Thursday, January 24 Drive to Wellington

    After our long day climbing up the mountain we were in no rush to bust out of camp. So we had a leisurely morning with coffee and cereal and watching the other campers, mostly young travelers from Germany and Italy and France, as they also breakfasted and packed up. By the time it was our turn to leave we were the only ones there.

     The road to Wellington loops and rollercoasts through the hilly volcanic ash countryside. The soil seems to be very fertile, and with plenty of rain and the moderate climate it supports lush pasture for sheep and cattle. Even on impossibly steep hillsides there are grassy contour livestock trails. Other areas are covered with forests of pine trees planted in rows. There is very little of what I would call wild land, jumbled brush or woods with a mixture of tree species of various sizes. What we've seen of the North Island outside of the national parks is mostly well tended land with non-native plants and animals.

NZ countryside

Looks like they're planning on rounding up a whole lot of sheep

Need a pair of shoes anyone?

    As we were driving along I noticed what appeared to be large cherries lying on the side of the road. When we came to a small turnoff overlooking a waterfall, I pulled over to see what they were. Turns out they were tiny wild plums. In Australia we operated under the rubric “Don't touch anything, it could kill you!” Since New Zealand has none of the venomous or dangerous creatures of its large neighbor, and seems a much gentler land, I now assume that nothing here can hurt you. So I found one that looked ripe, cleaned it up a bit and tasted it. Delicious! I told the rest of the gang, and we soon discovered a number of wild plum trees loaded with fruit of various sizes and colors. We harvested as much as we could reach, then drove on.

Kelly climbing up in a tree to fetch wild plums

      Later, while buying some bread from a friendly baker in a small town we passed through, I asked him if it what we had found truly were plums and if they were safe to eat. “Certainly,” he said. Then he said, “Do you have blackberries where you live? You'll have to watch out for them, they'll be growing all over, especially along streams.” Taking it as a warning that these kiwi blackberries might have nasty properties, I asked him if they would make us sick. “Oh no, they're delicious!” he replied.

     We drove to a small town about twenty minutes north of Wellington and found a private campground, where I cooked up spaghetti in the camp kitchen and we settled down for the night.

Wednesday, January 23 - Climbing Mount Doom

     Of course you never sleep well when your alarm is set early for an exciting adventure, and Diana and I both slept fitfully during the night, and were already awake when my watch alarm went off at 4:30 am. We had our cereal and OJ and got ready for the hike, packing our small backpacks with food, water, and extra clothing.  Then we drove to a nearby resort to catch the shuttle bus to the beginning of the trail.

Dawn breaking over Mount Ngauruhoe

    We were on the first shuttle bus of the day.  Most of the other hikers were decked out with proper trekking gear, some eve with poles.  As usual, we had a more eclectic appearance.  Most people were there to make the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.  Actually, since part of the mountain erupted in 2012, throwing some massive chunks of rocks up to 3 km from the side crater, part of the trail is now closed, and the 'Crossing' is in reality an 'Out and Back'.  Fortunately, the most impressive portion of the mountain trail is still open.

     We planned to hike the entire trail, and wanted to add the hike up Mount Ngauruhoe as part of our trek. Since we had arrived at 6:30 am and had until 4:30 pm before the last shuttle bus would leave, we thought we could probably make it.  But we also decided to make sure and bag the mountain peak first, which starts half way through the crossing, since it would be earlier in the day, and consequently cooler and less peopled.

The trail covers about 5 miles and about  1800 feet of elevation before
the cutoff to the mountain

     We were told that we'd find a cutoff to the mountain at a sign two hours into our hike, and that from there we'd be on our own, since the route was unmarked, covered with scree, and would be one step backwards for every two forward.  We got to a sign, saw a faint trail through the gravelly rock, and headed up.

The beginning of the climb looked reasonable.  We still had 2100 feet to climb.

