We arrived on site and Murray was already there. Rowan tried to say hi, he refused and didn’t reply. Oh great what an awesome day we have shared of us. I had decided this is not my problem and I am not getting involved. I got him a spade when he asked but I stayed well away. I did some tax receipts in the car and just avoided the area. Rowan helped when asked said he said all of 10 sentences to him all morning. There was a lot of anger and swearing going on. I had no sympathy, he can only be angry at himself. It is not like it failed by a small margin, there needs to be 100mm all over for the concrete. The worst part was only 65mm, which would mean the plastic bar chairs that hold the mesh in the middle of the concrete would be above and sticking out.

He left in a huff, mumbling bye. Raced off with his van rear open. Rowan and I were surprised nothing fell out. The site was left a mess, none of the bar chairs were put back in and all the dirt on the edges would mean this will surely fail tomorrow’s inspection.

Rowan and I left Palmerston and headed for Herbert, we went into town and waited for Tama to get home so we could chat with him about moving forward from here. After our talk Murray is not to be the lead builder on site, Tama will send us one of the other guys in the new year. Murray is allowed to work on site but he is just to be assisting and not in charge. We don’t hold anything against him, I just don’t need someone who has cost us more money than necessary and not been guiding us in the right direction. He has had a “not my job, not my problem.” Attitude and this has caused more work and more money from us and other tradies.

Wednesday morning, Rowan and I go down early to clean up Murray’s mess. I am not happy about it, he shouldn’t have left yesterday until it was all done. The inspector comes at 10am and it is one who is a bit tougher, Gordon. Tama comes to help out and make sure it passes. There is concrete trucks (3), the pump guy Willy and the concrete placers all on hold until it is signed off. It took me a good hour to remove all the dirt around the ring of the foundation. It must be done in order to get the next load of concrete to stick.

We get signed off just as the concrete teams arrive and 20min later the first concrete truck is here. It all goes pretty smoothly after that. All these guys know what they are doing and they get the job done well. The concrete placers have to wait for the concrete to set hard enough to stand on and then they can use these hover machines to tighten it all up. We go as the start the first one. I want to be all organised so after we finish our job in the morning we can leave.

We are back to cut the concrete to avoid cracks in the slab. There are is four cuts to make, two on each house. Unfortunately the water isn’t working as our hose has an attachment with a release valve. we make a lot of noise and a lot of dust for an early hour of the morning. We get out of Palmerston after 9am. By the time we change vehicles, do our last minute errands, we leave Ōamaru near lunchtime.

It is dry the further north we go. They haven’t been getting the regular rain that we have been. There was a fire taking over a whole farm north or Dunsandel. They had to close the highway for a while but when we went through they were working on it further back from the road.

We made it to the Conway River just south of Kaikōura.

Off to Blenheim to meet Kate. We have a quick hello, and leave her to do her errands. We will meet back at her place in Picton later.

Rowan and I have a sniff around the op shops and get food for dinner tonight. It is prefect bbq weather. Trying to stay cool is the hardest part. I am living in dresses now to try stay cool.

It was a very chill weekend. We really didn’t do much, which is exactly what we needed to start our holiday. I helped out and fixed a damaged wall. It took a couple of layers of plaster and trying my best to match the colour. I think it was pretty bang on however the paint is older so matching it is never going to be perfect. We had a good catch up with Kate & James. had a swim to cool off. It is really warm at the moment. I hope my plants survive while we are away.

North Island here we come. We didn’t really think about how long the ferry takes and was pretty hungry when we arrived around lunchtime. Rowan and I spent the rest of the day attempting to get the camper a wheel alignment and see if our tyres are okay. They are quite bald on the inside at the front. Apparently towing heavy loads can make that happen. By the time we get to Whanganui, it is nearly 5pm and we rush around without any luck. It is hard to find a place because of the camper body makes it hard for the machines to attach to the wheels. We end up at Castlecliff in a freedom camping area for the night. It starts to bucket down, the rain is incredibly heavy. Last picture is my Christmas decoration from our neighbours Jim & Silvija. Isn’t it awesome!