Warrant Of Fitness

Every 6 months every car owner in New Zealand has to go down to their local garage and get a Warrant of Fitness inspection. This is a fairly comprehensive look at the working status of all of the safety features on the car. By no means does this mean your car runs well, there's no oil change or tire rotation involved. Its simply a bi-annual safety check. There's about 40 boxes to tick, but generally, here's what they look at:

A Warrant of Fitness inspection includes the following safety checks:

• Tyre condition (including tread depth)
• Brake operation
• Structural condition (rust isn't allowed in certain key areas)
• Lights (are all bulbs working?)
• Glazing (is your windscreen safe?)
• Windscreen washers and wipers (do they work?)
• Doors (do they open and close safely?)
• Safety belts (must not be faded or damaged; buckles must work properly)
• Airbags (if fitted - SRS light should work correctly)
• Speedometer (must be working)
• Steering and suspension (must be safe and secure)
• Exhaust (there must be no leaks and the exhaust must not be too loud or too smoky)
• Fuel system (there must be no leaks)                                                         (source: www.vtnz.co.nz)

Today I went to get warrant on my Golf, making this my fifth time getting WOF done. We've gone through some cars during our short time in New Zealand! And since I have so much experience, my stomach gets all knotted up just thinking about it. So far, our past/present cars have failed 100% of the time. We've had to replace tires, brake pads, headlights. We've had to fix maladjusted doors and finicky indicator switches. Some would say this is just the joy of owning a car in New Zealand (ie: an old piece of junk). I don't get much joy.

For me it's like going to the dentist. You walk in with a sense of dread. You don't always take the best care of your car (teeth). Sometimes you forget to check your tire pressure (or floss). As you sit in the waiting room, you see everyone else waiting, tense, knowing bad news is likely on the way. Then it's your car's turn. It takes about 45 minutes, and just like at the dentist, the mechanics speak in a gibberish only they understand. To you, it sounds like this car is a failure. It fails on every level. Look how poorly it's been cared for. (You never floss, do you?).

They poke and prod at the car from all angles, jacking it way up in the air, putting it through some sort of brake check that appears to take 6 months off my recently expensive new brake pads. With every part of the inspection, my anxiety grows. There's so many ways my car can fail. If I had washed it before I brought it in, would the shiny paint make it look safer?

Then the man walks up to you, with his clipboard. If you've passed they just call your name, give the key back, and hand you your shiny new sticker which means 6 months of freedom on the open road. If he walks up to you with the clip board... dun, dun, duuuuuun. There's trouble. Dammit.

"One of your brake light bulbs is out", he says. I wait for the rest of the bad news. Surely that's not it. That's never it. 

"Ok......." I say.

"I can fix it", he says. 

"Yep, that's great!" I say, hoping he does it quickly before he notices the 10 epic catastrophes he must have somehow missed.

I can't believe it. This has been the best trip to the garage ever. I mean, technically I still failed- but the fix took 5 minutes and I got my shiny new sticker of freedom. No more WOF induced anxiety until April (for my car, anyways). It's like I got out of the dentist with my new toothbrush, no cavities, and only a slight scolding to floss more often. (I'm working on it Kerry, I swear!)

The downside to all of this is that 6 months from now I'm surely going to walk in with a false sense of security and BAM, they'll get me. 

Because a photo of the WOF garage is boring, here's recent views from our deck. It's starting to look like summer again!!!

Sunset over the estuary

An Expensive Week!

Ok, so awhile back I wrote a post about how it's not thaaaaaat expensive to live, or at least grocery shop, in New Zealand. Some days I feel like the entire universe (of New Zealand anyway) is working against me to disprove my theory that living here can be "affordable". Other days I feel like we're really getting the hang of budgeting our money here, and then something will happen.

Exhibit A: My cute new car.

Looks innocent, doesn't it? Runs great. Is easy-ish on petrol. How much could one little oil change cost? A BILLION DOLLARS roughly, when, oh by the way, rear brake pads must be changed (safety), oil and fuel filters must be changed (efficiency) and some sensors must be repaired (???).

Cost of an "Oil Change": One round trip ticket to Cairns, Australia

Exhibit B: Bringing my husband to the grocery store.

Being all geologist-y

He's cute, right? How much could he possibly eat, right? He eats everything. (He's totally going to protest being in this post, which is totally making me smirk right now...)

So I made the mistake of bringing him to New World, which is the sort of fancy-shmancy grocery store. I appreciated having the company, because grocery shopping is one of the chores I seriously loathe. No idea why- love to cook, love having the things from the grocery store... hate being there. But man, his company comes at a price! "Smoked salmon a little bit on sale!? Lets get two!...... Ooooooh, fancy beers!........ I need a new toothbrush. No, not the $3.99 one........ We need bacon........... Hey, what do you think orange flavored cranberries taste like?........ Life is too short to drink crappy wine." 

Haha, ok that last one was a joint effort, and I'm probably equally partially to blame for our grocery bill, which was well into double digits, or: One night at a 4.5 star resort in Cairns, Australia.

Exhibit C: A stupid foam roller.

I strained my back at Cross Fit doing dead lifts. Yep, I'm that person. Keep your back straight, they said... I know why now. Ow! I'll never do it wrong again. Anyways, remedy? Physiotherapy, deep tissue massage, chiropractics. Ha. Remedy for the non-wealthy? A foam roller. An expensive, blue cylindrical piece of pressed foam. These things are actually miracle workers though, and 3 days later my back is totally dialed in.