We soon reached the scree, or tephra, which was like climbing a gravel pile.
We'd scramble like mad for a few seconds to stay ahead of the small
landslide each step would make, then recover for up to a minute to
regain our strength for the next effort.  

It's a nearly 45 degree slope all the way to the top.  

The view from near the top of the climb

    We had been the first people up the mountain that day, and after struggling for an hour or so realized we were being passed by climbers on a different route a hundred meters to the east of us.  It covered somewhat firmer rock, allowing for a more straight upward climbing technique.  As Dan put it, we had managed to pick the down escalator for the climb up.  Unfortunately, there were loose cinders parallel to our route which formed an obstacle to reaching the easier path.  So until we neared the rim of the crater and firmer ground, we were stuck on the gravelly slope.

The last few steps to the crater's rim

Even the ancient ones made it to the top.  It took around four hours of grueling
effort from the trail cutoff to the top, and was undoubtedly the most difficult thing we've ever done ...
... at least since we turned 60. 

The girls pose for their 'scary' shot.  That's Mount Ruapehu in the background

The mountain doesn't have a molten pool of lava in its crater in which to deposit
sinister golden rings, but it is impressively deep, has small flumes of sulfurous steam,
and a remnant snow field on one side. 

          We walked around the rim of the crater, which afforded some great views of the surrounding volcanic area.  After spending about a half hour up there, we headed down the mountain, taking approximately the same route as our ascent.  This time, since we were on the down escalator going down, it was a whole lot easier, even fun.  Taking long bounding steps, we sort of surfed down the mountainside.  Except for collecting small rocks in our shoes and occasionally stumbling and landing on our butts, it was a fairly efficient way to descend.  We made to the base in about an hour, feeling sorry for all the souls still on their way up.

     We didn't have time to complete the crossing, but did walk another half hour along the trail to get a view over one of the ridges.

Time for one last pose in front of 'Mount Doom' before hiking back to the trail head

     We still had a two hour hike down the 1800 feet to the trail head, and believe me, my knees and hips felt every step of it.  But, we made it 15 minutes before the last shuttle left, which is a good thing, because it would have been another 12 km of walking if we had missed it.  We got back to camp, it was the kids turn to make dinner, thankfully, because I was too tired to do much of anything.  Then we crawled into our bed in the van, exhausted.  But extremely happy too. It had been a great New Zealand adventure!

Tuesday, January 22 - Visiting the Volcanic center of North Island

     We plan to get to the South Island fairly quickly because it's filled with lots of places we want to visit, and Kelly and Dan have about a month before they leave.  Diana and I will return to the North Island in March to explore it more completely.  But there is one area we all wanted to see together.

    New Zealand has two islands of relatively equal size but quite different geological histories.  The more mountainous South Island was formed by plate tectonics, with ongoing mountain formation due to the collision of the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates.  The somewhat flatter (flatness being a relative term, it's hillier than southern Ohio) North Island sits on the Pacific Rim of Fire and has some of the most active volcanic areas in the world. Three large volcanoes dominate the center of the North Island, and we planned to check them out.

Picnic lunch on the road south from Auckland

Mount Ngauruhoe.  One of the stars of "The Lord of the Rings", it played
the role of Mount Doom.

Kelly and Dan taking their daily photo in front of Mount Ruapehu, the largest
of the three volcanoes in Central North Island.  

It will be a several month wait before this chair lift operates

This area of the mountain was used for  many scenes depicting Mordor
in "The Lord of the Rings" movies.  No, that is not Peter Jackson.

     We were the only people up on the mountain.  It was an eerie, dark and dangerous place, we wouldn't have been that surprised to see orcs crawling out of the crevices and caves.

     We stayed the night in a nearby Department of Conservation (DOC) campground, crowded with backpackers and other tourists.  But compared to the private campgrounds nearby, at least the cost was reasonable.    We had tuna salad for dinner and got to bed fairly early, with our alarms set for 4:30 am to get us up in time to catch the shuttle bus for our climb up Mount Ngauruhoe the next day.

