So after the first week in NZ what have we done?

Yesterday we headed into the capital for a meeting with Hays. Wendy wanted to say hi to the guy that got her the job here in NZ and he had set up a couple of interviews for me. We had a nice day in the city, initially travelling in by train via the north shore.

After the interviews and lunch in the city we caught the cross harbour ferry to Eastbourne. Whilst here we looked at a house that we had found on a website whilst in the UK which was for rent. Its a possible so we’ll see how it goes. From Eastbourne we caught the bus back to Lower Hutt and then picked up our mobile phones from Wendy’s work place.

Then we bought a car!!!!!!!!!!
A friend of a friend here in NZ (thanks Jim) put us on to a car auction centre here in Lower Hutt and on Thursday night Wendy and I had a night out at the auctions. The day before we went and viewed all the cars in the auction and even test drove a couple of them so we could hopefully bid with some degree of confidence.

The auction started and several vehicles went under the hammer, so quickly in some cases we didn’t know what was going on. The one car we had been waiting for all night came up for auction and I waited until the main bidding was out of the way and then struck. I didn’t initially realise but the other main bidder was sat next to me, and it wasn’t Wendy!! Bidding went on for a while and we had the car but as the auctioneer started doing the count down.......’Going once...........Going twice...........’ the other guy came in with another $200 bid. We had a limit and before we got to it I decided enough was enough and so we were out of the running.
On to plan B. We had had a tertiary look at another vehicle that was up for action later on but this was now all or nothing.

The bidding started swiftly and I quickly stuck my hand up at one price and my bid was accepted $200 higher!! Clearly competition was stiff but as my bid was accepted all the bidding stopped. Wendy whispered in my ear,’ Have we just bought a car?’ I said ‘not yet, you have to wait until the hammer comes down’. The auctioneer went through the ’Going once...........Going twice...........’ routine and then another bidder got in on the action and raised it up by $100!! Bastard!! I stuck another $50 bid on and would you believe it...................we won!!!!
So we are now the proud owners of a 1998 Silver 2.0litre Subaru Legacy Station wagon. Here are a couple of photos I took after picking it up today.

The only fault we could find was a blown brake light bulb, but the previous owner smoked so a trip to the super save auto store for a new bulb and some vanilla scented magic trees was in order.

The saving we have made over the initial car we were bidding on was over $2000 so we are very happy. It’s also big enough to stick all our stuff in when we move out of the motel next week and we can also collect/transport large pieces of furniture so moving in the future should be easier. The roof bars also mean that I can strap my surf board on top and head down the beach without any fuss... when I get a surf board/snow board that is!

So what else has this week brought? Earlier in the week we were invited to a game of paintball with WHK Shirwin Chan & Walshe after work on Friday. We both accepted and had a great time although it was a little strange meeting people for the first time and then shooting them!
I was made very welcome by Wendy’s work colleges and we went for a Malaysian meal afterwards which was really nice. By the end of the night we were all very tired and sore so headed off for showers and bed.
So all in a great first week.