The last post got too long, so I’m picking up where I left off.

Lydia, Tyler and I went to a park after we drove off the ferry in Wellington to kill time before we could check in at the hostel. I was super wiped. Lydia made some eggs with a bunch of veggies and brought them up from the van to the bench I was sleeping on. After some healthy food and a catnap I was already feeling better.

We stayed at the Cambridge Hotel in Wellington, a funky old hostel in the city center. It was pretty cheap and had decent facilities. The three of us were happy to have a bed to ourselves.

After dinner we had dessert at a local gelateria downtown.

We had a slow morning the following day if I remember correctly. Our first outing was around 11am to the Te Papa museum I had visited before. I wanted to show Tyler and Lydia the Anzac war exhibit I was blown away by the last time I went. Going to a museum with friends was so much better than going alone. We all agreed the Battle of Gallipoli exhibit was the best we’d seen.

Lydia got hungry first, so we ditched the museum and went on a hunt for food. I suggested we walk along the waterfront to find a bite.

On our way, we passed the central pier with the high dive platform. The allure was too much for Tyler to resist. Lydia had to wait on an empty stomach while he stripped down and did a flip for the crowd. There was also a Maori guy doing the best manus I’ve ever seen. A manu is a type of “bomb” or dive with the intent of making a large splash. The aim is to land butt first in the water with your body folded at the waist. As soon as you contact the water, you forcefully straighten your body. If done correctly, the result is a massive splash rising to unbelievable heights.

Lydia and I got Malaysian food from a truck on the pier. Tyler ran off to find some teriyaki chicken. We rendezvoused at a shady spot on the rocks above the water. Then Lydia caught a wild hair and decided she was ready for her first tattoo, so off we went in search of a parlor.

The first place we went had a good vibe. Lydia made an appointment for later in the afternoon, and we went back to the museum.

We looked at a couple other exhibits, none of which were as cool as the Gallipoli one. Lydia had to leave in time for her appointment, so Tyler and I grabbed a snack and went to meet her.

On our way back to the hostel Tyler saw a way to jump off a bridge into the harbor. He made me check the depth for him by diving in first. It was plenty deep, so he sent it. Then, both of us got to walk across town in our underwear. Fun times.

We cooked dinner and went out for ice cream again. Lydia needed to be at the airport at 6am the next morning, so we got an early night.

Before bed, Tyler and I went out for a little walk with his skateboard to a hill he wanted to bomb down. It happened to be a side street next to where the van was parked. While he walked to the top, I went to grab a sweater from the rig. He started back down before I’d returned to take a video. I was watching from the side when he hit a manhole cover at full speed right in front of me. He was such a goner. Somehow, he hit the ground and rolled up onto his feet into a run. I couldn’t believe he wasn’t seriously injured. He had a couple scrapes but was mostly just shaken up. It’s a real shame wearing a helmet isn’t part of the skater aesthetic. Seems really stupid to me, but then again, I do things that seem stupid too. Too bad I wasn’t filming.

As you can imagine, it wasn’t super pleasant waking up at 5 to get Lydia to the airport on time. Thankfully, I felt OK, and at least there was no ferry crossing involved this time. We dropped her off on time and hit the road. We had a hostel booking for that night in Rotorua across the North Island.

Tyler slept while I drove. We got ice and cheap petrol outside Wellington.

Our next stop was at a roadside picnic spot for some breakfast once the sun was up. It was a clear day. The coffee and food were just what I needed.

There was a massive bridge for the train to pass between two hills, so we walked through a paddock to check it out before getting back on the road.

We got to Rotorua in time for lunch, passing through Tongariro and Taupo on the way. It was such a beautiful drive. I felt bad we didn’t have time for Tyler to see Taupo, probably my favorite spot on the North Island. It wasn’t quite time to check in at the YHA hostel, so we had a bite to eat and went to check out my old stomping grounds on Pukuatua.

It was special to reunite with the Zippy’s and Bike Culture crews and have them meet Tyler. So much had happened in my life since leaving Rotorua, but things hadn’t changed much for everybody there.

