Recovered!

Horray!!!
Our beloved car (I forgot to mention that we named it "Kiwi") has been found. Apparently the thief was finished with it by the day after it was taken, but the place where it was left was a parking lot that belonged to several different businesses, and no one wanted to take action. After four days, the employess of Mitre 10 (a business very similar to our Home Depot in Canada) finally contacted the Wellington police. The police notified us immedite via an e-mail ...that went straight into my junk folder where it sat for another 3 days :S . We were finally alerted of a change when Courtney's mom looked up the liscence plate and found it registered as "not stolen". We found it funny that it wasn't listed as "found", but rather "not stolen", so we went to the Blenheim police station, (we were in the town for a week waiting for our employment to begin) where they notified us that the car was recovered. Yay!

So off we went again across the inter-islander ferry yet again to go claim our prize. What we found was both relieving and dissappointing.

The Good:

• The car was relatively intact, and in near-drivable condition. We had feared that it would be nearly destroyed.
• Some of our cooking supplies were still inside, along with the matress we were sleeping on.
• The theif left our sleeping bags, stuff sacks, and Courtney's camel-back inside.

The Bad:

• To get the car started, the thief had to smash open the steering colum and rip out the ignition switch. He accidentally destroyed the right-side signal level and combination switch in the process.
• When he fiddled around with the wiring to start the car, he shorted somehting out, causing the alternator to fail.
• the combined cost of repair was $799.25
• The towing and impound fees came to a total of $200
• The vast majority of everything we owned was still gone:
• $1000's worth of camping gear, including our backpacks
• All of the electronics, save for Courtney's iPod (me missed it because it was underneath the passengers seat
• Our food
• Our giant suitace of clothing, toiletries, and accessories.

But we have our freedom back! Now we just need to recover financially, haha.