Author Archives: Kiwihobos

Tuesday; A bit of an odd day. We had a plan in place but as one knows plans always change. Cory is not working anymore so we change our day around to suit. We drop the trailer off to be signed off for the WOF. We get all prepared to go away packing blankets and strops. Once that is all done we drop Noodly off to have the WOF done and pick up the trailer. We load my old bike and a few other things into the trailer. This is going to be interesting. I hope Camele can handle a kitchen on this trailer. So far so good it handle the empty trailer fine. We head into Till St and do some last minute tidy up. It was a pretty easy going day, nothing major to do or be in a huge rush. We take Leona out for dinner as it is her birthday tomorrow. We end up at Scott’s Brewery which we haven’t been to in years. It was a really nice night. Rowan got a sour beer which he absolutely loved. He even got a bottle to takeaway. After dinner we decided to get some driving done rather than go back south. We got to Wainono Lagoon, which was a great spot to stay the night.

Wednesday; We have a few appointments today, on the road with the first being 7.30am in Darfield. Rowan is meeting up with Andy a friend he hasn’t seen in a while. Then off to AA Hornby to get a WOF for Camele. Waiting at the AA for that to be done to find we need a few things to be sorted for WOF. We book it all in for Monday next week. Then Rowan has a doctor’s appointment at 10am. I sit around in the camper and have a cuppa. It is a bit strange being in the city in the back of a camper. Rowan and I get some sushi for breakfast then head out to Waikuku Beach to see a motorbike that may work for me. The motorbike is alright but it is quite old and needs a bit of work. We continue on and get up to Kaikōura. A quick stop at the dump shop ends up a lot longer. It is really strange Camele won’t start but the light come on. We call AA and a guy comes out to get us going again. It isn’t a flat battery, the battery is good. But it may be a starter motor or alternator. We take it straight to the auto sparky who is unsure exactly what it is as it isn’t happening again. The only thing he can think of is the starter motor. The suggestion is to park on hills just in case we need to roll start. Well that is annoying, we make sure when we park up that we have signal to call AA. We end up at the Hapuku River for the night.

Thursday; Happy Birthday to my Dad! A beautiful sunrise and no need to rush today. Blenheim is on the cards and we op shop around until our friend Jase is available. We catch up with him before heading to Logan’s. We haven’t seen Logan since we left on our free wander. By the time that all happens it is 5pm, time to get to Picton to see Kate and James. Rowan hasn’t seen them since their wedding and I haven’t seen them ever. But heard lots about James, who went to John Paul College with Rowan. James is the deputy harbour master for Picton and moved over from London. Kate is still looking for work as a speech therapist. They have a wee boy Connor who is nearly two. We had a great dinner and we gave them my old bike.

Friday; Off to Nelson today with a quick stop at the Pelorus for an hour. A walk around the river while Rowan fossicks. A cold but beautiful start of the day. It doesn’t take us long to get the op shops done in Nelson. We end up at the Patisserie for lunch which is more breakfast for us. We head to Kelvin’s and hang out the rest of the afternoon and day with him. Kelvin cooked dinner for us. Paula and Millie are in Auckland so it is just us and Lucy.

Saturday; An early start of the day to pick up the kitchen. It takes a bit of planning but Rowan works out how it can all fit in. I only put the glass shelves and doors in the camper. Tony the guy we got it off helps us load it all in and then we get our large heavy tarpaulin to keep any potential rain off. Tony very kindly offers us to leave it here until we go back on Sunday. We were a bit late to the local carboot sale but that didn’t matter as we are not buying much. On the way back to Kelvin we stop at a salvage yard for a chandelier I want for the living room at Till St. Back to the French Patisserie for croque monsieur and baguettes for lunch. Rowan and I pack up the camper ready for tomorrow. We grab a bunch of antiques we have had at Kelvin which he sold quite a lot of it for us. We can’t take it all but we can at least take a bunch of it. In the near future we will come up with an empty trailer to bring it all back. We have Chinese for dinner and call it an early night. I am exhausted.

Sunday; Following Kelvin we headed to the Sunday Market and helped him set up. I ended up finding a Elis Kuappi ring which I was very happy with. It goes into my mid century Scandinavian jewellery collection. After the market we thought we better have one last lot of amazing French breakfast before going up the Aniseed River for a fossick. We headed out to Wakefield around lunchtime and got the trailer and of course a famous Wakefield pie before heading south. We want to get to the Lewis Pass tonight. We decide to get over the major part before finding a spot to sleep. The spot we were recommended was blocked off. We found a truck area and parked up there. Camele handled the weight of the trailer really well. She also hasn’t missed a beat since she decided to play up in Kaikōura.

