Tuesday; till first Timaru bricks and troughs write off

Rowan woke up feeling sick. He has a flu of some sort. We headed into Till Street to drop off a few items from Christchurch and I checked on plants. From there we took the double axel trailer up to Timaru and back to Bills place. We got a couple of concrete troughs that we will plant out in herbs at Herbert. We got some cool bricks and Rowan even got an old 60s scooter he wants to use as garden art haha. It took us longer than it should as we are both exhausted and Rowan had too many beers last night with Jim. When we got back to Herbert we were both struggling. The rest of the afternoon was spent pottering around but we really didn’t aim to achieve anything.

Wednesday; First thing meeting out in Windsor with Brenda from Apex Home Design. We came to her to talk about our house plans and she was very helpful. Between her and the surveyor I am now feeling confident. Cory is at Till today, carrying on the paint stripping the weatherboards. Rowan and I tidy up around the place. I sort all my plants out as we don’t plan to be here for a week. We end up setting a meeting with the surveyors in town for tomorrow morning so we will be back. When we get back to Herbert I do a quick rust convert on the back end of the container so I can paint it tomorrow.

Thursday; I get the container painted prior to heading in for our meeting it only takes me 5min as it is a small area. We head into town to get a few last minute jobs done before we head away. Rowan wants to go to Mitre10 for some parts for a shower he is building. Our meeting goes on for about an hour and a half. Looks like we need to rethink a few things and a roadblock we were hoping would not come has. But realistically we thought it was highly possible. Not to worry we just have to design slightly different. We need to measure a manhole and work out how deep a sewer is. A tomorrow morning problem at this point. We don’t get back to Herbert till mid afternoon. Rowan starts on his shower while I pack to go away. I stop to help him once but he manages the rest on his own. By the time I get all organised Rowan has completed his job. We now have a proper place to shower and we can park our camper in a much better location.

Friday; Packed up and ready to go. I decided it was worth a bit of a longer drive to get there via Queenstown. On our way through Palmerston we measured the sewer drain depth. This was easy to do as we could see the pipe from the nearby bridge. The surveyor was hoping for at least 800mm turns out we have more like 1.2m so the fall will be more than ample. Yay for good news. Inland we go, we reach Alexandra around 10am. We find a window repair place, on our way through road works a truck gave us a gift and a small crack has magically appeared. Rowan doesn’t want it to get worse. While that was being done we had some brunch. It was good but very rich, it felt like the owners are French. Ninety five dollars later we have a fixed window. Off to the three op shops, where we found little. Then off to Cromwell. There is only one op shop on Cromwell. When we reached Queenstown we did a super market shop. Not sure exactly what the cooking set up is but we know there is no supermarkets near by. We did the few Queenstown op shops and had a fergburger by the lake for lunch. There are still lots of people around. We headed out of town and had a swim in the lake. Rowan got fully in, I just half got in. It really cooled us down. We arrived in Ohai about 5pm. It is a cute tiny home that has been made out of recycled items. This is home for four nights.

Saturday; The bed was amazing, it will be hard to leave that mattress behind. Off exploring, we have been around this area a long time before but we haven’t seen all of it. We found a limestone cave, that we will definitely come back and do. The beautiful suspension bridge in Clifden. I made Rowan drive me all the way to Lake Hauroko which is one end of the Dusky Track. It was wet and wonderful, makes me want a boat. We almost went up to the big Tōtara forest but decided to leave it for another time. When we got to the sausage capital (Tuatapere) we had a late breakfast more lunch. Then off to Blue Cliffs and right to the end of the road Rowallan. We rock hounded on Gemstone Beach for a good hour or more. The weather changed so we got back in the car and headed back to Ohai. Rowan cooked a great meal. Annoyingly it is too warm for a fire, but we lit one anyway haha.

Sunday; Happy Birthday to Me! I got up and started making a cuppa then realised there is two huge bunches of flowers in the kitchen. I didn’t put my glasses on and walked straight past them haha. Rowan found me a heart shaped rock on the beach, he picked lots of wild flowers because the shop in Nightcaps don’t sell any flowers. He said their selection of chocolate and flowers wasn’t great but he did his best. I prefer the hand picked flowers to be honest. He got really shitty at me when he said he was getting “tomatoes” from the shops and I said I will come too. Gosh Kate let a man do a nice thing lol.

The weather is too nice to stay in and read a book all day. So we head off towards Te Anau. I don’t think we will make it all the way to Milford Sound. We take the recommended scenic route and end up at Lake Monowai. Another beautiful Fiordland lake, there is a fair bit of exploring we can do here too, looks like another on the list to come back to. We meet some Mangawhai motorcyclists on a 14 day journey at a lookout. We follow the to Lake Manapouri for breakfast. I haven’t been out here for well over 10 years. I thought I was 20 when I did Doubtful Sound but I think I was actually 16! That is a long time ago. We had a nice breakfast and then headed to Te Anau. The lakes were all beautiful. I can’t believe how busy and how many new homes there are in Te Anau. I really shouldn’t be surprised as it is so beautiful. I want to chill in Ohai so we head back and I eat some cake. Rowan cooks me an Argentinian meal. It was a prefect day. Thank you to everyone for your messages x

Monday; Another nice day. I was hoping for foul weather to stay in my cosy hut. No the weatherman thinks I should be out and about. We head in to Invercargill to op shop. We spend the day looking for goodies. We found a bit of gold and a few other cool items but nothing that exciting. It was really fun, we head back to reality tomorrow. I have started feeling sick, maybe the same thing Rowan has just had. Why couldn’t we have had it at the same time? Very annoying. Before heading back we do a quick supermarket shop. I have a nice long shower (the shower here is fantastic). I start packing up again. It has been really nice staying here but I really do think it is easier to take Camele. No unpacking and packing!