made it to Auckland this evening, catching an early flight to Sydney. we were able to get a used tire and they put it on in less than 5 min. this morning we were trying to drive up to the ski area, which is an inactive vulcano , however we didn't have snow tires and couldn't go up. i was determined to see and touch snow, so i was going to walk up the icy 6k road while Alyx was waiting in the car. I was on foot for 15 min when a car passed by and I held out my old hitch hiking thumb came out, how the car with the old couple didn't stop, with no surprise . amazingly after about 5 minutes the car came down the mountain and stopped. The woman in the car said that they usually dont pick up anyone , but they felt bad for me and drove me up the mountain and down again.:) thank you very much! I got my pix and ate some yellow snow that was there. not