Monday; On the road at 5.30am. We have to make it to the rust repairer by 8am so no time to dally. We make it in time and go for a walk around the city to waste some time. At 10am it still isn’t done so we wait around in the car park like cool kids

Tuesday; We have some paperwork to get underway. A quick stop at Till St so we know what plumbing we have and can look up the data sheets. Thanks to the lovely Leona we can come in and out of her office as much as we please. We get all our consent in order and I see Dave has messaged to tell us he will be at the house today. Perfect, we will get him to check what we have done before sending it off. Dave checks it through. We wait for Cory and Laura to arrive and get their tasks underway. Laura is painting up high and Cory is pulling down linings so the electrician can access it. They are multiplying! Two hedgehogs in my hole now. Well we will save these two and hopefully have no more. I later find out they are looking for water, if I put a bowl out they won’t go down the hole.

At the office we put in our consent and come back to work. I am outside with Laura doing prep and Rowan is inside helping Dave. The day goes pretty quick and we have a sense of accomplishment!

Wednesday; We remove the bikes of Camele hoping to bring in the trailer from the mechanic but the tow ball is the wrong size and the correct size is in Noodly! First we couldn’t remove the bikes because the key was in Noodly, which we now have, now this. Hopefully we get the ute back today. Paperwork to do, we get a new exterior interior to do list made. I also have a lot of bills to pay, there goes $7k. I feel like we are bleeding money. Before Dave comes back he has given us jobs to do. First is to use leveling compound for the toilet and shower. We try a bit of the bag to see how it goes and just start with the smaller of the two, the toilet. Rowan uses no more gaps to create a barrier, it works really well. We thought we may get Cory today if the weather packed it in and he couldn’t work. Well the Wild West Coast weather hasn’t got to us yet! I take the opportunity to clean and vacuum in Camele after all the building materials we put in her. Especially when we should get our ute back today. I also do a tidy up inside, the place is getting out of control again. Noodly is finally ready $2400 ouch. Today has become very expensive. I think this mirror will work for above the vanity, what do you think?

Thursday; With the ute back we bring in the trailer to get rid of some garbage! Cory fills up the ute and trailer and we take it out to the dump. Rowan and I almost climb to the top of the pile (about 7m) to rescue some carpet. Oh how the heart bleeds. There goes a few thousand dollars of Axminster carpet. We drop off the trailer to get some tyres as the ones on there are stuffed. When I get back I finally get to rescue these old nails that were at the bottom of the pile. Look at them! Handmade, blacksmith forged nails. A thing of beauty. I couldn’t let them be put in the bin, most of them broke but I saved 6! These make me really happy. The rain is coming tonight. I take the opportunity while it is dry to get rid of the dirt that is building up on the paths and the patio area.

Friday; Definitely a yucky day today. Pretty cold and we have jobs to do. Dave needs AP20 so we shall find some. It takes us hours. We get sent from one business to another and no one knows where we can get small amount. Finally we find the only place in Ōamaru that does. It is a total rip, you have to pay for a whole lot even though you can only take a little, but we need it. If you are wanting to start a business in Ōamaru, I can highly suggest a proper landscape supplier is a huge gap in the market. Once we got Cory on some jobs Rowan dropped me at AA to do my learners test and he went to pick up the trailer. It has been 20 years since I did my test. I practiced which I am glad I did as there are extra stupid questions in there now. The weirdest ones are mechanical questions like what causes your engine to seize? Also quite a few about what fines and demerits you get when you brake certain laws. Stupid! Any way I got one wrong and that was because I did it too fast and didn’t look at the question properly. With the yucky weather we got Cory to put up these doors we got for free along the wall in the garage. It continues the random theme of the studio room. The no more gaps was dry now so we could pour the concrete for the shower base. It turned out well, we did it in two pours.

Saturday; Today we have Cory and Presley. Up on the roof! There is a hole from where the old vent pipe was, that got fixed up. There was also a leak from a nail so Cory spent the morning making sure it was all good up there and then he did some exterior sanding. So close to painting, it takes a long time to prep and I want it done properly.

