Touring the North Island in the Silver Bullet

How we became proud owners of an '82 Civic, in less than 2 hours:

1) Parker found the ad on the internet.

2) I called to set up a meeting asap.

3) Dude picked us up 30 minutes later.

4) Test drove the car and got a crash course on NZ rules.

5) Made an offer.

6) Went to the Post Shop to transfer registration.

7) Gave the previous owner a ride home!

We call her the Silver Bullet. We are the 10th owners. She only has 85k miles and wasn't driven for 10 years. She has to be choked in the morning (like a lawn mower). She creaks and moans up hill but hasn't failed us. The only minor inconvenience is that she only has am stations on the radio! We are finally getting the hang of driving on the wrong side, always looking right first, round-abouts and the crazy right of way rule. Kiwis drive very very fast on their tiny tiny swervey roads. We have cars lining up behind us at times. The young kids always give us the look when they finally get to pass. I just look back and think - dude, this car's older than you.

We have 50 days on the North Island with our Bullet. The N.I. has 3 million of the 4 million residents of NZ. Now we can cruise around and behave like proper tourist. We have met up with our hiking buddy Jack in Paihia (we met on the Appalachian Trail), at the Bay of Islands. Paihia a beautiful bay town popular with tourist and Kiwis. The Bay of Islands has a cluster of 100 islands and we have a great view of the sailboat races. After some much needed R+R we have gone on a few nice tramps. The tramp to Cape Brett was challenging and superbly rewarding. We spent 5 days around Cape Reinga and hiked on 90 mile beach, played on giant sand dunes and camped by the ocean.

Parker continues his fishing quest and has been hooking some very interesting fish out of the ocean. He purchased a surf-caster and switches it off with his fly rod. We have several tramps on the list around the N.I. volcanoes, a little paddling and some surfing. And of course we can't leave NZ without seeing a rugby game. All this while I train for the Rotoroa Marathon, May 1st. So much to do, so little time. Thank goodness for the Bullet.