Car GPS System

Bought myself a Navman iCN 330, their low-cost model. That means no bell and whistles, but it works a treat for me. It has voice instructions, a 3D moving map, a list of route instructions, and a route summary. It will take me to my desired destination either by the fastest route or the shortest route, but I can't set 'via' points. So if I want to avoid mountains and steep climbs, I can't actually set it to go via a different route =( .But ah well, I've kinda fixed that problem by breaking up a long trip into several stopping points.

The reason I bought myself a GPS system is because I'm taking a trip to Nelson in January. And I'm driving by myself! ARRGHHH! When my friend Agnes asked me if I wanted to go with her to Nelson to do some sightseeing around the Abel Tasman, I thought, sure why not. It would be just like the trip we took to Queenstown. Who knew she would already be on the West Coast and making her way to Nelson from there, so she expected me to get to Nelson on my own. *sob* I'm the worst kinda traveller/driver ever, how to get to Nelson on my own, I ask you? So anyhoo, one evening while attending sunset mass with my parents, I was still wracking my brain trying to figure out a solution to this dilemma of mine, when *bam* I suddenly thought of GPS SYSTEM!! What a fucking brilliant idea Tash! I couldn't even wait to get home, I immediately texted Ben (he's back from Welly for good, he's finished his Bachelor of Construction (in Quantity Surveying) ) to search for affordable GPS systems. No way was my broke ass going to fork out hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

As it turns out I did end up spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars anyway. But a very reasonable hundreds of dollars. THREE hundred dollars (plus plus heheh). Let's face it, there's no way you can get GPS systems for less than that, ok? Anyway Ben found this item on TradeMe, so he put in an autobid, and then I went online to Dick Smith electronics and found out it was going for only slightly more than our maximum bid, cos it was a clearance product. And I'd rather buy it NEW! There was only one left in the store, so it was a nailbiting 24 hours while I waited for the TradeMe seller to cancel our bid before hauling my ass to Dick Smith with Ben in tow.

We got there and there were none in the display cabinet! My heart dropped! So we asked the sales guy, he said there's one at the back of the store, it's a returned product. So he brought it out and said it's a replacement cos the previous owner broke it. Uggh. Then he said it's actually brand new cos the old one didn't work, so the only thing missing is the windscreen mount cos the previous owner broke it. Uggh. He said he would give me 30 dollars off, and he would charge me 330 dollars. I said OKAY WRAP IT UP! So we tested it on the way home, stupid Ben was laughing at it the whole time: " In 500m, turn right. Turn right. Turn right! Make a U-Turn!" Wateva lah! It was just trying to get us on a different route than what Ben was directing me on.

But anyway I LOVE it. I just need to find some sorta mount for it. Cos I can't keep leaving it on the car seat next to me. Cos I sometimes need to see the map on it even though I normally just listen to the voice instructions. It doesn't read out street names, just 'turn right ahead'.

So there you have the story of my GPS system. May I make it to Nelson (and back) safely.