When we were headed to YVR last week we saw a rainbow. It showed up just as we neared the Alex Fraser Bridge and over the bridge we could see the entire thing! From one pot of gold to the other! Little moments like that kind of feel like signs. Sounds kind of cheesy but I'll take it. It's fun to rejoice in beauty and let it shine on you.
That relates to today because we had success in finding a car! We ended up seeing about 5 cars and were interested in 2 of them. Suspicions of one seller's motives led us to get the other inspected first. The inspection was all good mechanically so we decided to go for it. Since most people sell their cars on trademe (an auction website) it makes pricing kind of tricky due to people's expectations about how well the auction would do. This one didn't have any bids yet so that was good but the aucton was set to end next week. We worked out a deal and off we went. This morning we realized that I hadn't driven here yet and we would have 2 cars to bring back to our apartment (we have the rental booked until Monday). So I drove to see the car and it was really just fine with no troubles on the way back. We are the new owners of a 98 Mazda Capella.
Of course the last few days have been based around this car hunt which meant lots of time in front of the computer and driving to unfamiliar parts of town. We did manage to include fun in the mix too though.
Wednesday we did head to the comedy club and had quite a few good laughs. We recognized one of the guys. Thursday we went to the 7 Days taping and had some more laughs. The MC from the comedy club and one of the comedians were on the panel. That was great because the MC was hilarious - Urzila Carlson. They had a bit of delay so were doing more crowd warm-up than normal. This included lots of "any celebrations, any out of towners, etc" so of course the person who does the audience bookings had them ask "Oh where's the people that booked from overseas? From the US or Canada?" but of course due to Dustin's hatred of being the centre of attention, we have an unspoken agreement that I never put my hand up in scenarios like that. haha. There were some people from Newfoundland though so they talked to them. What's funny about the taping is that you're there for about 2.5 hours and it gets edited down to 22 minutes for a half hour time slot. Of course when we watch, we find lots of the best jokes (by our opinion) were left out. Which is why it's so fun to go to!
We even got extra hilarity from the few people that were sitting in front of us. The mother felt the need to explain certain jokes to her teenage son - although they request that the audience does not talk. In particular a joke where Arabia was used to mean a part of the female anatomy, and another implying a sex act between a woman and a politician. haha. Classic.
Plus a couple of the big news stories this week kind of write their own jokes. There's been a shortage of Marmite and the Prime Minister said that he preferred Vegemite. Also, they have a change to their road rules coming up at 5am Sunday morning. I won't even try to explain because it the current rule defies all logic. The new rule puts NZ in line with most other countries now. If you're interested, read up here: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/traffic/around-nz/road-user-rule.html They wanted to bring in the change on April 1st but thought it might not be taken seriously if it was on April Fool's Day.
Last night we went down to the rugby. I almost led us in the wrong direction to the stadium. Good thing Dustin was on his toes. You see we're within about a 20 minute walk so I had looked at the map before we left but didn't bring it. Oops. We asked a couple people and ended up sorted out. We bought tickets at the stadium, and even splurged on the $25 ones. We walked down and found ourselves just 3 rows from the front and only about 15 metres on one side of the centre line! Sweet as bro! It was a great game too though the out of town team ended up pulling ahead in the very last play to win by one point! Lots of All Blacks play in this league so it was great to see them play.
I think we want to hit the beach tomorrow since we have secured our car. Woo free time! Beach Day! It's raining now but is supposed to taper off overnight. We've had some lovely days lately and it's been shorts and t-shirts weather.
We had a chat with the host we're staying with starting Monday in New Plymouth. She is flexible for us to stay longer if we don't find a place and she assured us that New Plymouth is the best city in NZ and she is certain that we'll find it to be home. Kind of like the rainbow, this random conversation is something that just makes me smile and appreciate the goodness in our lives.
So just a couple more big tasks - go to customs on Monday to pick up our stuff, and sort out moving/shipping our stuff to New Plymouth; then finding a place to rent! But for now, we are breathing sighs of relief that the car is one thing we can check off the list. We have to sort out some insurance and it will be all finished. Yep, you can drive without insurance here if you want. I think we'll get some third party coverage though. I just got a couple quotes and it may be as little as $210 per year! Our overseas licence is an issue for some companies though so we'll have to phone around a bit.
I reckon we'll post next from New Plymouth so hope you all enjoy your weekend!
