Friday, January 25 Wellington

     We had our vehicle for our trip around NZ, and it's really going to fit the bill for us. With careful packing all the stuff for five people fits inside, I even have a clear view out the back window through my rear view mirror, except for the small amount of area taken up by Kelly's cute face. It gets terrific mileage, we're averaging around 30 mpg. And with the turbocharged diesel it actually has enough power to get up the hills with decent speed, although I still drive slower than most of the natives on the undulating roads.

     There was one issue with the van, which I mentioned previously. The rear springs had been over-weighted sometime in the past, and now with hardly any additional load at all the van sits very low in the back end. Plus, although there are almost new tires on the front, those on the rear are retreads and look dried out and old. So I knew we'd have to get that all fixed up.

It actually doesn't look too bad in this photo, but that's without
three people in the back seat with all their extra stuff

     We'd been impressed with the service we'd gotten with Bridgestone in Australia, so I decided to give them a try here too. They have a shop within walking distance of downtown Wellington (every time I hear the name of New Zealand's capital city I think of DavidJaneEvelynNina's big cat) where we could get the work done. So we dropped it off to get the new tires and an estimate on getting the springs replaced.

     Just a 20 minute walk down the street is the Embassy theater, where “The Hobbit” had its world premier. All of us being big “Lord of the Rings” fans, we thought it fitting that we see the latest Middle Earth movie there. Plus, they have the 3D, 48 frame per second version! We went in to get info about show times and admire the various film paraphernalia.

The entrance to the Embassy Theater.  Think Wellington
is taking advantage of the LOTR/Hobbit connection?

     Like hobbits, it seems like we're always hungry, so we stopped at a small shop and bought savory meat pies for a treat. Then we walked about the central district looking for a new rain coat for Kelly, bought some used books at the library, and walked back to Bridgestone.

     We were taken back a bit by the report we got. The repairs, which included new springs, sway bar fittings, and new front brakes would cost us almost $800 NZ ($700 US), a third of what we paid for the van itself. Well within our vehicle budget, but we'd hoped to get by with a lot less. Oh well, hopefully it will help us when we sell the van in April. We did want to get another estimate first though, which we would get the next day.

     We drove back to our campground and the kids made pizza for dinner.