It Wouldn't Be An Adventure If Everything Went Right...

The Pessimist’s Week

I think things started going wrong when a bug flew in my ear and got stuck. We were standing at Seafriends discussing prescription masks with the shop owner when I heard something in my ear. It sounded like the noise was IN my ear, sort of like when a drop of water is rolling out (I hadn’t been snorkeling yet so I ruled that out). It stopped for a bit, then would start up again. It sounded like something was tapping or flapping near my eardrum. We were waiting around for 100 school kids to get snorkel gear anyways, so I went and got a Q-tip from the car. Sure enough, a little tiny green bug about 1.5 mm long had flown into my ear and gotten stuck in the earwax. Has anyone else ever had this happen?

So really, nothing bad happened while we were snorkeling, except that the dolphins and whales once again failed to appear on cue.

Saturday morning we had a whole list of interesting places to visit in and around Whangarei. First we tried to go to a native bird recovery center, but it was closed (apparently the guy only comes in for like an hour each day to feed them). Then we went to a slightly disappointing fernery that I thought would be more informative. Next we tried to go to the art museum but it was closed for the weekend to set up a new exhibition. Then we went to an elevated canopy walkway that also failed to deliver to my nerdy educational expectations.

We were just on our way out of Whangarei when * ping * - Lu started making a rattling noise when we accelerated. I convinced Matt that we were better off stopping at a mechanic before leaving Whangarei than having to stop further down the road in the sparsely populated north. And, it was 2 pm on a Saturday which meant that if a store wasn’t closed already it was about to. There was a mechanic conveniently located only about 3 blocks from where the noise started so we pulled right in. After waiting for about half an hour, the mechanic came over to look at Lu. He revved the engine from under the hood (which I didn’t know you could do), listened to the rattle, and delivered the bad news.

“Sounds like you blew a piston. She’s terminal. She won’t go much longer before blowing a hole in the engine.”

Never the words you want to hear about your domicile on wheels. The mechanic gave us directions to the town wrecker who he’d just sold a “rough as guts” station wagon to. We carefully rolled Lu to the wrecker where we looked at the wagon, but he wasn’t kidding when he said rough as guts. You had to start the thing with a screwdriver. It didn’t have a WOF (Warrant of Fitness) so we ruled it out because we’d have to put hundreds into it just to get it to pass WOF. The wrecker said he was getting another station wagon in on Monday if we could hang around until then to take a look at it.

So, at 4 pm on Saturday we knew we were stuck in Whangarei until at least Monday. We carefully drove Lu from the wrecker into town where we walked around looking for a paper to look for used cars (nothing) and then found an internet café where we checked Trade Me (NZ’s homegrown version of ebay). We obviously couldn’t leave Whangarei but with the expense of a ‘new’ car imminent we didn’t think we could afford the $40-50 it would cost us to stay at a hostel for the night. We tried contacting the people we know to see if they had any close friends or relatives that might be able to help us out, but only got one lead that we didn’t follow up on. We looked up HelpExchange places and contact the ones that we thought Lu could get to and from before really dying, but no one needed or wanted help. We also contacted the three Whangarei couch surfers but didn’t get a response. We flipped a coin and thus decided to go back to the canopy walkway park and stay there until Monday. On the way there Lu started burning oil because of her busted piston.

We spent the rest of Saturday bored and exhausted at the thought of not being able to do much but read and eat peanut butter and jelly until Monday morning. Furthermore, our car was in plain view of the road so we couldn’t even really disguise the fact that we were spending the night there. Oh, and when we decided to park there we thought there were toilets with running water so we could fill up our water bottles, but we were wrong. No water on Saturday night.

There are some Quakers in Whangarei and we did have to spend all day Sunday biding our time, but for some unknown reason they meet on Fridays instead of Sunday mornings. So, we couldn't even use my Quakerness to find help and hospitality in Whangaeri. So, on Sunday morning we set out through the park towards a waterfall that I thought was a popular destination with public toilets and running water. Well, we went to the wrong waterfall and headed off the wrong way before being redirected. It took us about an hour and a half to fill up our water bottles. But then a whole bunch of good things happen and we can hardly be pessimistic about the generous hospitality we received on Sunday night.

The station wagon at the wrecker had a few strikes against it (automatic transmission, diesel, no radio/stereo) but it seemed ok and we couldn’t really be picky so we made a deal. We tried to pay with our debit card but it didn’t work so we had to get cash from an ATM and encountered more problems. We’d transferred extra money into our account in anticipation of this expense but it hadn’t gotten there yet (was Monday president’s day or something?). On top of that, there were withdraw limits on the ATM and bank account. So, I had to do a cash advance on my credit card (which I’ve never done before) so that we could buy our car.


Lu (left) and Sandy (right)

We bought the car and finally left Whangarei after search their bookstores in vain for the elusive Wrecked on a Reef. Monday night we stayed at a free DOC campground and met five American Ultimate Frisbee players who delightfully told us they'd spent the weekend playing in a hat tournament in... Whangarei. So the whole time that we were twiddling our thumbs we could've been playing Ultimate (although we wouldn't have met Sonja and Grant that way).

On Monday night we used our brand new little camp stove. However, we'd forgotten to buy matches so we had to borrow some from the Americans. Worse yet, we hadn't found a cheap enough pot so we tried to make quesedillas on my glass pie dish. And it shattered. Only half of the quesedilla was edible- the other half had imbedded glass shards. That was a bad idea. I don't recommend it (we have a pot now).

