Post 13 - The end is the beginning
In the previous episodes, Yam was on his way to Auckland to sell his beloved Apa.
I arrived in Auckland, the big city, and began the task of arranging and cleaning the car, a task that I had postponed as much as possible. When the car was neat and clean, I began meeting with potential buyers, the few that were there. Because I had finished my trip to New Zealand at the end of the season, the number of travelers looking for a car was not large, and this was noticeable in the number of inquiries I received.
I set up an outpost in the parking lot of the Chabad Oakland House, and the sales team operated from there. On Sunday morning, I went to a car show in the city with the aim of finding a buyer. The experience was special in itself, with many sellers sitting in comfortable chairs next to their cars and hoping to find someone who would agree to pay their price. It was really nice and special. I connected with the neighboring sellers and we spent time pleasantly while the few interested ones browsed among the goods.
At some point, I decided to become Israeli and start interacting with the buyers. At that point my stress threshold wasn’t low given the fact that there really wasn’t much demand and maybe the sale would be harder than I thought.
“Hey, How are you? Do you want to hear a little about this beautiful Van?” I said and felt like an Israeli working in a car dealership in the US. I don’t know if that’s what worked, but I managed to get an interested audience. After a while, a cute Chilean couple arrived who expressed serious interest. They inspected the car and wanted it. I agreed to lower the price from 10,600 to 9,000 New Zealand dollars, a relatively large drop than I had hoped for, but in the end I preferred to sleep at night knowing that I wasn’t going to be stuck with the car. In addition, when you compare the decrease in value to the price it would have cost me to rent a van for three months, you realize that buying was still several orders of magnitude more economical.
We shook hands. All the other sellers, who hadn’t sold their cars yet, looked at me with great envy as I removed the price signs from the back door of the van.
It took a few days for the couple to transfer all the money, while in the meantime I walked around the city and its surroundings a bit and watched countless episodes of Friends. At the same time, a couple I met on the South Island also came to town to sell the car and we went to an ice hockey game together, which was very violent and fun. In addition, one evening I joined the chess club that meets at the Chabad house and enjoyed good games and interesting conversations.
One evening while watching another episode of Friends, I received a call from an Israeli number. I didn’t answer the call so as not to charge the caller the international call rate. After I hung up, I received another call, this time I answered and was happy to discover that a few thousand dollars were just waiting to rest in my account, what a nice surprise. Okay, let’s go! I agreed with Bernardo that we would meet tomorrow and hand over the car to them, I brought the flight to Australia forward to the next day and got down to the task of emptying the car of my personal belongings, a task that was not easy because my belongings were everywhere and also because it is difficult to leave home.
We met the next day, I explained to them about the van, how to arrange it, how to maintain it, how to drive it and I said goodbye to them and him with a wish for a safe journey.
Handing over the keys
Seconds before Australia dismantled the New Zealand team
From there I walked towards the city center, after a very long time suddenly feeling liberated on the one hand and stationary on the other. Now if I need to get somewhere I have to rely on my legs or alternatively on the public transport, not that it’s terrible but it’s different. The feeling of liberation was pleasant, the car thing is behind me, I don’t have to worry about it anymore.
I collected my things from the Chabad house and headed towards the airport.
On the flight to Melbourne I saw a friend I met on the South Island a few weeks ago and together as we waited for our bags we met a cute Jewish guy who offered us a ride to the city center. I arrived in the middle of the night at the hostel I booked from the airport, a bizarre hostel by all accounts, dirty and full of people who seemed strange to me (I think I was the only traveler among all the guests in the hostel and it seemed like they stayed there regularly). It’s okay, the strange hostel is another lesson in adaptation and recognizing what is good.
After a good night’s sleep, I woke up refreshed to explore the city. I walked around the city and went to the municipal library, which was the most impressive library I had ever seen, and then to an art museum, which was also impressive and interesting.
Melbourne State Library
Paintings from the 17th century
After two and a half days in the city, tomorrow morning I’m picking up a car from the airport and heading north! One of the travelers I met along the way recommended a website called transfercar that contains ads for rental car companies’ vehicles waiting to return home. For example, someone rented a car in Eilat and returned it in Tel Aviv, now the rental company is looking for someone to return the car from Tel Aviv to Eilat. This person is me, and instead of Eilat and Tel Aviv, we have Melbourne and Brisbane, two large cities in Australia, 1,700 km apart. I have about nine days in which I am going to travel this distance, with the plan being to stop along the way at beautiful places and see at least one kangaroo (the first six days are free and the three days I added will cost me about $35 per day).
At the very least, it will be an interesting experience and certainly the longest trip I have ever taken, and maybe I will.
When I moved to Australia, a feeling of freshness suddenly came over me. After a long time mastering the rules of the game, where to go, where to sleep, and how things work, I arrived in a new place where I am still a novice. However, the feeling is good and I am ready for Mrs. Australia to give me a boot camp on this road trip.
I hope that the time on the road will be a good opportunity to summarize the wonderful time in New Zealand.
Excited for what awaits me later in the journey, let’s get started!
Bye For now (-: