The Little Things

    One glimpse of the road in NZ and you can tell you're not in Kansas. The first obvious thing is the cars driving on the left side of the road, as a new traveler the first taxi ride from the airport is frightening as if every left or right turn we take we are on a one way collision course with another vehicle. This left side of the road driving even seeps in to the little details. For instance if you're walking down the sidewalk and someone is coming in the opposite direction I as an American want to pass them on the right, they as a native, want to pass on the left, this leads us both veering off the sidewalk in the same direction, where I eventually realize and move to the left. Another difference is these ubiquitous vans, which are like, totally awesome. For some reason they are all relics from japan that got shipped here for sale, you wouldn't see many like them in the U.S. but they have small engines and are good on fuel. They come in many flavors, off road, large, compact; some have Moari tattoos, some have been shuttles, but most of them are customized for travel. The traveling season is coming to an end in NZ as the autumn approaches now, leaving tons of these up for sale. Today we are gonna get one. The backpacker's lodges have bulletin boards that are stuffed with vans for sale.

         The first one we test feels like an overstocked walk-in-fridge on wheels. The owner, Neal, is from New York, and has decided to move here and has gotten a job as a vegan chef downtown. Not needing his van anymore he wants to sell it, and rambles on about the best grocery stores and lodges while I, sitting in the back, try to get a hold on something secure. Like in the galley of a boat, things swing from the ceiling; I walk away from this one feeling a little motion sick. I decide the only thing more terrifying than that first taxi ride is my mom test driving a vehicle in a country she hasn't driven in, on the manual transmission of a car that she's not used to. Then next one seems promising an automatic Mitsubishi 4wd van with a fold down futon in the back, I wait at the lodge while she drives it, but we still have another meeting in an hour so we hold off. The great thing about the whole process is your meeting people who have done the same thing you're about to do and so they have all sorts of tips on where to stay, and they are usually willing to pass on a map that has locations circled, like a treasure map. The final van for sale is from a Canadian guy Brendan and his Chezk? girlfriend Kasha. This one is sweet a Toyota Liteace like 92' and in decent shape, some of the highlights include fold down bed, with storage below, and camping gear including a stove, a down comforter, sleeping bags, cookware, etc.. it's a deal at 1600 U.S. it's got 180k kilometers. The easiest part of the process is transferring ownership, any post office will do it, and they just so happen to be banks so exchanging money is easy, you just have to buy miles like some kind of calling card for driving it has to do with the cheap price of diesel. The last words Kasha says are the tires are terribly worn be careful. We say goodbye and go about buying new tires. With new tires and a new van we are on the road.