20|09|2018, Car viewings

Hi guys,

Today we dedicated the whole day to searching for a campervan!

We started the day with an early morning walk to a store called "Coffee & Beans". It's basically an Indian bakery that offers all kinds of breakfast pastries.

After enjoying 2 pastries each and sipping on 2 large hot drinks, we were ready to start the day!

We used Uber, an alternative to taxis here in New Zealand which is a lot cheaper, to get to a dealer that specializes in camping vans for "Work & Travellers".

However, we thought the prices were a bit too high, so we decided to move on.

We went to another dealer for camping vans. Here, a nice employee named Xenia, who's a 23-year-old German girl doing "Work & Travel" in New Zealand and currently working as a "contact person" at the dealer, picked us up from the hostel and drove us to the dealer.

Once we arrived, we took our time to look at all the cars and compare them.

In the end, we narrowed it down to two vans and I even took one of them for a test drive!

It was my first time driving on the left side of the road and with an automatic transmission, which was also new to me!

Backing out of the parking spot turned out to be a bit complicated, but of course, I mastered it!

Then, when I wanted to leave the lot and naturally wanted to use the turn signal, the windshield wiper started wiping at full speed. I made a panic braking and Xenia burst into laughter, almost in tears!

She was familiar with driving on the left side and the corresponding cars, so she expected that reaction from me, but apparently my face looked very funny!

But the test drive went very well! I was excited the whole time, but I managed to successfully enter the roundabout in the "left" direction!

After returning to the dealer, we said goodbye to Xenia and took the bus back to the city center.

We both have a serious interest in the van, although I hope we didn't show it too clearly to her! 😅

Afterwards, we treated ourselves to a meal at "Velvet Burgers".

The "Big Boy" (name of the burger) turned out to be one of the best burgers I've ever had, and we went back to the hostel.

We enjoyed a New Zealand beer on the rooftop terrace, which by the way tastes very good, and now we're waiting for the next seller who wants to introduce us to his car.

The Kiwis, the inhabitants of New Zealand, have been very nice people so far, extremely helpful and open-minded!

You feel comfortable right away!

Tonight, we plan to go back to the "Port of Auckland" and enjoy the sunset by the water!

I took some pictures again today!

Greetings from Auckland, New Zealand! 🇳🇿

Tim 😊