Sunday, January 20 - We're reunited with the kids!

Breakfast of champions     

    The morning after the surfing competition we were eating breakfast at the camp kitchen when a bear of a man sat down with us and began chit-chatting. He had a strong beard, curly sun-tinted dark hair, a barrel shaped torso, and looked about 45 years old.  A native Kiwian, we talked about our countries, I asked him about kayaking in NZ, and then we got onto the topic of surfing.  I asked him if he surfed much, and another guy sitting at a table next to us informed us that he had won the knee-boarding championship just the day before.  Evidently surfing started out with long boards from the early days, then in the '60's evolved to shorter boards that the riders could do tricks on, which they first rode on the knees.  Now most surfing is done standing on the shorter boards, but knee-surfing still remains as a legitimate form.  I asked him if his mates carried him up the beach on their shoulders after he won the competition and he laughed, saying they talked about it, but with him at 240 pounds no one volunteered.  I understood, it is a long beach. 

Back to five

      After showering and getting our stuff in order we drove into Auckland.  The kids were scheduled to arrive at about 1 pm, but first we wanted to go to a library to use free wifi and get insurance for the car.  That accomplished, we drove to a shopping center in the suburb where we had stayed and met up with the kids.  Yay, we were together again!

    We had some work to do before we could return the car.  First Diana and I vacuumed our van, then we transferred all their stuff to the van, and they cleaned up their car before returning it.  As we stacked their stuff into the back of the little Townace it sank lower and lower, until I was afraid we'd be riding on the rear wheels.  Great!  What was this going to mean for our trip?

    Oh well, we didn't have time to worry about it, we wanted to get out of town. I've driven vehicles with heavy loads that sagged in the back, and I'm sure I'll do it again. (More on that in a later posting).  Diana and I drove into town and picked the kids up at the car rental place, and we headed south out of town.

     We drove for a couple hours and ended up at a small campground in the countryside.   The host was quite an interesting fellow.  He is a beverage bottling manufacturing engineer, probably ten years older than us. He has worked all over the world, and had tons of stories.  He and his wife lived in Rhodesia for 12 years, experiencing the revolutions and turmoil and overthrow of the white government and the beginning of Mugabe's reign.  Later, he worked two jobs at the same time, managing the installation of a Coke plant in India and a Pepsi plant in Pakistan.  Because they were at war with each other at the time, he had to fly through Saudi Arabia to go from one place to the other.  But his best story was he and his wife driving Africa from top to bottom in the late '60's to get to a job in South Africa in a 800cc Renault R4.  They experienced broken axles, bandits, and many dicey border crossings. They crossed the sandy roads in the Sahara by moving 'sand ladders' 10 feet at a time.  They thought it would take three weeks, it ended up taking three months. I guess it's a miracle they made it at all.

It's no Landcruiser, but it got Peter and Carol through places
that hadn't seen a European in almost a decade.

     Everyone else went to bed, but Peter and I stayed up talking.  Well, I mostly listened.  He had some interesting theories about many things.  For example, with his demolition expertise he's absolutely certain the the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks were a preset demolition job.  Also, he's believes the Celtic Cross is actually a Medieval navigational device that allowed Irish sailors to accurately measure longitude centuries before the invention of the chronograph, thus explaining the presence of Europeans in the North American continent half a millenium before Columbus.  And, he's convinced that the Maori people didn't arrive from the Polynesian Islands, but rather from Africa, because in years working there he saw many people living there who looked just the same.

     Everyone else had gone to bed before midnight but I stayed up to hear his stories and theories.  At around 1 am, he asked me if I wanted to see some 'real' glow worms.  Who wouldn't.  He grabbed a powerful 'torch' from his campervan and lead me on a narrow trail back into the woods behind the campground.  I followed his circle of light as we worked our way up a hill until we came to a spot with a rocky cliff side dripping with moisture.  He turned off his flashlight, and I could see a replica of the night sky right there on the rock wall.  It was pretty cool.  Similar to our experience in Oz in the Blue Mountains, except this time I had a character straight from a Graham Greene novel as my guide.

