Green with NZ: Sky Tower

Ron's a handsome bastard, isn't he?

On Sunday, for the relatively low price of NZ$2000, we welcomed the New Zealand Ron Burgundy, Anchorman (erm... Anchorcar) into our traveling family. Ron is a right-side drive 1992 Subaru Legacy with 146,000 kms (apparently low for a cheap car in NZ), and is as burgundy as the day is long. For backpackers touring New Zealand, naming one's car seems to be the thing to do. We quickly decided Legacy is a terrible name for a car, and thus Ron Burgundy was born. The only bad thing we can say about Ron so far is that he doesn't smell of rich mahogany, but we're on the lookout for an appropriate car freshener.

Becky and I may never have children, so for the time being, Ron may just have to do. After a less-than-thrilling trip to the Ellerslie Racecourse Car Market on Sunday morning, we instead accepted a delivery from the Verandahs car stork. Or to be exact, from Ken Thomas, Auckland mechanic/inspection agent/sometimes backpacker car dealer. Ken seems the rather quintessential New Zealand type - no-nonsense hard-worker with a penchant for shorter shorts than most people in the US would find decent (think Larry Bird in the early '80's) and little tolerance for dallying around. We are literally kicking ourselves now for not getting a snap with Ken.

Ron and Andrew look good - this is how we roll

We accomplished quite a bit on Sunday and Monday. Besides getting Ron, we opened a bank account (an 1.5 hr ordeal that is best unremembered), got car insurance, sent away for NZ tax ID numbers, and got a cell phone - 021 178 8755. Apparently we don't get charged for incoming calls, so call away. Remember, however, that we're 18 hrs into the future for those of you on the East Coast, and we can easily retaliate if you call at inappropriate hours of the night here...

Feeling rightfully accomplished, we visited Sky Tower, Auckland's answer to a landmark architectural feature, on Monday, our first day of nice weather in Auckland. Sky Tower boasts some great views of Auckland and the surrounding areas. As the self-proclaimed adventure sports capital of the world, one can ride the elevator, climb to the top, or do a bungee-style jump off the tower. We took the perfectly good elevator to the top.