A Dodgy Deal

After only four days in New Zealand, we have a house.

After picking out a caravan that would suit us best at Wood’s Caravans, we decided to checkout another “van” as caravans are called here, to make sure we were getting a decent deal. I found one on trademe.co.nz. That’s the New Zealand craigslist.org. A guy named ‘Dodgy’ Rodger was selling English caravans like the one’s at Wood’s, but from his house just outside Auckland. Amy’s was concerned that he was likely to live up to his name, but after looking around his vans, we made him an offer. He came down $1 000 off the list price, so we gave him $800 deposit and told him we would phone him when we were ready to pick it up. It’s a 4-berth camper with shower, toilet, small fridge, oven and stove. We liked the layout because the kids have bunks on the opposite end to where our bed is. We can pull their curtain after they’re asleep and have some time alone.

Now we have to buy a car. We’re renting one from a bloke who has a mechanic shop and also rents cars. There aren’t many diesel sedans in New Zealand, and we don’t want a huge car. We will need something that can pull a light caravan though. I test-drove a Land Rover, but it was too nice for what we need a car for.

Back to trademe.co.nz to look some more.