    

Saturday, January 19 Piha

     After our breakfast of OJ and jam, we headed down to the beach. The surfing competition had started at 7:30 am and would run until about 2 pm, and we didn't get to the beach until around 9, but we did arrive in time to see the last few minutes of the men's overall championship.

One of the competitors getting ready to head out into the surf

Spectators lined up on a rocky outcrop to watch the competition

Riding inside the wave

Cutting the top of the wave

The winner gets carried up the beach

     We watched the senior men's finals, the open finals, and then wondered what was coming up when saw the surf lifeguards towing three large cube-shaped floats out into the sea, anchoring them past the breaking surf. Over the PA we heard the MC announce the start of the paddle-board finals. About a dozen people lined up on the beach, and after the countdown they sprinted to the water, carrying their boards and paddles. I saw only one woman among the group and wondered how she would fare.

The surf guards pulling a float out to the course.  They had a wild ride fighting
the surf.

The start of the Stand Up Paddle finals

Heading out onto the course, the lone woman racer wearing the pink shorts

Fighting through the surf to get out to the first float

     The course took them left near the rocks where the surf broke, then parallel to the beach a couple hundred meters off shore. From there they had to round another float, paddle out to a third float a hundred meters further out, then dash back to the beach, hoping to surf a wave onto the shore. From there they sprinted to the starting flag on the beach, a helper holding their boards and preventing them from floating out to sea. They had to do two trips around the course, so they raced back out into the surf for a second trip around.

     At first there were three men who took fairly large leads over the rest of the field, but the woman had paddled strongly and kept them within range. As they made the tricky maneuver first to the closer float and then out to the further, the woman caught the third guy, then closed the gap on the second. The announcer told the crowd that the woman was Annabelle Anderson, the current Woman's World Champion Paddle-boarder, a New Zealand lass that has spent the past year competing around the world. That explained her proficiency and strength on the board. During her sprint to shore to finish the first lap she passed the second place guy. She held onto that spot for the remainder of the race.

Annabelle Anderson coming in second in the New Zealand SUP Championship.
She was the only woman in the race.  The men are probably used to getting beaten by her.

     It was a grueling race, taking the winner at least 20 minutes to finish, and thrilling to watch. Half of the field was still fighting their way around the course when we headed back to the van for lunch a half hour after the race had begun.

     After lunch and a nap, we walked back down to the beach. All of the festivities had ended, and Piha beach was back to being a fun place for experienced surfers to ride the waves and, between the guard flags, for families to play. We hiked up the trail to the headlands on the south side of the beach to look over the rugged coastline. Then we explored north along the shore and climbed up Lion Rock.

The water wasn't warm, but not too cold either.  If we get a nice
sunny day we'll probably go swimming.

Carved Maori monument on Lions Rock 

The view from the Lion's back looking north

     For dinner we went to the camp kitchen and fried up mushrooms and peppers and onions and had them with couscous and grated cheese. Simple but delicious. We went back to the van to go to bed, it was pretty quiet for such a large campground. At least until around midnight, when the siren for the volunteer fire department went off less than 50 meters from our van. That's another benefit of having metal and glass surrounding you instead of nylon. The howl of the siren probably was a lot more alarming to our tent-bound neighbors.

Friday, January 18 Auckland to Piha Beach

    Now we had a van and we could finally get back on the road. You won't be surprised to hear that we didn't actually leave Auckland until 7pm. It was 10 o'clock before we finished with showers, packed up our stuff, and cleared out of the motel room. Then on to a local library branch to email, blog and research car insurance. Next to an AA office, (don't worry, AA is the New Zealand version of AAA, not Alcoholics Anonymous) where we found out that as non-residents we couldn't get coverage from them but would have to pick it up from someone else. Back to the library to do more insurance research, then to a Bunnings (similar to Lowes) to get new keys made to replace the worn and cracked keys that came with the van. A fill up of diesel and now we were on the way.

