The first days in Auckland

We have been in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand and the starting point for almost all backpackers, since Wednesday noon. Originally, we had booked our first accommodation (a nice room with a bathroom in a small cottage on the property of a super nice and helpful Kiwi family, found via Airbnb) only for 3 nights. However, since the organizational matters such as opening a bank account, applying for a tax number, and buying a car cannot be easily done in this short period of time, we asked if we could stay 2 nights longer. Staying two nights longer would mean until Monday, and now it's Monday evening and we're still here. The family went camping today for a few days and offered us to stay here FOR FREE until Friday! The only thing we 'have' to do is feed the rabbits and the cat once a day, which takes about 5 minutes. We are very grateful for this generous offer and it came in handy for us. Firstly, because we still have to wait for our bank cards to be sent by mail, and secondly, because we still haven't been able to find a car.

The car search is starting to wear on our nerves. There is no reasonable offer to be found anywhere, which could be because more and more backpackers are coming at this time of year and very few are going back home and selling their cars. We now know from our own experience that most of the dealers who sell backpacker cars are not worth considering. They sell junk for incredible prices and think they can sell anything to anyone.

Another negative point is the weather, which is currently very changeable. On our first day here, the weather was great, 18°C and sunny. The next day was also good, but since yesterday it has been mostly rainy and windy. It's not exactly warm either. The weather situation, combined with the slowly emerging desperation regarding the car search, is not the best combination, but as the saying goes, after the rain comes the sun, and hope dies last ;)