Auckland and car selling
Trip Start
Jul 12, 2006
1
112
230
Trip End
Jun 18, 2007
Auckland,
New Zealand
Friday, November 24, 2006
I must've pressed something on the gear stick when cleaning the car yesterday because about half an hour into the drive Lee noticed that the overdrive had been turned off. We couldn't turn it back on until we had stopped completely, but as we were back on the highway there wasn't really anywhere too stop. It took about 70kn before I could find a safe place to pull over and sort it out but by the time we'd used up so much petrol the needle was hovering over the last quarter again. As we continued on it dropped quite a bit and I think we were about 60km outside Auckland when the red light came on and stopped on, even when we were on a flat road. Luckily we were just outside a little town so made a divert off the motorway to find petrol. As luck would have it the petrol station also had one of those huge vac things so once we'd chucked a few dollars worth of petrol in we pulled over to the vacuum station, unloaded all our worldly goods onto the forecourt and vacuumed out the car. It was only a couple of dollars but it did the trick because when we'd finished the car looked a right treat. It really was dirty when we bought it and despite us cleaning it we never managed to vacuum it so it really did look nice inside. I thought this might make a bit of a difference when we sell it. The vac thing also had a fragrance gun on the side as well, for $1 you could get 40 seconds of fragrance. Bargain! So we selected 'New Car' for the fragrance and Lee sprayed the car. It was great, it really did smell like a new car...erm... not! It just smelt marginally better but looked a hell of a lot cleaner inside. Once we were chuffed with our results we dumped everything back in the car and got on the motorway again. It was getting quite late now and we'd told people we'd meet them at 5pm to show them the car. Probably not the smartest move in the world, arranging to meet people in Central Auckland and 5pm on a Friday night but there we go! We got stuck in traffic on the way back, it was almost like being in London again, the traffic really does get bad here, we didn't make it back to the hostel until about 4:45pm. Lee had to text the girl and guy we had arranged to meet and let them know we'd be late. Once we'd checked in at the City Garden Lodge we unpacked the car into our dorm room, trying to make it as neat as possible. But with 8 weeks worth of stuff from a car, it was almost impossible. We still had lots of food left plus various carrier bags full of stuff that we'd left out of our rucksacks. Still, when the car was emptied we tidied everything that came with it into boxes in the boot and it looked really good. We were quietly confident that we'd be able to sell it. The funny thing was that when we bought it, we got loads of stuff free with it, and it was only really when we emptied the car that I looked at what we had, there was pots, pans, a wok, carrier bags, a pack liner, toilet roll, cling film, all useful stuff that I just didn't realized we'd got. Doh! Oh well, at least they may be of use to someone else. We left the tent in there as we didn't make it camping here either, Lee wanted to take it to oz with him but I don't think he'd get it strapped to his pack, it's just too big and heavy.
We headed into Auckland and parked up in a car park opposite Base hostel, it was probably the worst night ever to be driving into town as the U2 concert was on and the shuttle buses were everywhere, plus loads of extra traffic! Still, we meet up with Simone, a Swiss girl who had been over here for 6 months already. She really liked the car as soon as she saw it, had a really good look around it, saw all the stuff it came with and then decided that she wanted to buy it. We couldn't go to the post office to do the change of ownership right then and there so we arranged to meet back in the morning at 10:30am.
Lee and I were really chuffed but decided not to count our chickens. Lee did a really good job of selling the car, it is a good car to be honest, I was quite sad actually to think it's going to go. I think it helped that we were a couple because if I was a lone girl trying to buy a car from some bloke I'd never met I think I'd be a bit worried. Still, Simone did seem interested and we told her to go off and think about it then we'd see her in the morning if she really wanted it.
We took the car back to our hostel, which is in a place called Parnell. It's quite a nice area with lots of shops, bars and restaurants so we headed out for a couple of drinks and in search of some food. I loved the place as soon as we started walking down the streets. It has a little village which is full of lovely little posh boutique shops, lovely cafes and restaurants. Quite a few of them very posh, great for people watching but a little bit too expensive for us. Even signs outside the shops had things like 'Dom Perignon' and other posh champagne names so we knew we were in a nice area. There is a little hand made chocolate shop, a gourmet pizza place, lots of hand made jewellery shops oooh it was all so nice. We had a wander up and down the road, went for a beer in an Irish pub and watched the cricket. We decided to have a couple more beers then head back to this nice Thai place we'd seen but when we got back up there is was shutting. Luckily just down the road was another nice Thai place, it was more of a takeaway place but had two small tables so you could eat in if you wanted too, which we did, and it was delicious and quite cheap so we were pleased about that. I like Parnell much better than Ponsonby, it has a nice feel about it. I think if I lived in Auckland this is where I'd like to live, although I think you need to be loaded to live here, there some serious money about in this place.
The hostel we're staying in is a lovely big wooden house that was apparently built for the Queen of Tonga. We're not in the lovely big wooden house though, we're in a 4 share dorm in a converted garden shed building outside. It's not the greatest room to share, partyly because the best bunks were taken when we moved in so Lee and I are both on the top bunks, Lee got the better bed with the ladder, my bunk doesn't have a ladder so if I want to get in or out of bed I have to do some weird split type manouver with my legs, clambers on the other two bunks and a little side table before, very unglamourously, flingling my body onto the bed. It's going to end in tears I'm sure, either for me when I break something of for the poor blokes in the bottom bunks who might end up getting up close and personal with my cellulite ridden bum early in the morning.
One guy was in bed when we got back to the hostel but luckly the guy on the bunk below mine wasn't back which meant I could climb on his bed to get up to mine. It's a right palava I tell you, and I'm not that chuffed about sharing with 3 blokes, I bet the room will stink tomorrow morning, you know how smelly boys are.