     We didn't have far to go. You may remember, the kids flew to NZ a week before we did, rented a car, and have been exploring parts of the north island since the 7^th. We haven't heard much from them, they didn't buy a broadband device for their computer so they've depended on free Wifi, which usually means McDonald’s, and I don't imagine there are many of them where they've been. They would be returning the car to Auckland on the 21^st so we had a few days to explore on our own before meeting up with them. I didn't want to go too far, so we chose to drive out to the small town of Piha on the west coast. It's calls itself the surfing capital of NZ, and has even has a TV reality show called Piha Rescue based there.

     After driving about 30 km of curving, winding, up and down road (I think that may be the norm for Kiwiland) we came to an overlook of Piha.

Looking down at Piha.  That's Lion Rock on the left center.  We stayed at
a campground located just to the right of this photo

       We checked into the campground behind Lion Rock. The attendant commented that they had been quite busy that week, and when Diana asked why she replied that Piha was hosting the New Zealand National Surfing Championships, and that the finals would be the next day. Were we lucky! We enjoy watching surfing anyways, and to get to see the best in the country compete should be fun.

     We found a place to park our van in the tenting area, then went for a walk along the “black sand” beach. It was nearing sunset, so there weren't many people on the beach, only a few people strolling along the surf's edge or walking their dogs.

     Most of the North Island is volcanic in origin, so like the beaches in Iceland, the sand is made of a mixture of minerals, the predominant color being dark gray or black. There are other lighter color grains mixed in, so the sand actually looks more like coarsely ground black pepper, and depending on the wave flow the sand sorts itself into interesting patterns on the beach.

Piha beach

After two weeks of being city-bound it's nice to be back on the road

      For dinner we had cheese and onions and crackers with some good South African wine (haven't found boxes of NZ wine yet), then set the middle seats flat in the van, and stretched out to sleep. I think it's going to work out quite well, and I'm pretty sure we're going to be glad to be able to sleep in the van in this cooler, wetter country.

Sunday, January 13 to Thursday, January 17 - Buying a van

     Back in September, when we were looking for a Landcruiser for our jaunt around Oz, it took us nearly a week to get ourselves set up with a cell phone, WiFi dongle, and find the car. We stayed at Sydney Central Backpackers, rubbed elbows with a young international crowd of job/adventure seekers, and between looking for free wifi, exchanging money, test driving and visiting car dealers, and taking walks into the city, we got to know Sydney pretty well.
    For our New Zealand Vehicle Acquisition Plan (NZVAP) we set ourselves up at a small motel in the suburb of Ellerslie, about 8 km from Auckland.  The public transportation system in the city is a mess, with nine different companies running bus routes, a train system that is currently going through big changes in their ticketing, and an online transport scheduling site that sorely needs bettering.  Unlike Sydney, or most cities for that matter, there are no convenient Day or Weekly passes to simplify a tourist's travel.  And the prices are pretty high.  A round trip into the CBD cost us around $16 NZ total, or about $13 US, for what works out to a five mile journey.  We talked to a few people about it, including a train conductor, an Irish resident of the city, and the owner of our motel, and all agreed it was in need of improvement.  There are plans to put the whole system; trains, ferries and buses, under one umbrella agency to simplify ticketing and routing, but it's only about half way there.  So, we weren't sure how getting to the various suburbs to look at vans would work out.
      I had decided that we wouldn't need a 4WD for our trip around NZ.  Most of the places we want to see are served by paved or very good gravel roads (I hope), and it made sense to get a small van that could carry all our stuff, including the kids and their gear for the month they're with us, and possibly allow Diana and me to sleep inside if the weather gets drippy.  One simplifying part of NZVAP is a web site called Trademe.com.nz that is by far the place for people and dealers to list used cars.  By inserting our relevant search parameters, vans less than $4000 in the Auckland area, we got a list of about 130 cars to chose from.
      We had paid for some Wifi at our motel, but on Monday we went into the city to use the free Wifi at the main library.  We narrowed our search to about 12 different vans, emailed a few of the owners to try set up viewings, and did a little other emailing and a blog posting.  Then we went for a walk around the city to give it a quick once over.
      I'm sure I'm giving it short shrift, and I don't doubt that my opinion will change as I get to know the city and its surrounds better, but Auckland at first glance gives an unremarkable impression.  Like the big cities in Australia, it's a New World metropolis.  But there is no enveloping urban theme, no integrated waterfront, not even many people out on the avenues enjoying city life, as in Sydney or Brisbane or Melbourne.  The wharf area could be an exciting place,  the elements are there, with its ferries and view over the bay.  But unlike the Circular Quay in Sydney, which pulses with excitement and motion and noise, it reminds me more of Cleveland ... in 1970.
     When we come back to Auckland in April to sell the van we'll have a good ten days at least to explore the city, and I'm sure my assessment will change drastically.   I'm writing this now because it will be interesting to see how my view of the city evolves.

