Easy Come, Easy Go

Today marks the end of our New Zealand adventure. I am writing this on board Air New Zealand' fligh 197 to Melbourne Australia. Our departure was a few weeks earlier than expected and as of noon yesterday, not even in today's plans. But one of the benefits of this kind of travel is being able to make changes. Calling Air New Zealand at 5pm last night to schedule a 4:30pm flight today is definitely change.

The decision to leave came not long after we'd left notes on two hostel bulletin boards that our car was for sale. We had lowered the price from $1000 to $800 figuring that repeating the high profit gain of our last vehicle sale was pushing the odds a bit.

Our first attempt at selling the 'Yellow Heap' was at the Christ Church International Airport. But that turned out to be a bust. Unfortunately that airport doesn't receive the international tourist traffic that Auckland's does, so holding up a "Buy Our Car" sign seemed unlikely to yield a sale.

Turner's Auction was attempt number three. But as we quickly learned, there is a 15% commission on the sale with a $150 minimum. Plus of course there is always the chance that the car will be sold for much less than we wanted to get for it, or not at all (in which case there is still a $25 auction fee). Furthermore, the Auctions are held on Wednesday evenings and since it was Wednesday already we'd missed the sign in time. Alas.

So, we did the next best thing. We parked right outside the auction entrance and plastered "For Sale" signs in red and neon yellow around the car. Anyone walking in had to pass by us first. 

And it worked. It took twenty minutes and we had buyers; Fredrik and Heidi from Sweden and Norway. John had found them on the auction floor. "Are you backpackers?" he asked. "We are too and we have a car to sell."

"Does it run alright?" Fredrik asked as he walked around the car giving it a once-over.

"Runs fine."

"Ya, looks good. Will you take $650, that's all we have?"

And the car was sold. Their only test drive was when they piled with their backpacks into the car and we drove them to the Showground Motor camp where we all were staying. The Heap handled the weight of four people and four packs just fine, so I have no worries that she'll be able to handle another month on the road. Aside from needing new front tires, she's running better than ever.

So the car that we bought back in Auckland and were told by the previous owner shouldn't leave the city has found a new owner in Christ Church, it's 13th. Hey, the guy never bothered to mention which city.

We said good-bye to the car this morning when Fredrik and Heidi dropped us at the airport. We also said good-bye to the two of them. In the short time that we have known them, we have become friends. They gave us pages of advice on where to go in Thailand and Vietnam and we in turn gave them advice on the U.S.A. I hope they enjoy their month stay there and don't try to tackle San Fransisco, The Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park, The Olympic Peninsula, Vancouver and New York City all at once.

What car will we next own? Who knows. John's been talking about a Land Cruiser converted to a camper with Ricarro seats, front and rear winches and four point harnesses to tackle Africa. What better thing to do on one trip than plan for the next.