Campervan hunting/golf

Tuesday, 13th Feb
Today was a day of washing & shopping, and the first viewing of a camper van - something Karina and Luke have been intending to buy. Jim & I meet Luke at a dealership to view a 1993 Ford van - so, so old that it would never be on sale still in UK. But, all things considered, it was in decent condition and drove well. Later on Jim & Luke pick up Karina and go to see two other vans, another very old Ford and an old Toyota. The prices vary from $7,800 to $14,000 but that was before any haggling took place.
Karina starts a spreadsheet on camper vans because it is difficult to compare them

Wednesday, 14th February
After breakfast Jim took the first van to get a quote to make it "self contained". Over here it is illegal not to carry a toilet and a waste water unit. Expensive at $2,000 but can be included in the spreadsheet.
We go to play golf at 1pm at Russley Golf Course where we hired clubs far superior to the last ones we hired. We played pretty well with Jim getting 33 points and Tricia 35! It was very slow as there were several groups of Koreans both in front and behind us, and their etiquette left a lot to be desired. A bit like their driving apparently, where they can buy a licence in Korea then come over here and hire a car having never actually driven! It is a case for discussion in many newspapers as there are a lot of accidents.
After golf we meet Karina and Luke to view another camper van. This one is newer and in far better condition. The owners are Dutch and will not take an offer, so Karina and Luke will have to think about it.

Thursday, 15th February
We hear straight away that Karina and Luke bought the van on the site before going to sleep. They didn't want to risk losing it and, as it was on a live auction site, it would have certainly been snapped up over the weekend. Bas and Vivien, the Dutch couple, were thrilled and said they had felt Karina and Luke would be the new owners of their much loved van, and were very happy.
We took Courage (next door's dog ) for a long walk and are amazed at how new houses are still being built on the side of the cliff, where the risks of slippage seemed great. There is such a mix of houses here - really pretty old ones, ugly new ones, some huge with massive glass windows at every angle and some now with retaining walls in their gardens at 1metre thick, to prevent boulders coming down from the hills.
We have arranged to meet Zara Blake for supper with Karina and pick her from her university halls in Christchurch at 6.45pm. Karina had booked "Coriander" as she had heard it was good for vegetarians. It turned out to be an Indian restaurant but with veggie options and the main course plates were

huge, so a fair bit of wastage. It was great to see Zara as she was 13 when we last saw her and she kindly let us use her bedroom. Stupidly, we forgot to take her photo to show folks at home how grown up she now is and studying Psychology. When we took her back to her flat we saw that in the bar just across the road were hundreds of freshers out on the town, with plenty of music and activity on a very warm evening. Nice looking campus.