Tinkerbell never really liked cities

Ahhhh...we are really in Auckland now. Each time Jay and I are in cities we are reminded of why we are really not city folk. Auckland is really not a bad city - it has a beautiful waterfront, lots of parks, cool buildings (the Skytower), and even the America's Cup sailboats tied up front and center for viewing (I thought of my friend Tracy P. who would drool at the sight). But - parking is insane, driving is stressful, crossing the street is dangerous, and there are so many people!

Anyway - we are in it for the long haul until we sell our dear Tinkerbell. Last Tuesday we dropped off my parents at the airport (we still miss them so much) and we have been on the "sell, sell, sell" mission since. We have only had a few bites, so we are a bit frustrated. We knew this would be a bad time to try and sell a campervan - most backpackers are leaving NZ now that autumn has arrived. But, this fact was really driven in today. We took Tinkerbell to a car market - basically we paid $30NZ to park in a huge lot and sit with all the other vans and HOPE that someone would walk by who was interested. We sat for 5 hours - and only had 3 couples briefly look at the van. We didn't even see other backpacker types around! Ugh. The good news is that we saw the guy we bought Tink from - Mike. He seems to buy vans cheap, fix em' up, and them sell them for more money. He is our last resort - because he will probably pay us a small percentage of what we paid him for the van, and then he would sell it again in the spring - when there are lots of "rich" backpackers looking for campervans. Before we stoop that low, we will give it another good week to try and sell it on our own. Mike also told us that he thought we were asking a good, reasonable price for the van - which made us feel better too.

On a nicer note - we have been staying with a Kiwi couple that we met at the hostel we parked at in Renwick (when we worked on the vineyards). David and Heather are simply wonderful! They are both faculty members at Auckland University of Technology where they teach media ethics. Wish some of our American media folk would take their class! They invited us to come and stay with them (they live right near downtown Auckland in a wonderful old house) while we attempt to sell the van - so we are doing just that. It is fun to be in their household - David thinks out loud when he is working on putting another lecture together; we find his topics and ideas very interesting to listen to. Heather has talked to us a lot about what it is like to be a faculty member, including all the positives and the negatives. This has been good for us because we both think about doing PhD's now and then - and this gives gives us more food for thought. And they have the cutest darn cat ever, named "Little Cat." And she is so little! I used to think that Allison (Jay's mom) had the smallest cat of them all - but Little Cat may be smaller than Phoebe! She is very sweet, very orange, and likes lots of love. We are very pet-deprived and willing to provide all this loving. Bliss!