That relates to today because we had success in finding a car! We ended up seeing about 5 cars and were interested in 2 of them. Suspicions of one seller's motives led us to get the other inspected first. The inspection was all good mechanically so we decided to go for it. Since most people sell their cars on trademe (an auction website) it makes pricing kind of tricky due to people's expectations about how well the auction would do. This one didn't have any bids yet so that was good but the aucton was set to end next week. We worked out a deal and off we went. This morning we realized that I hadn't driven here yet and we would have 2 cars to bring back to our apartment (we have the rental booked until Monday). So I drove to see the car and it was really just fine with no troubles on the way back. We are the new owners of a 98 Mazda Capella.
 |
| A little throwback to my old Tercel with the mags. |
Of course the last few days have been based around this car hunt which meant lots of time in front of the computer and driving to unfamiliar parts of town. We did manage to include fun in the mix too though.
Wednesday we did head to the comedy club and had quite a few good laughs. We recognized one of the guys. Thursday we went to the 7 Days taping and had some more laughs. The MC from the comedy club and one of the comedians were on the panel. That was great because the MC was hilarious - Urzila Carlson. They had a bit of delay so were doing more crowd warm-up than normal. This included lots of "any celebrations, any out of towners, etc" so of course the person who does the audience bookings had them ask "Oh where's the people that booked from overseas? From the US or Canada?" but of course due to Dustin's hatred of being the centre of attention, we have an unspoken agreement that I never put my hand up in scenarios like that. haha. There were some people from Newfoundland though so they talked to them. What's funny about the taping is that you're there for about 2.5 hours and it gets edited down to 22 minutes for a half hour time slot. Of course when we watch, we find lots of the best jokes (by our opinion) were left out. Which is why it's so fun to go to!
We even got extra hilarity from the few people that were sitting in front of us. The mother felt the need to explain certain jokes to her teenage son - although they request that the audience does not talk. In particular a joke where Arabia was used to mean a part of the female anatomy, and another implying a sex act between a woman and a politician. haha. Classic.
Plus a couple of the big news stories this week kind of write their own jokes. There's been a shortage of Marmite and the Prime Minister said that he preferred Vegemite. Also, they have a change to their road rules coming up at 5am Sunday morning. I won't even try to explain because it the current rule defies all logic. The new rule puts NZ in line with most other countries now. If you're interested, read up here: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/traffic/around-nz/road-user-rule.html They wanted to bring in the change on April 1st but thought it might not be taken seriously if it was on April Fool's Day.
Last night we went down to the rugby. I almost led us in the wrong direction to the stadium. Good thing Dustin was on his toes. You see we're within about a 20 minute walk so I had looked at the map before we left but didn't bring it. Oops. We asked a couple people and ended up sorted out. We bought tickets at the stadium, and even splurged on the $25 ones. We walked down and found ourselves just 3 rows from the front and only about 15 metres on one side of the centre line! Sweet as bro! It was a great game too though the out of town team ended up pulling ahead in the very last play to win by one point! Lots of All Blacks play in this league so it was great to see them play.
I think we want to hit the beach tomorrow since we have secured our car. Woo free time! Beach Day! It's raining now but is supposed to taper off overnight. We've had some lovely days lately and it's been shorts and t-shirts weather.
We had a chat with the host we're staying with starting Monday in New Plymouth. She is flexible for us to stay longer if we don't find a place and she assured us that New Plymouth is the best city in NZ and she is certain that we'll find it to be home. Kind of like the rainbow, this random conversation is something that just makes me smile and appreciate the goodness in our lives.
So just a couple more big tasks - go to customs on Monday to pick up our stuff, and sort out moving/shipping our stuff to New Plymouth; then finding a place to rent! But for now, we are breathing sighs of relief that the car is one thing we can check off the list. We have to sort out some insurance and it will be all finished. Yep, you can drive without insurance here if you want. I think we'll get some third party coverage though. I just got a couple quotes and it may be as little as $210 per year! Our overseas licence is an issue for some companies though so we'll have to phone around a bit.
I reckon we'll post next from New Plymouth so hope you all enjoy your weekend!
98 Mazda Surf Wagon!! Even has a roof rack! That's great you found what appears to be a mechanically sound older car so quickly. Hope it boads you well. Your place in Auckland looked nice for your needs while there. Hope all goes well at customs and your drive to New Ply is uneventful. Have fun and go with flow. As Abe Lincoln in Bill & Ted said - Be excellent to each other.......and Party on dudes!!!! Love you!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the well wishes! And the Bill & Ted reference! Nice! :)
DeleteFinally had a good good rest last night. I've been sleeping fine but it's been a long haul the last 3 weeks even and lots of adrenaline so I feel a bit more energized than I have been feeling. Ready to take on the apartment hunt!