Sunday was stressful. There wasn’t much I could do to advance my preparations, so I had to find ways to stay busy without stewing in my thoughts. My biggest concern yesterday was whether the money wire my parents initiated on Friday would come through in time for me to buy my van and leave Auckland before my booking expired at the hostel. With both of my parents out of town there would be no way to fix any issues if the wire didn’t go through, and I would be stuck.
I chose to get out for a walk, and my room mate recommended I check out Mount Eden, a popular vista above the city. Along the way I stopped off at a bike shop and chatted up the staff. The wind at the top was overpowering, but the view of the city was spectacular. From the vista above the crater (the mountain is an extinct volcano) you could see a full 360 degrees.
I returned to the hostel for some lunch and settled into a couch in the lounge to read. I was overcome by sleepiness and I ended up taking a nap in place. Waking up confused as I often do after sleeping during the day, I forced myself up and out to the grocery store. A lot of the products offered at Countdown have special discounts for members with “Onecard” (their loyalty program), so I googled “Countdown Nelson” to see if it was worth setting up, and sure enough it’s a nationwide grocery store. I set up my card at the checkout and was immediately able to take advantage of the discounts. #adulting
This morning I woke up to find there was money in my account as I had hoped, so I rocketed off to the bank first thing after breakfast. I forgot my passport and was frustrated to have to walk back and forth, but luckily I found a Lime scooter right next to the bank and zipped off. I was back with my passport in no time and quite pleased with my ingenuity. I withdrew the money for my van and my stay at the backpackers lodge, got a debit card linked to my account. At the same time I filled out the application for an IRD number (tax number) with the final piece of evidence required (proof of a NZ bank account with at least 1 withdrawal and 1 deposit) along with the other evidence I had already used to open my account. On my way out I remembered to cancel my appointment at BNZ next door where I had arranged to set up an account tomorrow at 10am, too bad for them. With a dangerous amount of money in my backpack, I rode the Lime scooter back to the lodge, paused my ride, paid my stay, grabbed my sunblock, and set out for the car dealer 14.7kms away. The Lime scooter said it had a 19 mile range so I had Google Maps calculate a bicycle route, plugged in my earbuds to have the lady talk to me, and off I went. I felt like a badass making a long distance journey on the Lime scooter until it ran out of battery 3kms from the dealer. Oh well, it’s still half the price of an Uber and half the time of the bus. I changed the map to give me walking directions and hoofed it the last leg of the journey there. When I arrived the salesman gave me a ride to the post office where we took care of the change of ownership and registration documents. Back at the office we finished the payment and other small details and I set off for the gas station down the street. I made it back to the Ponsonby neighborhood and had to park a few blocks from the hostel to avoid paying for parking. After writing this I’m going to continue working on my lists for what to buy for the van and head back to Countdown to buy supplies. Checkout is tomorrow at 10am and I want to be ready to go by then. I reached out to Marisca from the flight here to see if I could swing through on my way out. Oh yeah, and I still need to buy insurance. Better get on that.
Until next time
My adventure in New Zealand 