In to Christchurch we march, hell bent to make it without something else going wrong. Erica’s uncle has a place we hope to stay at to refresh ourselves and use as a base. It’s well worth the effort because this is an incredibly nice house with all the utilities running, waiting for us; or anyone for that matter. We buy some beer and rent a stack of DVDs, going back to the house to play a couple games of pool, watch movies and drink.

After taking it back to Midas I hop online and put ads out on all the sites I can find: Gumtree, TradeMe, Craigslist and more. The dinging was a hub put back on loose, fixed free of charge. Within a couple days people are emailing me about it. A couple more days go by and someone is actually here looking at it. He crawls all around it and makes me nervous that he will see what a piece of crap it really is. We go on a long drive. He makes an offer of $8,000 and I refuse it. After all, we spent $11,500 purchasing it. I tell him I’ll go to ten and he leaves to think about it. I call him back and tell him my financial adviser has authorized nine five. He comes back at $9,250 and it’s over. The Bedford is out of our lives, and we didn’t even have to burn it!

Cash in hand we go out looking for a replacement ride. I’ve done my research on Consumer Reports (New Zealand edition) and Top Gear. I had recently heard about this show from the UK when my mother sent me this video. They are their version of Click and Clack and might even be a little funnier. We wind up with a 1997 Honda Accord wagon and only paid 7 grand for it, with all registration and other licensing included. With the dual cam VTEC in it, we could probably tow the Bedford.