The saying “if it sounds too good it’s probably true” has more meaning to me today than ever. So, my friend and I were presented with a sweet deal. A 1989 Mazda 121 fun top and we had bargained the price down to $500NZD from $1000NZD. There were only 200,000kms and the soft top still retracted. This deal was cheaper then renting a car for the month while we are in New Zealand. We test drove it for four days, taking it around the city and for hill climbs to make sure it was mountain safe, I installed a new stereo head unit, we just got roof racks and changed the oil, it was a dream. That is until we were leaving Christchurch this morning.
About 30kms from where we were staying we were driving around a round about; clutch in, gear down to second, clutch out and instant squealing noise. It was so loud and abrupt that we stopped the car immediately. With a quick diagnostics our conclusion was that the clutch had burned out, the car seemed to scream when we let out the clutch but was fine when the clutch was in. Two things were for sure, we needed a mechanic to take a look at the car and we were not going to make it back down to Wanaka today.
My wingman, Ryan, went on a reconnaissance mission to find that nearest garage and shortly returned with the information of a garage about 2km from our location. As we are both athletes we decided that pushing the car for that distance was no big deal, there was also the fact that a tow truck would be at least $100. We pushed that car for about 4kms before we were rescued by my good friend and host, Graham.
Graham, being the good soul that he is, got a tow strap, called his mechanic and towed us with his Honda Legend to the shop. Alistair at Summit 4WD was awesome. He had that car up on a lift and was ripping it apart within an hour. When we got back to Waikuku he was already calling us. “Katie” he said “I’ve got two pieces of news…it’s not the clutch, that is fine. It’s actually the gearbox. Now we don’t have one, but we are looking for a second hand one now. I’m just going to warn you, we might not find one until tomorrow”. Just hearing that made my heart sink, what was suppose to be an easier route was turning out to be a nightmare. The problem was that we were already paying for a place in Wanaka, my coach was flying in tomorrow and I was suppose to meet with the realtor today to work out details for the place. This was costing time and money we were not comfortable spending. My stress levels were on the rise.
I had to stop, take a few breaths, think of a clam blue ocean and remind myself that these stresses are minimal to those who are starving or dying out there in the world; you know to put things into perspective. I did feel a bit better. The mechanic called back 30mins later to tell me that they had found one for $300, he could do the labor for $350 and we could be on the road for tomorrow morning. I felt so much better.
Now we will see how the Fun Top runs with the new gearbox and if we can sell it at the end of our stay here for some of the money we dumped into the car. I feel so tired tonight, like I had a huge workout at the gym, although pushing a car for 4km might do that to you. The worst part was the stress I was causing myself but it was a good reminder that stress is self inflected and not worth the ware on my body and mind. As a result, today I am taking on the new saying of “don’t sweat the petty, pet the sweaty”, realizing that there are many factors out of my control, stressing about these is redundant.
Tomorrow is a new day, things will come together and I get to go snowboarding soon.
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