When we tried to leave the campground on Tuesday morning, Sandy (our new car) didn't start. We ran down the battery overnight with the interior light and the charger that runs off the cigarette lighter. At first I thought No problem, we did this with Lu. We just give her a push... and pop the non-existent clutch because Sandy is automatic. No cables in our car, no cables in the American's car, none in the other people's car. No people in the truck. We were definitely not walking distance to a town, so one of the American ultimate guys took me to the nearest town down the road while Matt stayed at the car. Once we got the cables and got a jump we were on our way north.

We stopped in Kaitaia (the Far North) for supplies (like jumper cables) before heading up to Cape Reinga. We had about $20 cash, almost no gas, very little food, and Matt's bank account said $0. So we overdrew the account knowing that more money would be coming in as soon as President's day was over or something. Thankfully that worked and were able to get gas and food and still have enough money to pay the camp site fees that night.

Our cetacean vibes deceived us once again at Cape Reinga and we didn't see any whales. Then we went to the nearby DOC campsite. It said they had showers, so after choosing our spot we went to investigate. Yes, there were showers. Cool, let's go for a swim in the ocean and then take showers and clean ourselves up. After our nice dip in the ocean, the showers failed to work. We couldn't even get a drip. Worse still, none of the water faucets worked and our water bottles were empty. And we were thirsty. Our best guess was that the water wasn't working because it was low tide, but there were no signs to warn us of this potentiality. The mosquitos started coming out after dinner and we retreated to the car, still dirty and defeated by the showers and lack of drinking water.

As it got darker outside, the mosquitos got worse and worse. They seemed to be flying through the glass. We thought the mosquitos near Tongariro were bad, but they were NOTHING compared to this. We were completely inside our sleeping bags except for our faces. If we had snorkels we would've used them but I'm sure we would've been sucking them in. It might be hard for you Northern Hemispherians to imagine, but it is still summer here and our sleeping bags are rated to below freezing. When the sweat started dripping down our bodies onto our already soaked sleeping bags at 11 pm we decided to make a break for it. We moved everything out of the driver's seat without getting out of the car and headed down the road to next campsite in hopes that they had a breeze and fewer mosquitos. We got about 5 minutes down the road when I realized my sandals had been sitting outside the car, so we had to turn around. Good thing we did because Matt's shoes had been left behind too.

As we drove down the road we tried to blow the mosquitos out by opening the windows and the back. We learned that mosquitos are very good at holding onto whatever they're on during a strong breeze. I smashed as many as I could. After about a 45 minutes down dirt roads we pulled into the other campsite, climbed into our sleeping bags, and slept fitfully as the few remaining mosquitos gorged themselves on our blood.

We woke up at 7 am the next morning and it was low tide again so the showers didn't work at that campsite either. Tired and dirty, we got the hell out of there. Later on Wednesday we stopped at an internet cafe in Kerikeri. It was an interesting combination of jewelry store and internet cafe. We felt way to dirty to even walk into the place, but they thankfully didn't turn up their nose at us. We arranged to stay with some nice couch surfer hosts near Whangarei who we'd contacted on Saturday when Lu died. Just after we arrived on Wednesday afternoon, steam appeared from under Sandy's hood. She had a little hole in a pipe and was spraying steam and water. Thankfully this was a minor problem that was easily repaired.

Staying with Colin and Karen was great- there's absolutely nothing pessimistic to say about it. The offered for us to stay Thursday night as well, and we took them up on the offer. So Thursday we made a day trip to the west to see the giant kauri trees that are 2000 years old. The trees were awesome, but we unfortunately grossly overestimated the density of gas stations in Northland. We ran out of gas on a paved road exactly half way between the nearest gas stations, each about a 35 minute drive away. We were still an hour or so from Karen & Colin's. Right across the road from where we stopped were a bunch of guys hanging out in the yard who seemed decidedly unhelpful and unsympathetic. To make matters worse, our car is DIESEL so we couldn't ask just anyone for some fuel.

A nice woman stopped to help when we flagged her down on the road. She drove me down the road to see if any of the farms had diesel. We found one not too far away but waited around for quite a while for the woman's husband to come home, which he didn't, so the three of us (the farmer, the good Samaritan, and me) figured out how to pump the diesel into a can and found a funnel. While we were waiting, the good Samaritan got eaten up by mosquitos because she was wearing a skirt and heels.

Meanwhile, back at the car, Matt flagged down a truck. The guy was nice enough to stop, but it ended there. Matt was over a barrel, the guy knew it, and decided to be a dick about it. Matt siphoned some diesel with his mouth (using a tube he paid the not so helpful guys across the street $10 to borrow), and paid the guy with the truck $20. At this point, Matt should've started the car to make sure it worked, except that he'd given me the (only) key in case he got a ride to a town while I was off looking for farm fuel. So all he could do was sit there and wait for me to return. He sat and read his book while the truck driver laughed at him across the road with the $10-richer unhelpful dudes. Matt started to worry that he'd actually been given petrol instead of diesel.

When I got back with the diesel in a can, we poured about a quarter of the can into the car and about a quarter on the ground. I got it all over my hands. We didn't bother putting the whole can in because at this point we had enough to get us back to Whangarei. Matt tried to start the car and it didn't go until about the 8th try which gave us a real worry, as the sun had set by this time. We thanked the good Samaritan profusely, returned the diesel can half full, and gave the farmer lady $20 for the fuel and her trouble.

We doled out $50 all in all, which would've filled our gas tank had we actually found a station before running out of fuel.

So let's recap:
Saturday: Lu dies.
Monday: Bought Sandy
Tuesday: Dead battery
Wednesday: Broken hose
Thursday: Ran out of gas

We're hoping for an uneventful Friday. We've now got jumper cables, know that our car can go 710 km on a tank, and we'll make a second key in Auckland.

Perhaps the worst part about our week is that some of these things are definitely our fault and we feel like big idiots for running out of gas, although luck didn't seem to be with us either.

Carrie