Sunday; A breezy morning, I applied my down time into writing last week’s blog. I was getting far behind. After a goodbye to Danny and a clean up we headed into Till St. It is a perfect day for painting but it really needs more work before we can carry on. Rowan wanted to check out a yacht to use as “garden art.” Really it would be more of another room at Herbert. It didn’t tickle my fancy but it is his project. Our problem is when would we have time to do anything with it! Well after lunch we got back to Herbert and I got some small things done. I organised the boxes of stuff at the front of the container and I finally planted some oregano and coriander. My potatoes are doing really well. We ended up watching a movie with our neighbours and I went straight to bed. Rowan made dinner, but I was happy to just get some sleep.

Monday; Strange day, everything was just tough. It is like someone drugged us. It was a struggle to get some work completed at Till St but we trucked along. Cory worked on the exterior prep and I played with levelling out the floor in the bathroom. I really enjoyed the process. All those years of watching my dad plaster really helped. Finally a few questions from the Otago Regional Council to answer. The reply from that is we will have a draft tomorrow. I hope that is good news! I think they will give us a bunch of conditions to work with, which is absolutely fine. When we got back to Herbert we went for our ride. It was pretty cold and I got up to 80km. The fastest I have gone so far. I am surprised my little moped could reach that high haha.

Tuesday; After our early morning routine we headed up to the cemetery to watch the sunrise. We are getting amazing sunrises at the moment. At Till Tony did the door frame and now we have an awesome lead light door to the bathroom. Well let’s hope no one is shy, you can see right in! I find it freeing and love the door like that. I carried on with filling any necessary bits on the weatherboards. Few borer holes and quite a lot of damage from the paint scraper tool we used where Cory used it too heavily in one spot. Rowan got on with the windows in the studio and workshop. I had to show the layout for the kitchen now the plumber is here.

Wednesday; Our plumber Dave came in to start working on the place. He got Rowan to dig down to the sewer pipe. Rowan costs a lot less than a plumber, so he can do the lackie work. Dave notices our drainage at the moment is not right, it goes uphill. So he needs to add a gully trap to rectify it. Fred points out to us that our new shower we got from our neighbour won’t fit. It is too tall! We need 2100mm and we only have 2050mm. Rowan played labourer all day and ran between Dave and Fred being their assistant. I stayed well out of the way prepping the exterior. I ended up doing some more painting as Ian next door is just not available to help. We found out today that we can go for building consent as soon as a truss design is back for our designer Brenda. Great news! Another conundrum we cannot fit the bath where I wanted it. I make a quick decision to move it outside. This is rather annoying I would have laid the bathroom out differently. Oh well, no point worrying about it now.

Thursday; Today Cory is here and Rowan gets him clearing the tool shed more so he can fix a wall and fix the windows. Then he moves onto getting the exterior wall clad with iron for the garage. Fred gets the walls plumb for the shower. This takes a while but he gets it done. He then works on a list of small annoying jobs we want done while we make sure our shower ordeal is fixed. Mico plumbing to the rescue, we have a shower coming and it will fit the area. We had a lot of running around to do this morning catching tradies and getting our application for the bathroom consent done. Because we are only adding a toilet and a gully trap we can get a discretionary consent which is much faster and easier to do. But they still need a lot of detail. Rowan and I spend the day running around like headless chicken, in and out getting things moving in the background. Or picking up materials for the workers.

Friday; Another morning of getting shit together before the workers arrive. We start organising for our trip north to get the kitchen. Camele needs a WOF and rowan needs to see his doctor, it has been three months already! I am due my 6 monthly blood tests. Talk about all go. Hopefully the rust repairs on our truck are done today. It was a pain picking up wood in our camper yesterday. Rowan’s big job is working out how to fix the leadlight door. It has a bow in it and we have been told to weigh it down to fix it! Fred has a list of jobs to do like… putting architraves in the dining room window, toilet window, main bedroom window. Lots of small jobs like that. I am back outside preparing the exterior. Rowan is on windows in the shed. By the end of the day I feel like we got a lot accomplished. Noodly is not ready. The ute still needs more rust work. I hear the dollar signs moving. The rust guy will be at work next week Wednesday to finish it off. We can’t drive it as he had to pull out some electrics to fix it.

Saturday; Happy Birthday Rowan! Ah yes my Rowan is a young age of 38! In Orari there is a Swapmeet, talk about good timing. The south Canterbury Swapmeet is always are around the time of Rowan’s birthday. I don’t think he would rather do anything else. It started at 8am and we wrote a list of building materials we needed. We ended up there for 6 hours. About 300 stalls and it was done in a way that really made it too long for most people. Two long rows which meant a lot of stall holders didn’t see the same numbers of people as it was too far. Well we went around and around a few times. It was great because we bumped into so many people we haven’t seen in a long time. The lovely Jase from Blenheim was there, who we promised to visit when we head north. Gerry and Margaret, our friends in Ōamaru had a stall. John and Maree who we had a stall next to in Ōamaru and we know through Leona also had a stall. We got to see a lot of dealers we haven’t seen in a long time from Christchurch. It was like a social gathering. I really wanted another clawfoot but no luck. Hopefully Jase has one for us. We did find some tapware and this amazing vintage wallpaper. What do you think? That for the bathroom?

