Three Vehicles of Note

It would be churlish and ungrateful if this blog did not show a picture of the car we rented and in which we drove somewhere near 4,000 kilometres without the slightest problem. We rented it from a company called A2B, which specialized in renting older, well-used cars--we had quite a few dents and scrapes that were all charted before we left, and the odometer showed about 152,000 kms. Joan was in an art gallery, or taking photos of wall paintings, when I decided we needed a photo of the car. For anyone interested in architecture, the house in the background is typical of New Zealand houses. The roof is corrugated iron, and you can also see that the building on the right is mainly constructed of corrugated iron.
When we returned the car in pouring rain, a young man at the rental agency offered to drive us back to the hotel. When we got there, I tried to tip him, but he adamantly refused to take it, which I found rather admirable--and typically New Zealand.


This vehicle takes a bit of figuring out--but it is essentially a small house built onto a pick-up truck. Curtains on the windows, and at the rear--invisible--is a little porch with a couple of chairs. It was parked along beside the coastal path in New Plymouth, and it was clear that someone was living in it.

As you will have seen from previous blogs, I like tractors and odd vehicles, and I was delighted to come across this vehicle--an old steam-roller: though diesel, I presume. The photo does not capture the colour properly. It just sat by the road on Waiheke Island, and I assume that people were happy to have it there as a sort art object, as it must have been there for years. Its provenance is shown below.

Just thought I would throw these three in before we finish the blog--just a few more posts to go.

As a blizzard is now blowing across the Washington area, and we are house-bound, we might even finish today.