We have Wheels!!

We are now seemingly back in civilization as we once knew it. We bought a car on Thanksgiving Day (not a holiday in NZ) after looking for days at the auctions and at local car dealers. We went to the famous Turner Auction house here in Whangarei several times and test drove six cars there last Tuesday. We went to the auction that night but had not found anything that we liked for the money we wanted to spend. We had originally thought that the cars sold for real cheap regardless of the expected sales price posted on the catalogue for the day. But it turns out that each car has a reserve price that must be met before it can be sold and all those for the cars we liked were too much.

We eventually bought an older 1989 Toyota Corona with high kilometers but it drives well with no rattles or clunks, handles well, has reasonable tires and is in good cosmetic condition. It also has air conditioning which will be mondo important here in the muggy summer. We got it now eventhough I am going back to the states for several weeks. It really helps to have wheels here to get groceries and go to the airport.

We took our first car trip up to the Bay of Islands and the marina at Opua where several of our cruising buddies are moored. We ran into several of them and had good catchup time. Oh, BTW, one of our friends is in the hospital in Whangarei with his boat in Opua. He had appendicitis which started slow then turned in to a crisis. His appendix perforated before he got to the hospital here in town (about an hour from Opua). The doctor there in Opua told him to get to Whangarei and the hospital as they could not treat him there so Ross on Kabuki drove him up. This was over a week ago when he had emergency surgery and he still has a bad fever and is very weak. His gut is infected from the burst appendix. He is lucky though as he could have had the problem half way between Tonga and here and that would have been very serious. We went to visit and will go again tomorrow.

It is not very big news in the US but Tonga is having a crisis of its own. There was a riot in the capital of Nuka'alofa this last week and they burnt 80% of the town up. Six Tongans were killed when they were trapped in a building that they had set on fire. The riot was supposedly over the King and the King's handpicked Assembly not going along with the expected democratic reforms that had been promised.

The King and his family are "alledgedly" corrupt and have just appropriated many of the key assets of the Kingdom, like the whole electrical power system. They are now trying to sell it to a NZ company for $50 million (kiwi $) and will just keep the money. They also went to Hong Kong when it was going communist a few years ago and sold Tongan passports to any Chinese who would pay their price and pocketed that money too. Many of the businesses that were torched in Tonga were owned and run by Chinese. Many of them are now leaving the country. The devastation of the capital will hurt the poor nation a lot but the King and his relatives don't seem to understand that the people are getting very fed up. It will be interesting to see what happens.

The New Zealand countryside is SO pretty here. Very hilly with pastures carved out of the lush forests, cows and sheep everywhere, and very, very green. The sun is starting to come out more and more and we hope the nasty cold weather is mostly gone. It is cool and windy today though. It is nice to be able to speak English everywhere although sometimes the Kiwis are hard to understand. They definitely have a strong Kiwi accent and have different words for many things - some are British and others are strictly Kiwi. A few words we cannot even figure out yet but will over time. They never say "pardon me" it is always "sorry". Every body is a "mate", the trunk on the car is a "boot" and the hood is the "bonnet". Not to worry though, everything will be right.

The countdown is on for Cindy to leave next Thursday so we are making lists. BTW - Saturday was Cindy's birthday so we celebrated with an excellent dinner downtown with Paul and Marie on Ranger. Tonight is the marina BBQ and potluck on the dock so we are making a big fancy salad to pass and will grill a steak and some hamburger (called mince here).