That evening was dual slalom at the forest, the only Crankworx event taking place outside the Skyline venue. We watched our friend Matt Sterling compete against the pros. He’s 17, from the bay. I ran into Alex Tague and George the dog. A photographer from Pinkbike approached us asking to take a photo of George for a “Dogs of Slalom” article.

Crankworx was too many consecutive days of nearly the same thing to easily retell chronologically.

On the first day of the festival at Skyline park, I went to the Fox suspension booth to ask about my twisted front fork. They reiterated they couldn’t warranty it, but this time they suggest I have my home insurance replace it. I had never heard of that being done, but they tell me it’s commonplace. Something to try when I get home.

We made good use of the grill at the hostel, cooking veggies and sausages a couple times.

One of our roommates was also there for Crankworx. We buddied up for the rest of our stay, playing pool in the lounge a couple nights too.

We spectated dual speed and style.

I decided to buy a day pass at the gondola-served Skyline Bike Park. It was $30 with my Crankworx ticket. I rode for a few hours, but the trails were too dusty and blown out to really enjoy. I found myself at the top of the slopestyle course during a practice session. The riders were airborne for so long it was awe inspiring. There was a jump trail called Mr. Black I ended up sessioning for a few laps in a row towards the end.

Morgan took me for a ride on Friday morning in the Whakarewarewa forest. It would be my last ride in New Zealand, so I was pleased to share it with Moargs. We never got the chance to ride before I left Rotorua the first time. It was a good recipe for closure.

Saturday night was the pumptrack challenge, where riders race one-on-one without chains on their bikes. We found Matt and his racing buddies and spectated with them. We hit a late night Burgerfuel run after the race, and Matt’s mom drove us back to the hostel afterwards. It was pretty weird for me to be in Rotorua for Crankworx surrounded by people I knew, when I had spent a gloomy and solitary two months there back in spring.

We met Sterling and his friends again the next morning to ride the luge. We all bought five discounted tickets with our Crankworx tickets and hopped in the queue. They couldn’t send us all down at the same time, so we would all stop at the first corner of the track to group up. It was so much fun but so dangerous. I can’t believe I didn’t even have to sign a waiver. My Zippy’s coworker Luke had worked at the luge, and he told me they saw 1-2 serious injuries per week.

Tyler and I did a day trip to the hot and cold creek at the Waiotapu thermal valley. The hot and cold creek is a super cool location where two streams converge, one thermal and one regular. The water was bath like. Very relaxing

Monday morning was devoted to packaging my bike up for the flight home. I spent the morning with the boys at the shop, who both independently reminded me it was supposed to be a 10 minute job after I’d already been there more than an hour.

Tyler did most of the driving to Auckland. I felt pretty horrible. I came down with some sort of bug a few days before but hadn’t given myself the chance to recover. My illness was finally catching up with me, and I needed a break. We lucked out getting a spot in front of Verandahs.

Tyler spent two nights here in Auckland before his flight home. We rode lime scooters, ate a bunch of $5 pizzas, and more or less took it easy. He has relatives in the area, and Brooke helped us arrange a visit. We went over for dinner. Tyler had only met them once, years before. We got along pretty well and definitely made a good impression. The son of his relatives had a newborn too. I felt really taken care of.

We had to be at the airport at 5:30 to be sure Tyler would catch his flight. Rush hour traffic can get pretty bad here, so we left ourselves a good margin to get there on time. Saying goodbye was easier than anticipated. I guess we both knew we’d be reunited in only a couple weeks.

With Tyler on his way, my full attention was diverted to selling the van. When I bought it back in October, I was aware I’d be selling at the worst time of the year, the end of the tourist season. One of the main reasons I chose my van was the low mileage clean interior/exterior. I knew that it would stand out from all the others when it came time to sell.

Sure enough, I did a little research the night Tyler left, and the market was pretty saturated. All the other freedom campers are trying to sell their vehicles now too, and the average listing price is about half of what it was six months ago when there was a higher demand than supply. I was pretty anxious about selling on time, but I did budget myself an entire two weeks to wrap things up here in Auckland.

