Whangarei, Northland, NZ

Someone's played an evil trick on us! A head gasket for a 3CT engine on a Toyota Estima, a.k.a. Gertie, turns out to be one of the hardest parts there is to find - that's used & still decent... We can't bear to pay for a new one, and evidently there's an engine fault that makes the heads on these particular engines quite easy to blow up - so a good one is very rare. So there we were, beginning to feel a bit stuck in Auckland, searching wreckers, making the best of it, but honestly growing weary of the city hostel (despite our wonderful German roommates) - car rental rates not worth it, we jumped at the opportunity to take on a project by way of another van that a good fellow, Kelvin, from the capoeira group here was just about to get rid of - (gotta love capoeira!!) it has a good engine & all, but needed some love & hadn't run for a few months. He lives on a boat at the marina and mounting parking rates combined with the fact he didn't really need it anymore.. he was going to junk it. Probably sounds insane, and we very well may be, but for a mere $200 we acquired a lovely '86 Mitsubishi L300 and were out of Auckland! 'On the road again' we sang, over and over, as well as just about any other songs we could think of (it doesn't have a radio - YET!) We worked on it for about 3 days, grinding rust, sanding, neutralizing, priming, painting, scrubbing, etc.. I must express our incredible gratitude to Trish & Rob in Wellsford, who have become our dear NZ aunt & uncle. They have a second hand shop we'd stopped at with Willy & Dom, & could tell it's the small town kind of place that would have absolutely everything we needed to outfit our new digs.. and the kind of place my dear Grandma Netta would've called paradise.. well they ended up also being the kindest folks there ever were, helping us out so much with a place to do the work, cooking us dinners, and the sweetest evenings spent talking & getting to know each other, as well as learning all about various aspects of NZ culture & politics! They also directed us to the most trustworthy mechanics; we had to have a piece of the tailgate taken out & a new one welded on - the guy could've charged us anything he wanted & did it for $15 bucks! ..all kinds of things like that; we're so blessed, and Kiwis are so kind. So we got the Warrant Of Fitness, which to us was like the Secret Key to the Universe, and took off touring the Bay of Islands & far north, which are so, so, so very beautiful. And now, we've got a couple leads on some potentially good heads for Gertie, fingers crossed, & the new one's running so good. We're working on her finishing touches... new curtains, funky racing stripes, some roofing fix (post previous fallen headliner), etc. & it's looking so good we're finding we may be able to sell her for a good bit more & make back some of our losses on the first! Brian said she should be called Fluffy because of the way she looked between layers of paint with primer partly showing through, and it's starting to stick, primarily in honor of my 4 year old niece Abigail's feline alter ego, also Fluffy. Let's hope she holds out! Next I think we're heading to the Coromandel Peninsula.