Sometimes we are just insane

Husband has a thing about all things mechanical while I prefer animals. We are in complete agreement about the horsetruck since it has an animal use but being of a mechanical nature allows husband to play with it whenever the inclination strikes. And it's a good wee truck, very reliable but a bit underpowered so painfully sslllloooowww uphill.

With that in mind husband consulted local truck expert bloke who told him what bigger motor would fit into little truck without major alterations. The motor in question is relatively common in vans. So they worked through all the incidentals and decided the best way forward was to repower the truck.

Then the local wrecking yard advised that they wanted $3000 for a motor (no fitting for that, and a very limited warranty). Seemed a bit pricey. In fact if you are in the right place at the right time you can get a registered and warranted van of the correct model for that sort of money.

So it occured to us that in Auckland where rust never sleeps in cars there must be somewhere a van that had failed a warrant of fitness with rust issues but still had a perfectly good motor. And if we could just find it someone would sell it to us for not very much (if they didn't realise the local wrecker wanted so much for motors). So before Christmas we put an ad in the Auckland Trade and Exchange newspaper along the lines of van wanted - must be the turbo diesel model and have a good motor, all else irrelevant.

We didn't expect a lot of response really but you never know and it is an ongoing project so there was no rush. Interestingly we got two calls, one from a chauvanist character that when getting me on the phone demanded to speak to a man about it. I advised him that he could talk to me and he promptly tried to sell me a non turbo motor for $1000 on the grounds that it was a better motor anyway (not true according to experts consulted) and we could add a turbo to it (also not true). I said no thanks and he rang back later and tried the same sell on husband - and got the same answer though he added along the way that he wasn't sure if the motor was any good anyway! Yeah right - best he wait until the next idiot comes along... Then on Christmas Eve we got another call - this was a tidy van with a good motor but the van wasn't going as the transmission had died and there was also a small issue with some diesel milage being owed and no rego for quite some time so it was no longer economical to put it back on the road. Sounded perfect. And he wanted $750 for the whole van. The only small hitch was it was parked up in Northland - Manganui in fact.

So we did some blase calculations based on the last time we went north for a look. And we decided - it isn't far from home to Auckland, and Whangarei isn't far after Auckland and Manganui isn't far after that. So we decided to go and have a look. This we did yesterday, arriving at 1.30pm after an early start. And it was a very good van with a very good motor. Though it took a bit of time to get it going since it was out of diesel after sitting so long. So we bought it. And here's where the insane bit comes in - we thought we would tow it home. Not a biggie, we thought, we had the big tough Safari, if it can tow horsefloats and caravans a van would be a piece of cake. Yeah right.

Do you know how many hills there are in Northland? Neither do I but I do know there are a lot. Not only are there hills you notice as you travel over them there are hills that you would never notice unless you are trying to haul a dead van up them. Or that while we might be travelling quite well at 90 to 100 km an hour when not struggling uphill but when you pull down to let the traffic through you can lose 10 minutes. We got back to Orewa at 6.30 pm and the van brakes (which luckily worked) were smoking from the last downhill which was starting to get scary. There were also a lot of policecars on the road and when you are doing something slightly illegal (towing an unregistered unwarranted van) you get a bit nervous and I was losing fingernails at a fast rate.

Anyway we made it down the motorway, over the bridge and into the BP garage on the way south without too many dramas. At least we could stop worrying about letting the traffic past. But by the time we got there it was getting dark and the remainder of the trip didn't look like much fun in the dark.

Went to Mackers to contemplate. And had a rather weird experience. Ordered and paid for some deli rolls. Girl on the till fluffs around getting drinks and fries and comes back and says the deli roll machine is broken and we can't have any. OK (but darn) we'll have some chicken royales with that instead. Okay she says, That will be (however much it was for the Chicken Royales - full price) do you want a refund on the deli rolls then? Umm heellllo! I paid for them you aren't going to give them to me would you think I would want my money back? No of course not - perhaps you would like to keep it... I must be really tired... am I supposed to wait until tomorrow and hope your deli roll machine works again then? My coffee will be cold... "Yes I would like a refund," This seemed to utterly disconcert her so she managed to mess the whole order up badly and had to fix it. (what is so hard about two chicken burgers one small and one large fries, a coke and a coffee ffs).

It was all a bit much. So we abandoned the van and went home. Actually the nice BP supervisor let us park it in clear view of the service station, as he said if we left it out the back someone might steal it (good luck to them is all I can say!). Husband has got a car trailer and gone back this morning to get it. I haven't got the energy. And I am sick of the sight of that road.