I drove!

Carly and I bought a vacuum on Trademe, the rough equivalent of eBay in New Zealand. We got a good deal on it (25$) but there was one catch. It was in Porirua. When you look at it on a map, it's about 20km away. NOTHING! you say. However, without a car, that's equivalent to a 15 minute bus ride to the train station, followed by waiting, followed by a 22 minute ride on the train, followed by more waiting, followed by another 10 minute bus ride. All told it was going to take about 90 minutes to get there, 90 minutes to get back on top of the hassle of wrestling a vacuum cleaner on public transit.

The other big factor was cost. Two people, 18$ each was a lot when you consider that we'd seen rental cars advertised for 29$. So we decided to go explore the world of rentals. Calling around we found a few that had cars on the lot, but the 29$ price was for a minimum 7 day rental. the daily price was 44$. Still, only 6 dollars more than the public transit option and it frees up the day with unlimited transportation!

Two problems of course, 1) gotta pay for gas. 1.72$ a litre is the going rate, so it has to be a small car. 2) I haven't driven right-hand-drive cars since 2005, and rarely in the city at all. This worried me quite a bit, because I've been having a lot of trouble adapting to this as a pedestrian.

So we arrive at the rental place (Rent-a-Bargain, think older cars, small lot, one guy working there) and pick out a Nissan Sunny. 100000km on the odometer. The nice thing is, we do all the paperwork, and there isn't any additional fees, insurance etc. tacked on. It's the price quoted.

A quick aside: New Zealand really isn't big on inflating the price after it's given. I'm not sure if there are laws against it or it's just culture, but when you see a price, that's what's coming out of your wallet. Tips are only done for exceptional service, taxes are included in the price, extras are typically shown upfront and only if they are truly optional. It means the cost of living looks to be higher, but when you go to the restaurant for example, and see a 25$ plate, you need to keep in mind that that there's 30% of tax and service tacked on there (i'm sure the fact that there's no tipping is a large part of why so few restaurants have "table service" and most places have you order at a counter before your food is brought to you)

Anyway, so we get in our car, and a few things happen. I screw up and reach over the wrong shoulder for my seat belt, i flick the wipers to signal left and i completely forget where the rear view mirror is. I was so busy reminding myself which side of the road i'm supposed to be on that the little muscle-memory tasks in driving were completely forgotten.

The rental place had put a bright yellow sticker on the dash that said "KEEP TO THE LEFT!" and i'm not ashamed to say that probably saved our life more than once.

Overall though, driving in Wellington a lot like driving in Montreal. Tight streets, people in a hurry but something you can easily get used to.

We took the time go explore a bunch of the suburbs we'd been wondering about but not had a chance to check out. Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Johnsonville, Porirua, Whitby all were done. Everything is rediculously close here. The hutts were knocked off almost immediately (nice, but no what we're looking for and too far) Whitby looked nice, but again very far from downtown. Porirua seems to have some very rough and very nice neighborhoods, it'd be a challenge to figure out where to go.

Johnsonville was actually a lot nicer than we expected. We'll have to go back and spend more time there.

All in all, it was a relatively uneventful trip... no driving down the wrong side of the street (done that before :P ) 1 close call when I was getting out of a mall and no honks. A success I believe.

Still don't want a car here though....