Day 2

Since we had only been in New Zealand for only one day and were staying at a temporary residence, we weren’t able to buy our own food yet. When we checked into our hotel, however, for some reason we were giving a small bottle of milk. Odd. We had a couple cookies left that I had packed for our flight out here, so for breakfast we resorted to milk and cookies in bed.

We decided to check out telecom about their phone and internet options before our car auction at 3pm. After going back and forth from the car in the parking lot to the store and back again, we finally signed up for internet at our new apartment and planned to wait on the cell phones.

From there we went to an internet café called Cyber Zone. I was able to plug in my laptop and get a little bit of emailing done. An hour later we left for lunch because we were starving. I had noticed a Mongolia grill by the Telecom store and suggested we go there for lunch. It was pretty much like Hu Hot. Although it was a flat rate of $10 for one bowl, rice, a drink and ice cream. We crammed as much food as we could into the small bowls and chowed down.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at The Warehouse which is supposedly like a Wal-Mart and bought a blow dryer for myself. At the hotel we took a half hour break before heading to the auction. I watched “Monster-in-Law” on TV while Dave looked through papers and read about the auction.

At the auction we found quite a few cars that seemed like possibilities. We looked through the whole lot and noted which ones seemed good to us. Then Dave asked if we could test drive a couple of the cars. The first car was terrible. It’s starting price was at $100 and we could see why. It didn’t drive well and had no warranties on it. The second car was a white BMW and we really liked it. It drove well and started at $800. The third car was suggested by the worker there. It was a Toyota something and drove nice, so we kept it on our radar.

The auction began and it seemed like we would be there for hours. The two main cars that we wanted to bid on were in the middle and at the end. Thankfully the auction moved along and our first car drove up for bidding. The bidding started at $1400 and it seemed as though no one wanted it, so Dave gave a little wave of his hand. We won the bid but didn’t meet the reserve, so we would have to talk to them about what we would be willing to pay. We wanted to bid on the BMW so we decided to wait to do any negotiating until after we bid on our last car. The BMW drove up and got a few bids right away. It was at around $1500 and started to slow down, so Dave gave another wave of the hand. A couple more bids were thrown out there, but we were able to win the car at $1650 (plus a $200 charge because it was sold for under $2000). What a steal.

That night we drove off with our new car. Back at the hotel I started watching “The Family Stone” and journaling about the day while Dave was outside checking out our new purchase. After that we went to McDonalds for a healthy dinner - burgers and french fries. Ok, so we ordered this “meal for 2”. What a bunch of false advertising. The picture showed this huge double layered burger, gigantic drink, large fries, another cheeseburger and ice cream. We get our meal and it was tiny! I could have eaten the whole thing myself. I guess that’s McDonalds for you.

We go back to our hotel for one last night of sleeping. I started flipping through the channels and come across a channel called C4 which was having this greatest boyband/girlband countdown. I was very excited to say the least. It had “bands” like Spice Girls, Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Five, Westlife, Blink 182, Hanson, New Kids on the Block, All Saints, S Club 7, Tatu, Bewitched and others. Here’s what the top five were:

5. Blink 182 – All The Small Things
4. Wham!– Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
3. Backstreet Boys – I Want it That Way
2. Westlife – Flying Without Wings
1. Nsync – Bye Bye Bye

I was getting a tiny bit worried that they would have some no name New Zealand group be number one, but luckily I was not disappointed and saw that my favorite boyband was number one. While watching New Zealand television it got me very confused. It had commercials about new music and whatnot, but then sometimes it had random ones with Mr. T. I can’t tell if they’re actually behind in the times or just prefer different things than the US.