Cost: Snorkel and wetsuit rentals for 2 people for one day at the Great Barrier Reef.

Can you tell where we're planning our next vacation?

Bonus Expenditure:

Remember how I decided to reunite with running? Well, I have been using the same shoes for running, the gym, etc. for the last 3 years. Total no-no. I'm just really bad at shucking out triple digets for running shoes. So I decided to go to the local sports shoe spot and get some new shoes.

They did this whole sweet shoe study on me. I ran around their store and ran on a treadmill while they filmed my feet. Some techy foot software they've got diagnoses your running stride, and prescribes the appropriate shoe for you. So I got professionally fitted for the shoes pictured above. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a bit skeptical of the whole thing, mostly because I'm halfway through Born to Run, which all of you should read, which strongly supports barefoot running and rips apart the whole running shoe industry citing them as fraudulent and responsible for 99% of running injuries. (Run on sentence winner!)

Anyways, I bought the shoes. And some running pants, cuz guys... It's cold out there! So Happy Early Birthday to me... One more 4.5 star resort in Carins night later. Ugh.

When I got home I actually had minor buyers' remorse because I did the Internet Comparison. The Internet Comparison is something that no New Zealander, especially expats, should do. Ever. When you do the Internet Comparison, you'll find out that you could have got your Very Expensive NZ$ running shoes for Half As Much US$. This is painful. I actually thought about returning them and buying online. And then Scott told me, with no sugar coating, that I would be "a terrible human being".

A side story: Recently I asked Scott to remove Wilbur, a spider who has been living in the upper corner of our living room for approx. 4 months. We were having our first guests over for dinner and I really didn't feel that Wilbur needed to be a 5th wheel. Scott dutifully got up on the chair to scrape Wilbur, and his elaborate web, down. But then he noticed that Wilbur had really spent a lot of time making this web home. He had fly wings and bug parts carefully dissected and displayed around his web like trophies of his life accomplishments. Scott was so impressed by Wilbur's dedication to his craft, and thankful for the eradication of the flies, that he left the spider and web in the corner. Moral of the story? There's two: a) don't judge me if there's spiders in my house, it's Scott's fault. And b) he's obviously a way better human being than I am, and will judge me forever if I buy shoes off the internet.

Rainbow on a rainy day... nice change from sunrise?

In conclusion, my wallet is thankful that we have two full time jobs. I am thankful to have new brake pads because it's freaking pouring rain out there. And I'm lucky to have a husband who is 10x more morally sound than I am and can keep me in line. We'll just grow old together with no money and lots of spiders in our freezing home with our fancy bacon and rainbows.

The Bike Wife's New Ride!

When we arrived in New Zealand we had a massive to-do list. On day one, we got bank accounts, cell phones, and managed to stay awake until 9pm. I was pretty impressed. The first week was absolutely crazy, and we had limited funds for a car, but also very limited time with our rental. We made the decision to buy cheap at first, and replace later. So we bought the typical Kiwi car.

The typical Kiwi car must be at least 15 years old (ours is 22), must have extensive paint fade (check), is tiny (check) but has a tow hitch (check), and must have a ridiculous name (Subaru "Justy"... check)! Quirks and dents are a plus, and Justy has a lot of both. Who needs power steering? Not having power steering will save you on pesky gym fees. Who needs power anything actually? Windows? Seats? Not I! Who needs a functioning turn signal... which actually worked when we bought it but broke a week later? I don't need a working turn signal! Coincidentally, neither does my father. But moving on...

We actually became fond of Justy for awhile. Her quirks and squeaky tendencies were endearing... sort of. Once she got stuck on our steep driveway for a week and we thought we were gonna have to junk her. We were less fond of her then. But a mechanic and $75 turned her right again, and we kept her a month longer than expected.

Justy is actually 4WD, which Scott takes to mean despite her 22 year old suspension and lack of decent tires, she must be great at off-roading. He's taken some years off my life, and surely off Justy's too.

But the day finally came to replace little old Justy. I think I actually procrastinated a bit because I did end up sorta liking the old girl. She's slow, but reliable (except for that whole driveway incident). However, she is 22 years old. So something besides her turn signal has gotta go at some point. And frankly, I don't want to be around when it does. And she also doesn't have airbags. Even though I max her out at about 60km/hr (38mph), I still wish she was a little safer.

So after deliberating for weeks and weeks, I settled on the type of car that I wanted. But then all the newer (hah... new in NZ means newer than 1997) cars were more expensive. Well, patience pays off my friends. I found a car and got it for at least $1000 less than what it's worth. We bought it from a couple who are moving to Aussie in a weeks' time and had to let it go. I've been that person, not so long ago, so I didn't feel so bad about getting such a good price. Anyways, here she is, my new VW Golf!

Sorry about the crappy photo... our driveway is small

Ok, so obviously she's not new. She's 13 years old. But look at that paint! No fade! No dents! The interior isn't perfect, but it's darn nice. And I've never had a "colorful" car before. Black and grey have been my go to colors since I was 16. Look at this flashy gal!

So there you have it. I've upgraded and I'm not sorry. The stereo is amazing, the drive is so smooth, and the turn signal works! And... not only dual airbags, but side airbags! Now maybe I can go 100 kilometers per hour!! Doesn't that sound fast??!!!

It's 60mph.