-Chapter 32- New Year, New Island

Flori spent his first night directly on the main road because the parking lot was full again. Although he agreed to sleep in the front seats, it was quite a challenge to squeeze a third person and his luggage into our overcrowded car. After a lot of rearranging, with the suitcase under the steering wheel and the chairs outside, we were finally ready.

In the morning, we dropped Flori off at his hostel in Wellington's city center. He cooked us a warm meal since we didn't have a gas stove, and in the evening, we struggled in vain to find a spot at the free campground. We waited for another hour. When someone finally left, two men in a camper van took the spot. They had arrived just 10 minutes before us but shamelessly drove into the parking space at the same time as us. In the end, I had to brake because the men showed no intention of slowing down, even though we were very close to having an accident.

Over the next three days, we got Flori a SIM card, visited the Te Papa Museum again, went shopping twice, Celina and I went to the swimming pool (to shower), and even used the airport shower again. #homeless. Flori had his bank appointment, which we had already arranged for him during the Christmas holidays. We took a ride on the Cable Car, which was advertised everywhere but we found the five-minute ride quite unspectacular. We strolled through the Botanic Gardens and hiked to Flori's hostel through the Victoria Tunnel, where it is a tradition to honk the horn like a crazy person. (Once we found out about it, we just had to do it too). Then we applied for Flori's tax number and on Tuesday evening, we set off for the ferry. Although we had to be there two hours before, we ended up just sitting around beforehand, but we still panicked shortly before. Celina and Flori navigated together, and I got lost several times, so we had to make several sharp braking and turning maneuvers with the good old Toyota Estima to arrive at the ferry on time.

"New Year, New Island" is a pretty popular motto among backpackers. With Flori's arrival in the new year, we had no choice but to do it exactly like that. On January 14th, we took the Interislander ferry from Wellington to Picton. The journey took three and a half hours, and it was worth looking out from time to time. We drove through beautiful fjords and arrived on the South Island at sunset. From there, in the evening, we drove through Blenheim to a free campground by the sea, where Flori once again spent a relaxed night in the front seats.

The next day, we drove 5 hours from Picton to Christchurch, where we had made appointments to view cars through Facebook. We had never driven such a long distance in one go before, and it felt particularly long because either Celina or I had to lie in the back bed. Only one road led all the way along the coast, and every few kilometers, there were construction sites with construction workers holding up stop signs and saluting as we drove past them. But there was one of the best surprises ever: Flori noticed that a huge colony of seals was taking a break on the rocks along the coastal road, which we could observe from above for a while.

We arrived at the Countdown parking lot in Christchurch right on time, where we met a Canadian couple. They had been traveling in New Zealand for a month and their return flight was the next day. They were desperate to get rid of their car. I think Flori was their last chance. The Canadian man expertly showed us the car, everything looked very neat, and for the first time, Flori took a bumpy test drive in left-hand traffic together with the man. We agreed to think about it and met with two German girls an hour later. Their car was also very neat for the price, and Flori took another test drive, but there was a major drawback: a huge crack in the windshield underneath the wipers.

An hour later, Flori negotiated 1000€ with the Canadians, and the car was his. When I sent Mom photos, she initially said, "looks good." and the next day she said, "Although it looks a bit like a hearse with the curtains." After that, Flori was addressed as "The Lord in the Hearse."

-> To be continued