We're Off to See the Kiwizard...

Kia Ora, mates! That's New Zealandish for "¡Hey, buds!" We've really been rapidly immersing ourselves in the local customs and language, and once we come home, whenever that may be, you can expect a lot of "Well in New Zealand they say..." and "In New Zealand, it's considered insulting to..." and "In New Zealand, they arrested us just for..." and so on. 

So for those of you that don't know, Kelcy and Matt are in New Zealand!

Wellington Harbour

Many of you know that we had been pseudo-planning on coming this way for a while, but we didn't officially pull the trigger until just about three weeks before our departure date of December 3, but we did it, and now we're here on a working holiday visa for up to 12 months! We did about as much planning as was required to learn on which side of Australia we'd be when we arrived. At this point, we've determined with near-certainty that it's somewhere between Africa and Texas. 

In the current global zeitgeist, nearly everyone associates New Zealand with the Lord of the Rings. Well, as it turns out, this staggeringly beautiful country was not merely a locale for a film shoot. The events that were depicted in those epic masterpieces actually occurred here. We know...that sounds ridiculous. But just take a look at this safety video that we watched on our flight from San Francisco to Auckland.

Our in-flight magazine informed us that most of the actors in that video were from New Zealand. Do you notice anything peculiar about these folks? Like, that they're all elves, dwarves, wizards, and Smeagol? If that's not convincing enough, take a look at what we saw in the Wellington airport:

An ode to one of New Zealand's most tragic heroes. Plus, when we asked one of our flight attendants where he was headed after we landed, his reply was "I go to the hall of my forefathers, in whose mighty company I shall not now feel ashamed." Before we could ask him which island that was on, he was already asking the next aisle "Chicken or beef?" That's all we'll say about the matter.

Middle Earth's Embassy

So now for a summary of our travels so far. We flew out of Denver on December 3, connected through San Francisco, Auckland, and finally touched down for good in Wellington on the morning of December 5. Landing in Wellington was like paragliding into a hurricane inside a tornado inside a snow globe. We quickly learned the reason for the city's aptly earned moniker  "Windy Wellington."

Even though we both picked up a cold bug right before we left and were feeling kind of lousy, we pretty quickly got to business with all of the basics, like setting up a bank account, getting a phone, and all of that good stuff. But there was one more detail to take care of before we set off to explore: a vehicle. 

After some due diligence, we decided that it would be a worthwhile investment to have our own means of conveyance, so we did some homework, made some phone calls to private sellers, and then finally found what we thought would be our golden goose: a car auction. We found a company a little ways outside of Wellington that does weekly budget car auctions, and you can even preview which vehicles are going to be available. This was what were we waiting for; everything would be different after the car auction! Well, after a few hours of bus rides and a few missed stops, we arrived at the auction, drove a few of the cars we were interested in (or at least the ones that would start) and decided that we weren't going to buy anything. However, we'd come a long way for this, and we decided to stick around to enjoy the show. It was one of the best decisions either of us had ever made in our life. We don't know if car auctions in the US are accompanied by such gratuitous fanfare, but in New Zealand, it's a high octane, action packed spectacle. A whole lot of hand actions, showmanship, shouting, and swagger go into it, all without the bidders really doing or saying anything. The auctioneers rule the show. It's like watching 6 peacocks get into a knife fight with each other. It was awesome.

However, still being without a vehicle, we decided to hunker down and contact as many sellers as possible the next day, and by the end of it, we were the proud owners of a 1995 Subaru Legacy wagon, which, along with this blog, we've dubbed the Emerald Smaug, in tribute to the gold-hording dragon from The Hobbit, and also in honor of the dragon tramp-stamp that our carriage proudly displays over its hatchback. 

Purchasing and driving a vehicle in this country is easier than ordering a Big Mac, or so it seems so far. We haven't discounted the fact that we could be violating any number of traffic laws. Less easy is learning to drive from the passenger seat and on the left side of the road, but after living in a national park for several years, and spending every summer cursing all of the foreign drivers on the road who seem to have never seen the inside of a motor carriage before, we've learned that a little bit of ignorance goes a long way. 

Next up, it was time to load the car on the ferry and head for the south island, which is where we'll leave off for now. Look to the east, at first light on the third day, for our next blog update.