A building on the wharf.  Could it be that the cloudy skies were an inspiration
for the architect, and may have affected our initial  feelings about Auckland,
especially after four sunny months in OZ? 

Fighting for a place among the crowd to stretch out

       We went to a nondescript food court in one of the unexceptional buildings in the city for dinner.  Reflecting the multicultural populace of the city, there was a wonderful choice of takeaway cuisines.  We split a meal from a Japanese counter and even had a couple NZ beers to go along with it.  It was inexpensive, tasty, and enjoyable, what more can you ask.

Yes, New Zealand  has Tim Tams and Tasty.  Kiwiland is going to be OK
(This photo doesn't really fit into the narrative, but I
had to put is somewhere. )

     On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we never left Ellerslie.
     Tuesday we took a test drive of a 1989 Toyota Townace minivan owned by an Irish guy living here in Auckland.  Then we walked over to the Ellerslie business area and bought a SIM card for our phone and a mobile internet stick for our computer.  For dinner we bought couscous and some fresh vegetables for a simple microwave meal in our room, accompanied by a very good bottle of NZ merlot.
     Wednesday we made a lot of calls and emails to other car owners, plotting out a plan of attack for Thursday to view as many vans as possible.  Then we had dinner at an Indian restaurant near our hotel, a fine night out, especially with the Indian music videos showing on a big flat screen TV.
    Thursday morning a Dutch guy and his father arrived at our motel for a viewing of a Nissan van that looked good but didn't meet our size requirements.  We had three or four places scattered around the metropolitan area to go, but after sitting down and reviewing our needs and desires, decided to call the Irish guy back and make an offer on his van.  By one o'clock we had our new wheels!  We got it for $2350 NZ, or about $2000 US, around 40% of what we paid for the LC.  Plus we shouldn't need to buy tires while we're here.  Now, if it's as reliable as the Landcruiser was, we'll be in luck!

1989 Toyota Townace.  It's got a small but mighty 2 liter turbocharged
diesel motor that goes runs like a top (I love hearing the faint whine of
the turbocharger kicking in).  The engine is mounted mid cab, in between
and beneath the two front seats.  

The rear seats can all go flat, and there's a lot of room inside.  Well, at least for
now.  We'll see when we try to stuff five people inside.

         So, it took us only about three and a half days, and we're ready to hit the road!  Next stop, the black sand beaches of the Tasman Sea on the coast west of Auckland.  New Zealand, here we come!

We're in Auckland ...

