Day 1

We picked up our rental car at the airport and were helped out with very friendly kiwis. Dave had printed out a Google map to help us get from Auckland to Tauranga, but it was completely useless. We couldn’t find road signs and didn’t know which way to turn. Luckily we had grabbed a couple maps from the airport and were able to figure it out from that. We made it to Tauranga in about 5 hours, only 3 hours later than we had thought which was ok because we couldn’t check into our hotel until noon anyways.

The hotel was a lot different than what I had thought and by different I mean crummy and crappy. Ok, it wasn’t that bad. We had ordered a king size bed but found a queen size canopy in our room. The shower had a metal-type floor and no shelves for shampoo or soap. We were told the room had free internet, but the lady at the front office had no clue about anything. But it was a place to stay and that's all that mattered.

After dropping off all our belongings, literally, we set off in our rental car to find a car to buy. We stopped at one dealer who was nice enough to call to another dealer and see if they had any cards under $2000, but no luck. We tried another dealer but nothing there. Then we stopped at a Toyota dealer where they told Dave about an auto auction that would be help the next day. We drove out to the auction site and found a couple cars that we liked. On the way home we stopped at one last car dealership and found nothing.

At the hotel we looked through a couple newspapers to find cars or an apartment but found nothing there as well. We started to get discouraged about everything. It seemed like we had so much to do and nothing to work with. Yes, it was the first day; I guess we just weren’t expecting all the troubles. I prayed hoping everything would turn out ok in the end.

We had found at least one apartment in the newspaper that could be a possibility so I told Dave we should go to the front desk and call. The apartment wasn’t furnished but was reasonably priced. Dave called but it didn’t sound right for us. There had also been an ad for a waterfront apartment, but we thought it would be way too expensive but decided to call anyways. This place wall fully furnished, by the water and $220 a week. It sounded great. We asked if we could come see it and they said we could come that night. Dave told me that he had quite the adrenaline rush while on the phone with the renter.

The apartment is a little outside of the Tauranga city center in Welcome Bay. It took about five minutes to get there. The apartment was amazing. There was a separate room for the dining room table, a TV, couches, fridge, microwave, dishes, etc. The bedroom was a separate room and had a queen size bed with pillows, sheets, and a dresser. There was also a little laundry room and bathroom. It was everything and seemed too good to be true. We signed the papers that night. It was a complete answer to our prayers.

That night we went back to our hotel with a huge burden off of our shoulders. The major obstacle was over, now we just had a couple minor ones to overcome and we’d be golden. We figured we would be able to find a car at the auction, eventually get connected to the internet and find phones.