The next morning I got started prepping the van for sale. I Googled nearby self car washes and found one 15 minutes away. The van got a pretty good cleaning given I was racing against the timer. Next, I had to empty the graywater that started smelling days before in Rotorua. I hadn’t had the chance until then to empty it. There was a dump station at the campervan day parking by the harbor bridge.

Back at the hostel I had to wait a few minutes for a parking spot to free up. I took the opportunity to take a couple photos of the exterior before pulling in between the other cars parked at Verandahs. The next job was clearing all my junk out and cleaning up the interior for photos. I was able to throw away a bunch of stuff, but some of it had to be packed in my suitcase and bike bag. All the counter surfaces and carpet were carefully cleaned. I took a bunch of photos with the bed arranged in different positions.

I took a beak for lunch and went for a walk down to Repco, NZ’s main auto parts store. They had a generic bottle of interior trim protector (read: armorall) for $5. I used it to buff out all the mud scuffs in the cabin and get everything nice and shiny. Then I snapped my photos.

That evening I set to writing up a listing. I was planning to post it both on Facebook marketplace and Trademe, NZ’s version of craigslist. I made a Trademe account, and it needed a $10 deposit just to start making an ad. To post a vehicle listing, they want 1% of the asking price. I wasn’t about to spend $60 more bucks just to post an ad, so I left it. I was pretty peeved I had to spend $10 just to find out it would cost sixty more. Anyways, I figured most backpackers use Facebook to search for vans.

I decided to list it for $6200 which was higher than most of what was on the market other than the super decked-out campers.

There was a lot of interest. By lunchtime the following day, I had already scheduled three viewings for that evening. One person said they would pay asking price if I kept it for them.

Evening came, the first person took it for a test drive and offered me $6000 cash. It was hard to turn them down saying I had it saved for someone offering only $200 more.

The second person was also legit. After their test drive they offered me full asking price under the condition they could have it inspected first. Again, I told them I’d let them know whether it sold that evening.

Finally, the third buyer offering full price turned up from Hamilton a couple hours from here. They made good on their promise, and we set to transfer the money. Their online banking security verification was to an old number, so they had to wait for a call from their bank to get it sorted. I pointed the French couple to the $5 Freeman’s Pizzas down the street.

They were able to send the payment by the time they got back from dinner, so we exchanged the keys, shook hands, and parted ways. The money hit my account later that evening. 26 hours from listing to sale for asking price? not bad. Maybe I should have listed it for more, haha!

With that out of the way, I had almost 2 weeks to kill in Auckland. As I write this, I’m at the very end of that two week period, mostly spent at the hostel here. There’s too much of the same to describe it all, so like often, I’ll hit the highlights.

I spent a couple nights in a room with a french guy named Pascal. We’ve become best buddies over the past couple weeks. I sold my van on a Friday night, and when he heard, he invited me out for a drink. We went to a bar just down the street that had a dj playing. We shared a few rounds of rum and coke (pascal’s pick) and enjoyed the music. I was mostly dancing while Pascal was on the lookout for attractive women. I’m not that into this type of (expensive) entertainment, but it seemed very well suited to my circumstances having just sold my van that friday evening.

For the first time in months, I had nothing to stress about pulling off. The only thing left on my list was to transfer my money back to the US, which is actually remarkably easy and time insensitive. I got bored. I even looked at moving my flight to a sooner date, but it didn’t make sense economically. So what have I done with all this time? Lets break it down.

I’ve moved rooms probably 5-6 times during my stay at Verandahs. It’s been a good opportunity to meet people. I got put in a room with two 19 year old German guys who were also at the end of their travels in NZ, Gabriel and Luca. They bought vans and traveled both islands, much like I did. They left the day before yesterday, but for a week we were like three peas in a pod, plus Pascal. They share a birthday and have been friends since childhood.

Pascal works at a cafe 15 minutes away by foot. I’ve stopped by for a few long blacks over the past couple weeks. Yesterday he served me my drink with a spoon of Pic’s peanut butter on the side. A few days ago I went there with Gabriel and Luca too. We got up and walked away without remembering to pay. Pascal had to chase after us and cuss us out between laughs. Pascal shared dinner with me a few nights ago too. He cooked up a bunch of veggies with lentils and pan fried salmon.

