Breaking In

We last left our heroes stranded in Queenstown...

Ryan and I are out of Queenstown! After 10 days, several visits back to the mechanic (who we are pretty sure doesn't understand how cars work), a car swap with the mechanic, a visit to the Citizen's Advice Bureau, a FOURTH car, and a partridge in a pear tree, we are freeeeeee.

But back to where we left off last time - the part arrived, the mechanic supposedly put said part in Barney (our car), and we hit the road and 10km later Barney overheated. We drove back to the mechanic, he said that the first mechanic to had told us our car was f***ed was probably correct and that it needed a new engine. We got the mechanic texting our Brazilian cleaning lady in Portuguese trying to explain that she needed to pay us back. Unfortunately, she and her boyfriend do not have the money and told the mechanic to put a new engine in the car and they would pay him back down the line.

The next day, the mechanic told us he had recently purchased a car for $1000 and would give us this "new" car in exchange for ours, since it might be a while before our new (used) engine arrived. We decided to take the opportunity to get out of Queenstown as quickly as humanly possible, and went on a little vacation.

Rules about the new car:

1. No naming. So far, naming my cars has resulted in their imminent death and destruction.
2. No talking about the car breaking. Bad luck. Duh.
3. Be nice to it. Check oil, feed it gas, etc. (rule 3 is newer, see below)

Day 1 with new car: new car won't start first thing in the morning. Eventually, she starts and we head out to go check out some glaciers on the west coast. A little disconcerting but we decide to obey rule 2 and push on.

Day 2 with the car: new car won't start while in the glacier parking lot. We end up hitching a ride back to the hostel with a tour bus. Later in the day we walk out to the car and it magically starts. We take it to a mechanic who plays with it for a long time, points out we are missing some essential parts under the hood, but overall cannot figure out what is wrong. He charges us $150 and sends us on our way. The car still isn't being awesome. We decide to head back to Queenstown.

Day 4 with the car: after giving it a day off, the car dies en route to Queenstown. A stranger stops for us (of course - it still is New Zealand, after all) and gives us a ride back to town. The car has to be towed over 40km. The mechanic is enchanted by cars, teaches us some interesting things about cars in general: "Cars run on a series of explosions. It really is a miracle they run at all!" He charges us $425 for the tow, labor, and a jug of oil. Apparently our car loves oil and gas and goes through lots of those things. We may have been out of both of them.

We get back to Queenstown, and eventually find out that no one has money for a new engine. The mechanic spent "all" of his money on this new car for us and the Brazilians still don't have any money. We leave Queenstown and decide to push North to try to make it to at least ONE of our WWOOFing stops. A woman at the Citizen's Advice Bureau tells me to put all this car stuff behind me and leave the car on the side of the road if it breaks again. We are almost back to the North end of the South Island when we stop for lunch in the middle of nowhere.

Ryan locks the keys in the car.

We call AA (much like AAA in the states) and it will be $195 for them to register us and get out to help us today. Luckily, the chef where we have stopped for lunch is very good at getting into his car when he locks his keys in the car - something he has done five or six times (I interpret this as he has stolen five or six cars). Using a coat hanger and having Ryan hold the door slightly open with pliers, he catches the hanger on the lock and manually unlocks the door.

We have now safely arrived in Picton and will be taking the Ferry to the North Island tomorrow (if the car starts in the morning).