Superbowl Monday and Van Quest 2009

Our first day in Auckland we went out to get phones but instead we found the Superbowl. It took us a bit to figure out if it had already happened and we were still debating time zones and watching buggy racing when it came on. 4 beers later and I am arguing with an english guy in a suit over Palomalu's hair and general awesomeness over the cheers of a bar full of inexplicable Kiwi Cardinals fans (?). We asked them if they even knew where Arizona was. No answer. In the end we got incredibly beermotionally involved in the game and rooted for the Steelers for about as much reason as the Cardinals fans were rooting for the cardinals. I.e just to make it exciting.

Auckland from Mt. Eden

The next day we went on a van-finding odyssey and our first stop was trying to buy a camper van from this guy: http://www.totaltravel.co.nz/travel/north-island/auckland/auckland/transport/car-hire/downtown-rentals. The first sign that things were a little off was the unmarked junkyard with no cars or vans that appeared functional even to the most radical imagination. I think only about 2 had all their wheels and/or engines or doors. After calling him up and waiting for a couple of minutes a dilapidated white car pulls up and out leaps a man in posession of about 23.8% of his teeth and some amazing denim "shorts" that were so full of holes they were more air than shorts. He kept wondering out loud and muttering about who had left the cars on so they wouldn't start or who had broken the doors etc. when it was pretty clear that no one else ever came there let alone messed around with the cars. Needless to say, we didn't commit to anything right away.

After that singular experience we caught a ride with Laura and Annie to the other van we had looked at online. It had no picture online though but we were pleasantly amazed. This van was cherry red and had a huge heart painted in the back window. It has a leaky radiator and no power steering which makes it approximately 5 million times better than the previous vans. So we decided to buy it from Trevor and his wife (who clearly wears the pants in their relationship). He's replacing the radiator and we're picking it up tomorrow afternoon, christening it, and heading for the beach!!

This morning we took a ferry teeming with old people to Waiheke island off the coast of Auckland (don't ask us how to pronounce anything down here because it's definitely not ever how it looks). By 11 AM Magaret had seared the outline of her shirt onto her decollatage (she's a LADY, dammit!) and covered it in a horrible, chafing paste of sand and sunscreen while I accumulated a sun 'reaction' on my legs akin to the color of a boiled beet ("It's not really a burn, it's just a 'reaction'"). After a lot of supremely satisfied sighing, collecting shells and finding sweet tide pools and getting shrimp pedicures we set out for the nearest booze hole. This 'hole' happened to be a cluster of swank vineyards that were only slightly less packed with old people. The world-renowned Stonyridge vineyard had an ancient black english lab and some incredible Malbec all from grapes grown on the island but too many people so we walked over to the nearby Te Motu vineyard which is smaller, younger and didn't have too many people. There we experienced an awesome Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough and a small Jack Russel mix.


That's all for now, we need to go ice our sun reactions, sort our sea shells and repack our individual luggage explosions in our rooms.
Cheers,
Molly and Margaret.

P.S. we're considering getting mumus tomorrow to avoid more of this sort of daily self-roasting.