Day day 14 Wellington New Zealand

I haven't been able to blog for a few days or close to it. The days are starting to all run together for us here. It is funny that here we have such an awesome opportunity to be here and to have new experiences but most of our time is spent stressed out and working like crazy trying to just find a car and a place to live. :) We had to turn in our rental car by 9am tomorrow morning which is when church starts and we had to check out of our hotel by 10am this morning. We found another hotel that we can pay 700$ a week for so that will buy us one more week of time to find a place to live. The hotel we are in now is so hard to be in with the three kids. Parking is a big big problem even when you pay for it. There is no high chair and only two chairs at the tiny table period. No dishwasher and a tiny sink. It is right above 4 clubs and it was super noisy until about 2-2:30am. I couldn't sleep until then. there are no dressers, no closet space, no room in the bathroom for toiletries. No tub for Ethne and she HATES showers. There is mold all around the top of the shower and the garbage can is not big enough to hold more than three diapers much less all the garbage we have with 5 people. This is our toughest part yet BUT we are good. I am not saying all this to complain I am just writing it so we can remember our experience how it really was.

We have been looking like crazy for a family car to buy and each time we have thought we found the right one, the test drive told us it just wasn't the right car. I felt horrible about one that we drove yesterday that seemed perfect. It was sluggish and although I don't know a whole lot about cars I could just tell that something was just not quite right. Thank heavens for inspiration. We had such a hard time trying to figure out what was "normal" for cars like this and what was us just being spoiled by the cars we drove in the states.

Garrett and I have realized that we really don't have a realistic perspective on what cars should feel like and be like. We drove a Lexus and an Acura and compared to those nothing else is really comfortable to ride in. Nothing feels smooth and is quiet. They all make weird noises and you can hear the brakes when you push on them. One thing they do here that is really irritating is the reverse beeping. When you put a car in reverse it starts beeping at you like you were standing outside watching a fork lift. So funny! We are going to have them disconnect that in our Odyssey. YES! we finally found one. We are using a loaner car from the dealership while we get the Honda Odyssey checked out by a professional. We pay them 140$NZD and they do a full inspection for us.

So funny- the loaner car they gave us is what they termed a "boy racer". They apologized and laughed when they told us about it and said- you'll see when you drive it. It is a souped up Subaru wagon with alloy wheels and and engine that purrs loudly before you even give it any gas. When you do give it a little gas it sounds like a big truck. It has a lot of get up and go that's for sure. It is quite embarrassing to drive. Everywhere we go people turn and look and stare and some give us the WOW that is a HOT car sign. Garrett likes to make it roar so that people will turn and look. He thinks the whole thing is so funny. He especially likes to put it in park when we are stopped and rev the engine like he is going to race people. Mostly he likes to embarrass me and make me slink down in my seat.
It is so low to the ground you can hardly get in-it is more like falling in.

So our new car (as long as it checks out ok) is grey on the outside and tan on the inside (not what I would have picked but it's ok) it is not really a van I guess they call it a people mover. It has four doors no van doors. It has about 90K's on it and we got it for $9950 NZD. Much better deal than the other things out there. We really were hoping not to spend more than 10K because we only need it for a year or two anyway, so that worked out just perfect.

That was our whole day-moving into another hotel and car shopping, cleaning out the rental car and returning it to the airport.

We came back to the hotel and I made hamburgers for dinner and we put the kids to bed. Very boring but we did accomplish some very important things.