WE HAVE A HOME!!!

BELOW: (all our stuff)
(Cool dog we saw)
Hi!
It has been a very exciting couple of days everyone!
Biggest news: WE HAVE A VAN!!!! IT IS BLUE!!!
But I know you will all want to know every detail of what has happened since our last blog (yes that means you mum), so it's back to Saturday - a highly disappointing and annoying day.

So having spent the night in a backpackers (which wasn't all that bad actually - though pretty expensive...) we set off first thing in the morning (after storing our luggage at the backpackers) to Victoria Park, where there was a car market on. It was quite a long walk, mostly uphill, and we wanted to be there relatively early so as not to miss out, so we had a very brisk start to the morning. As soon as we arrived we were disappointed, as there were only a couple of vans there, and, Bohdi being the procrastinator that he is, we weren't allowed to look at any until we saw what else arrived. After a few more unlikely looking prospects pulled in, we decided to go have a look at a cool red van with an awesome interior - think blue couches that folded into a bed. But after test driving it around the block, and having a look at the engine (obviously Bohdi is in charge of both of those things...) Boh found that it had a pretty dodgy old engine, and had done a lot of km's. So even though it was super-cool inside (more my area of expertise), we had said from the start it would be worth having something with a solid engine and less-cool interior, than having something that might die or be hard to re-sell, which meant that unfortunately the cool red van was out. This led to us sitting on the side of the road, debating about walking back and really not wanting to, until we got a text from some other people with a diesel van (diesel is cheaper here by about 50c/L - although you have to pay this weird tax on it at the post office, and buy a certain amount of km's at like 3c/km, which would be a hassle), and organized to meet them where we were. Another test drive, another awkward conversation with Europeans, and although this time the engine was ok, the inside was sooooooo tiny...and we really didn't think we would be able to live in that teensy space. So it was the long walk into the city, then out to the supermarket and back, before reluctantly heading back to the backpackers for another night.

Sunday - a much more awesome day, on the whole.

After a terrible night during which we spent a fair bit of time swearing quietly at our ridiculously loud-spoken, early rising (who the hell gets up at 5am on a Sunday!!!), and squeaky door-using, foreign neighbors, we again stored our luggage and headed out into the rain...Arriving at the train station after another brisk walk, we puzzled out our tickets (the nice lady at the backpackers told us the station to get off at), and ended up following around a helpful train driver, and eventually got on the right train. Did you know that no-one in Auckland (apart from us) actually buys tickets for the train...until the ticket checker dude comes around. Call us country bumpkins, but we found it strange (he even gave us weird looks when we showed him our already-bought tickets). Anyway, when we arrived at our stop, it began to pour again (typical), so we trudged off squelchily, and managed to find the car market quite easily, again based on the directions the nice backpackers lady gave us. And then the rain really started. Fabulous. This market was actually huge, with food vans and everything, so there was lots of prospective new homes to check out. We started with a quick initial sweep of the vans, eliminating the pricey or dodgy ones, and mentally picking out the more awesome ones. We (and by "we", I mean Bohdi) test drove a few, while the awesome one (and by that I mean Tahnee - me) stood in the rain making awkward conversations with people trying to sell all the good things about their vans in accented and stilted English. Eventually we had to down to two (both petrol, as the only diesel there was the midgetmobile we had seen the day before)...a big red van, priced at $3000, owned by a little French girl - Pro's: awesomely set up, fold down bed, Cons: column drive, impossible to see out the back of, a little pricey (especially if she was unwilling to negotiate), and debatabley reliable engine. And a medium-sized blue van priced at $2790, owned by a couple from the Czech Republic - Pro's: pimped by its old owner, blue, more reliable engine, easy to see out the back of, Con's: not a hell-of-a-lot-of space apart from the bed, still a little out of our price range - but not impossibly so, and column drive. After a long debate (If only Boh had read his mum's advice earlier!), we put in a $2000 offer on the Blue Van - and got rejected... so we had another long debate, and then put in another offer at $2300, to which they replied that they could come down to $2500 minimum...So we went and had some lunch...and debated some more...then went back and offered them $2500. And thats how we got Blue Van.

So now it is Monday, and we have spent our first night in Bluey (our highly imaginative name for our blue van), at an awesome place that our new French-Canadian friends told us about. Yeah btw....WE HAVE FRIENDS!! We don't know their names...and we probably won't see them again...but they are our friends...(we met them because they are selling their van, which was cool, but gutless - but they weren't offended that we didn't buy it). Anyway, they showed us this place which is right on the harbor, where bulk people just like park their campervans - some people even live there!!! So that was our home last night.

Right now we are sitting in the same cafe we were in the other day, because they give a free hour of internet with every purchase, and we also have a bunch of vouchers from our collection which gives us a free drink when we buy another drink. So thats two hot drinks, and a free hour of internet for the price of one coffee. Pretty nice.
Well, the plan for today is to get our insurance on the van sorted, then head off to the Bay Of Islands...hopefully we will be able to find some work there, and stay for a few weeks...well thats that then.
More soon!
xoxox