vedana.net

Bye Bye Delilah

I parted with Delilah today, my faithful NZ touring car. When I bought her February 23rd this year, she had 255,125 km on her odometer. When I took the ferry to the North Island on August 29th, the odometer read 264,002 km. Today when we parted for the last time, it read 268,164 km. The grand total: 13,039 km, 8877 km on the South Island and 4162 km on the North Island. The proportion is similar to the amount of time I spent on each island, roughly 6 months down South and 3 months up North. She was an awesome car, I never had a major problem, as I kept up with the preventive maintenance. Of course, this maintenance is required by law here in New Zealand, via the Warrant of Fitness program. Pretty sensible, eh?

You may be wondering what's next for Delilah? My girl Debbie Trimble (picture from when we traveled in Tunisia 12/1999) emailed me a few months ago that she was thinking about coming down to NZ soon to do some traveling. Naturally, I sent her all the encouragement I could muster, including advice that buying a car is the best way for independent travelers like her to see NZ. She totally out-of-the-blue proposed buying Delilah and I agreed, as long as we could find a place to leave her until Debbie arrives in December. That soon sorted itself out, and the deal was done. For her it means she gets a reliable, cared-for car as soon as she arrives in NZ, no bargaining with dodgy backpackers or worries about its condition, etc. For me it meant I didn't have to worry about selling the car, which is potentially heaps of hassle. I've heard stories of travelers driving their cars to the airport for their flights home, leaving the cars in the parking lot with the keys in the ignition, because it's cheaper than spending a week in Auckland trying to sell the car then taking a shuttle to the airport...

Thanks for doing business with me, Debs, you bought yerself a fine automobile, treat her well and she'll treat you well! She's got a great stereo, too! ;)