to the roachmobile!

When we say roachmobile, we are not kidding.
It all started like this:

In New Zealand, the best way to travel is to get your own four wheels. Bus travel is like plane travel. The prices get higher the later you book and most places can't be accessed by train or bus at all. So no spontaneous trips.

So where to get a car?
The fastest option was the Backpacker's Car Market. When we got there, we looked clueless enough for a saleswoman to approach us. She explained, that they get no money out of a sale. Car owner have to pay for their car to be displayed there. So under no obligation to sell us anything she assured us with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude that her advice was in our best interest.

With no own experience we listened to her and got a Toyota Lucida. Other travelers said, that a van works best, cause you can sleep at the back. And Toyota Lucida is a very popular model, so the resell potential is huge.

Nervous and excited we drove off. The car worked fine, the seller got it checked and fixed for us. Radio works, gears change, windows roll down, hey, cool moonlight window!, glove-compartment.. eeeeaaaRGH! 3 Cockroaches inside!
Bleh, got rid of them.

But that was just the start. They kept coming and coming. When we peeled back the mats there were at least five! Oh man... it just didn't bode well. Why were there so many cockroaches and where were they coming from???

We searched more thoroughly. And found a nest. TWO cockroach nests.
It was like that frikkin movie "Joe's Appartment".

The neighbours were looking at us quite strangely, cause we've been screaming and vacuuming for HOURS. We counted at least 80...

During the drive to Gisborne we were luckily only attacked twice. It's quite the adrenaline-kick when a cockroach falls on you while driving!

So we sheppered the whole family to Gisborne. It became routine there to catch and dispose cockroaches before driving. When we got a gel bait, we at least found them unmoving. Easier to catch.

So finally after almost 2 Months we finally got rid of them. It was our theory, that there was a third nest in the air-con filter. They probably scattered when the mechanic last week had to disassemble the engine to fix something. Cause after that we found none in the car! We even dared to sleep in it once!

Yeah.
So that's the story of the roachmobile.
Makes you wonder what the previous owner did with that car...
For you to get the picture, I'll add a picture of the roach tank we took at the Auckland Museum.