Update...

OK OK I was gonna wait till I sold my car before updating the site, but Niamh et al are pressuring me to write summat.. so here goes...

3 April 2004

I decided to crash the first night in town at the usual parking spot cuz I hadnt a clue how to get to Avondale (Ian and Lynne, two friends of Niamhs, have very generously offered to give me a bed while I try to sell the car! Cool!). Before heading off to count sheep I met an Irish guy called Chris who was looking to buy a car. Lucky coincidence I thought... he said he was interested in my car despite the fact that it was entirely "lived in" (i.e. clothes and food strung everywhere and the smell of insect repellent clinging to the fabric). He even said 2500 dollars was a "good price". Doh, maybe I underpriced myself! He said hed consult his friends first and then get back to me.

4 April 2004

Drove off to Avondale (found it after a few hours!) this morn and met up with Ian and Lynne (not forgetting cute baby Charlotte and Christmas, the cat who refuses to budge off my bed each night!). They took me on a tour of the local area so that I could get some great views of Auckland and encountered some really pretty bays with volcanic rock, untouched by development, only 20 mins away!

Slept REALLY well in a real bed that night, after having downed copious amounts of wine at the hands of my new hosts!

5 April 2004

Spent all today cleaning out da car... took the entire day but its nice n shiny and odour-free now!

Brent, the husband of Ians sister, AND their next door neighbour works in construction and asked if I wouldnt mind giving a hand building the garage for Ian/Lynne while earning a bit of extra cash!! Nice one, I could use all the cash I can get now since Im literally down to my last 200!! I got in about 2 hours work that day, but hopefully I can give a bit more time once the car is sold...

Had more fantastic food tonight including the Kiwi-favourite, Pavlova, thanks to Lynne!

6 April 2004

Got new WOF (warranty of fitness) and rego today - in that order. This was based on the advice of a Canadian guy I met at 12 Mile Delta in Queenstown. He reckoned Id sell the car a LOT quicker if I splashed out and bought an updated registration. The old one ran out on the 21st March so Ive been drivingf illegaly since!!!

The guy who was doing my WOF was a strict little bastid. He failed me the first time around because my front headlamp had some slight condensation in it (due to the excessive force of the water hose I used the day before to clean the car)! Thankfully I didnt have to pay the 45 dollars to get it retested after Id left the car out in the sun for a few hours drying up the headlight!

Rang Chris this evening to check if he was still interested. He said that his friends had already bought a car. Doh!

So Ill have to try my luck at the car market and maybe I could raise the price to 2,600?

Today...

... after writing this Im off to the car market... wish me luck!

...later...

woah! Not quite the piece-of-proverbial-cake that I envisioned. Not only is the backpacker market packed to capacity (I was the last car allowed into the cramped underground carpark) but there are several cars there similar to mine going for much less than Ive proposed (around 1000 bucks!). Admittedly they aint quite as shiny as mine, but Im not sure if a cash-ridden scruff like a backpacker would notice that!!

hmmm... it costs me $55 to sit in my car here for 3 days, but theyve "kindly" let me take Saturday off to go to the other market that I met the Irish guy at the previous Sat. Its only on for a few hours on Sat, but is much more central and advertised.

I dont want to lose an atrocious amount of money on this car since all my cash will turn to mere liquid when I hit the States... time will tell...