... looking for a new car.  Actually, some sort of minivan that will allow all five of us to travel with enough room.  This takes a lot of time but we've got a line on a couple possibilities.  We've been downtown, not much sight-seeing yet, mostly figuring out the buses, trains, and ferries.
     I probably won't be posting much until we get the car, but we're fine, Kiwi-land is a lot cooler and cloudier than Oz, more like Ohio in October before the leaves fall.  The people seem very friendly, the beer tastes better and costs less than in Australia (sorry, all our Aussie friends), although it's still pricier than at home, and the sports channels on the TV have never ending cricket or soccer.  Not much rugby, the national sport, must be the wrong time of year.
    Until later, TTFN.

Monday Jan. 7 to Saturday Jan. 12 - Selling the Landcruiser

      I'm going to condense the next six days of our trip into one blog entry.  We had one important task ahead of us before our January 13th departure for New Zealand, sell the LC, and besides a few good meals, a trip to the beach on one of the hottest days in Sydney's history, and watching a little TV and reading the New Zealand Lonely Planet guide, that's what has occupied most of our time.

     We left the Royal National Park campground for the last time and drove into a suburb of Sydney, where we had reserved an apartment in a beautiful old house for the remainder of our time in Oz.

Two brothers built this house in 1880.  The current owners live in the
left side.  There are six apartments on the right.

Our apartment has a nice little kitchen ...

... and a spacious bedroom.  Note the stacks of National Geographics.  Lots
of good reading material.

The view out our kitchen door.  

