action on the road below. It was nice to not pay for accommodation for a couple days and good to see my friends for the last time.
I really enjoyed my time in New Zealand and I'm going to miss it. I met some really great people and saw some awesome scenery. I never made it up north of Auckland, but that just gives me an excuse to come back.

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