Faith Jackson

It is Friday, January 26th and we are still in Napier. We would have left last week sometime but we ran into some car problems. Smokey Joe (our first car) broke down. In a twist of irony, Smokey Joe started to smoke and his head gasket blew. I seem to have bad luck with those head gaskets because this has happened to me with a few other cars. As the mechanic said, "It's buggered." We were disappointed to hear that of course, but it really couldn't have happened in a better town. The owners of the hostel where we are staying (Jackie and Terry) have been helping us out so much. They are such kind people and we are so lucky to have met them. Terry found us a car on trade-me for $600!! We went and bought it yesterday. It is pastel blue with fuzzy pink seat covers (they actually say "princess" on them). It is exactly what we were looking for. It only needs to get us around for a few more months. We named this new car a more positive name: Faith Jackson aka pinky aka princess. She is awesome. Although we have had so much fun and met so many great people here in Napier, it is almost time for us to move on. We will probably leave Sunday or Monday, depending on when we can catch the ferry to the south island and what not. This area is one the sunniest in NZ and the weather here has been amazing. The last few days were sunny and in the high 80's. It was down right hot and I think we all got a little sun burnt. So, this place is not only sunny, but it has great art deco architecture and the nicest people . I will miss it, and I think that it will always be a great memory for me. We are so lucky to be able to have experiences like this!