      The gated parking area afforded a shady spot for me to work on the car, patching up the exhaust, deep cleaning and waxing every square inch of the exterior, thoroughly cleaning up the engine compartment, which occupied several hours over a couple day period.
      We had put the car on a website called Gumtree, which is similar to Craigslist on January 3rd, but hadn't gotten any email replies or phone calls.  We lowered the price a bit every day, but still got no bites.  It began to get a bit worrisome when we got to Wednesday without anyone asking about the car.  Only four days left before our departure!
    We probably had started out too high. We had paid $5000 for the car back in September, but with the registration, new tires, two new batteries, the roof top basket, and a couple repairs we'd put another $2800 into it.  Of course we really didn't expect to recoup all that, in fact I had initially budgeted $7000 for total costs for the car, certainly a whole lot less than renting a 4WD for four months would have been, so by my reckoning as long as we got at least $800 we'd be right on our target.  But comparing our car with others for sale, we knew we had a great vehicle.  And if we didn't have tickets for New Zealand burning holes in our pockets, we could have waited until we got a better price.  We could have changed our tickets and stayed another week trying to get a better price, but that would probably cost us another $1000, and besides, we really want to get to New Zealand to meet up with the kids and continue our Down Under adventure.
      When we finally got down to $5400 we started getting calls. Wednesday evening a young German guy texted us, and we set up an appointment for him and his friend to take a look at the car Thursday morning.  Then a while later a young Italian guy also texted.  We started getting a little hopeful, although we were still thinking about alternative plans.
      The German guys showed up the next morning.  They looked over the car, took it for a test drive, and seemed pretty impressed.  They left us saying they would get back with us later after they got a chance to talk it over.
     Diana had talked to another guy the evening before who lived nearby who seemed interested, but he never got the address where we're staying.  She tried calling his number to tell him where we were, but couldn't get through to a real person.  However, another guy called and asked if he could stop by and take a look in the afternoon.
      At around 4 we got a call and a bloke named Terry said he was outside by the LC.  I walked out to meet him.  Turns out he's a cousin of the Italian guy.  He's a 'sparky', or electrician, was born in Australia, and is helping is cuz Guanluca or 'John' buy the car. John is in Oz to learn English, then do some farm work and traveling.  When he finishes his trip Terry will get the car to pull a fishing boat.
     I opened the hood, and Terry, talking the whole time, did a complete inspection of the engine compartment and the underside of the car.  Within a few minutes he'd done an extremely thorough evaluation.  I was very impressed.  Turns out, Terry has rebuilt and raced cars, used to own a Landcruiser, and obviously knew a lot about mechanical things.  He diagnosed an issue with the front right ball joint, which on a four wheel drive vehicle can be a real problem.   I had noticed grease leaking from the joint months before, and the tire on the wheel did wear a bit on the inside tread.  But I hadn't worried about it.  The car had certainly driven well in two and four wheel drive, and for the duration of the trip I didn't think too much about it.
     But now it reared up as a huge complication.  He obviously wanted to buy the car, having missed out on another opportunity a couple days earlier, but he kept saying things like it would cost thousands of dollars to get it fixed, and he couldn't send his cousin off around Australia with it like that.  I figured he'd low ball us with an offer thousands lower than we wanted.
      And it's not like we could fall back on the German guys.  They had texted us and said they wanted the car but would first like to have a mechanic check it out.  They had been concerned to find out how much it would be to get the AC working (we never use it in the US, and didn't even try it out on the LC until a few weeks ago.  It didn't work, but we figured it just needed to be recharged).  Now they would be paying a mechanic, who would probably figure out the ball joint was bad, and they would certainly walk away from the deal, and I wouldn't blame them.  In fact, we were planning to tell them what Terry had discovered, to save them the time and money.
     So ugh, we both got sinking feelings in our stomachs. Here it was, three days before our flight, we've got this awesome vehicle with a major repair needed, what were we going to do?
     But Terry kept talking.  I could tell he liked the car.  Even after taking a test ride and complaining about how stiff the clutch was, (I think it feels great), how soft the brakes were (I never noticed it, in fact I think they work fine), and how he dislikes the typical sound of the Landcruiser motor, I could tell he wanted it.  He started saying he had friends who were good mechanics, he could probably get reconditioned parts fairly inexpensively, and overall the car seemed in good shape.  Finally, he said, he'd call his mechanic friend to get an idea how much the repairs would be and get back with us the next day, but that he probably wouldn't want to go higher than $4800.  But he also said, if someone offered to buy the car, to let him know first.
     $4800!  I could barely suppress a smile. Here was a guy who knew more about car mechanics than I, who had found issues with the LC that I'd never noticed, and who had seemed to do everything possible to devalue the car, and here he was suggesting a price only $600 below what we were asking.  In fact, Diana and I had disagreed about our starting price anyways, with me wanting to list it at $5000.  So yeah, I started feeling a bit optimistic.
     Terry called the next day and said he was ready to indeed offer $4800.  Diana said she wanted to talk to me first, and we discussed coming back at $4900, but we agreed that the extra $100 wasn't that important, that we were just happy to get a big chunk of our vehicle investment back and be able to leave the country when we had planned.  Diana called him back and said we had a deal.  He said John would be by the next day to give us a $500 deposit.
       So to cut to the chase, this afternoon Terry and John met us a the train station in Arncliffe, we got our money and they got their car, and they drove us back up to our apartment.

Do I have to give you the key?

Guanluca, Kevin and Terry, 

      I'm going to miss this car.  It's gotten us through 12000 miles of Australia in four months; through city and country, jungle and desert, over asphalt, gravel and sand, through streams, up and down super steep hills and over roads that didn't deviate from a straight line for 50 miles..  We've driven in 115 F sun when it felt like you were in an oven and during dark rainy nights when the roads were covered with wallabies.  It carried all our stuff, even when the kids came and we had six to transport.  It didn't get the best mileage, but repairs were at a minimum.  And darn it, driving that car through the Outback just felt right!  It's big, tough, and a blast to drive, and I always felt confident that it would take us where we wanted to go.
       No, I didn't shed a tear when I watched the cousins driving the LC away.  But it will always be an inseparable part of our trip through Australia.
     Indulge my sentimentality.  Here are a few of my favorite photos of the LC:

Camping in South Australia

Driving the Mereenie Loop Road in the Northern Territories

Getting wet in the East MacDonalds Range

Deep in the Blue Mountains

     Tomorrow we leave for NZ, and in my next posting I'll try to wrap up with a few thoughts about our stay in Oz.