There are a couple French chefs staying at the hostel. They’re always making bread and other delicious baked goods. It can be pretty intimidating to cook while they’re hanging around the kitchen. Lucky for us, they’ve been sharing most of what they make with everybody else.

I take a walk through the park next door every day. There’s a massive zipline and slide at the bottom. The playgrounds here are far superior to those in the states. I was at the park with the Germans and we were standing on a grassy slope above the pathway by a swing. Below us was a trash can with an open top. There happened to be an oak tree where we were standing, so for about 20 minutes we took turns trying to throw the acorns into the bin.

I was looking for a chance go get out of Auckland and make a side trip up to the Bay of Islands in the “winterless North.” It’s one of the only places I haven’t been in NZ. To my surprise, Kiwi Experience bus company had a end of summer special for a $50 return trip to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. An Irish girl at Verandahs recommended the Seabed’s hostel, saying it was one of the nicest she’d stayed at in the entire country.

The bus departed Auckland at 7:00am on Friday morning. I had to wake up early and walk about a kilometer to the CBD to catch the bus.

Kiwi Experience is targeted towards young people, and more than half the occupants of the bus were 18. The driver was a really funny guy too.

We stopped at Whangarei falls on the way there for a little walkabout. It was pretty, but nothing compared to what I’d already seen on the South Island.

There was a 22 year old Dutch guy, Tom, staying at the hostel next to mine. We buddied up and went to the $10 barbecue at the Pipi Patch bar attached to the Base hostel where most of the Kiwi Ex people were staying. It would have been nice to stay there too for the social opportunities, but Base is a super dumpy chain of hostels and I didn’t want to bring home bedbugs. Still though, we attended the barbecue and got our free drinks before walking back to our nice hostels and turning in early. Yes on a Friday. I wasn’t in the mood to party.

I spent most of Saturday chilling. It was pretty overcast and wasn’t optimal for chilling on the beach. Instead, I went for a little walk up to the lookout point and spent the afternoon reading a detective novel I picked up at a used book store. I was walking by the wharf that afternoon when I spotted Richie the bus driver having a drink at a restaurant. He was with a friend but they welcomed me to hang and chat. They were eating green lip mussels and encouraged me to have one even after declining. Too sweet! That evening I met some old folks from the UK at the hostel who offered me a gin and tonic and made me an egg the next morning. It’s like everyone was looking out for me.

The next day I took the ferry across the water to NZ’s first capitol, Russell. It was a beautiful clear day, and I was really happy to be out and about. I found a cafe and ordered a flat white, then started walking over the hill to long beach. It was pristine. There was hardly anybody there. I climbed a beautiful tree and relaxed before going for a little swim. I walked to the lookout point at the top of the hill and overheard a local explaining Russell’s history to some other tourists. I made it back to the wharf just in time to hop on the ferry back to Paihia. Then I had just enough time to eat some lunch and get an ice cream before hopping back on the bus to Auckland.

We stopped by a little roadside spring on the way back to Auckland. The water smelled horrible, but Richie encouraged us to try it. It tasted like iron and slufur. Disgusting. Richie dropped us off downtown around 6:30 that evening. He gave me a little shoutout over the mic.

Today is my last day in New Zealand! I wired my money back to the US this morning, and now I’m about to eat something and go to the beach with Pascal. Then I have to pack and take an Uber to the Skybus stop in time for my 11:55pm flight.

I’m having a hard time achieving any sort of writing flow, so I’m gonna leave it here. When I get back I want to write a couple more posts on my reflections and financial analysis.

Update from airport: Had a super chill day at beach with Pascal but had to scramble to pack and eat. The French chefs and the Italian winemaker offered me champagne and pasta as I was leaving. Then I almost screwed myself over by Ubering to the wrong place, nearly missing the Skybus. I got to the airport on time and spent forever in line at the check in counter. They charged me an extra $150 for my bike which they didn’t do on the way over here. I’m ticked off beause my ticket includes 2 free checked bags up to 70lbs each. Boarding starts in seven minutes, so I’ll finish uploading the photos and off I go!

Cheers for now.