On the way back we visited a few second hand shops and made our way back to Ōamaru. Rowan wanted burgerfuel for lunch so we had a very late lunch and just a small burger each. When we got to Herbert we had Thai curry for dinner. It took 3 supermarkets to find the right curry haha.

Sunday; Today is the day. I am nervous and a bit out of sorts. I have to go around a course a few times to show I can be a learner rider. Now this is what confuses me the most about getting a motorbike license. You can’t legally ride one (moped yes) but you have to be able to ride one to get your learners. I feel like we are missing a step here. I get you got to know because now you can legally ride on the road on your own. They expect you to know someone who is. A, willing to teach you. B, is willing to let you use their bike or let you bring a bike. C, willing to use their land to practice on. Anyway, it was an hour long. I thought there is no way I can pass this. He ran us through the 4 tracks we had to do. Indicate check mirrors etc. The corners are pretty tight and small. I am good at low speed riding so that doesn’t worry me. But the young guy Jayden is not. He is used to dirt bikes. So I can do the corners and Jayden can change gears more smoothly than me. So can we just mix together haha. I happened to be the first to try. Argh! Trevor said he was surprised I did so well on the first track. Well what a vote of confidence that is! Rowan and Jayden grandpa thought we both wouldn’t pass haha. I remember the pure shock I had when the instructor Trevor told us we have 13min left to practice before the test. I was terrified, Rowan said it was hilarious seeing my face. Rowan also worried as he knows my learning style and thought I might tell the instructor to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine!

Now the big test! I do the first one in first gear, that was easy the second one I forgot to indicate on the first corner. I yelled out to Trevor I forgot to indicate. He yelled, yes I know you don’t need to point out what you are doing wrong lol. On the third course I almost forgot to put my kickstand up. Thanks to Rowan who did a hand signal haha. On the last one I had to come to an emergency stop doing at least 20km. Well my back wheels skidded didn’t they. That is a big no no. Well my current bike has really bad rear brakes that mean I have to push quite far before they start to work. Well this bike has good brakes haha. I was allowed to get 16 things wrong with 2 major no nos. I got 10 so plenty of room for me to make more of a mess. I was sure I failed and was so surprised to hear I had passed haha. Jayden passed too, with 7 fails. Wahoo we did it. Definitely off for some gelato to celebrate! It took me hours to come down after all that anxiety. The gelato did help haha. We went into Till St to pick up stuff and then headed out to Herbert for the afternoon.

Monday; Into Leona’s office early we started working on our consent again. Looks like we need all the data sheets for the glues and pipes. That is a lot of paperwork! When we got to Till I found a small fella in our hole. So I got him out and put him down the road. Today we have Fred for the day which we were not expecting. So we got him onto a few jobs that we never got a chance to do. He finished off the framing for the bathroom door. Fixed the ceiling in the studio. Framed up the old window between the kitchen and bathroom for GIB. Lots of small jobs which we are thankful we don’t need to do. I get a message towards the end of the day, we have replaced the exhaust in Noodly. Awesome the exhaust repair place took the ute from the rust repair guys, fixed the exhaust and returned it for no extra cost. Bloody awesome. Laura came over and gave us a hand, I got her onto sanding. She works quickly and we need as much help as possible. I have loads of paint tins half full. So I mixed them together to minimise the paint tins. I still have too many. When we went to the dump shop I noticed a very yellow ring, which I thought was dress jewellery. I love yellow! I took a closer look and it is actually 9ct gold. $8 what a bargain. I have no idea if the stone is citrine, topaz or sapphire but it is gorgeous. I have added it to my collection. Back at Till, Fred got our job list complete, it has been great having the help. There is so much more done now but a daunting amount left to do! I have listed the shower for $500 on Facebook. I expect someone will haggle me down and we paid a little over $200 in beer for it.

Tuesday; Today we drop off ute to get a WOF and the rear shock fixed. Rowan just leaves the keys in the sun visor, we will use Camele for the next few days. Fred and Cory are working today. Cory gets onto replacing the old roof on the garage. Fred continues with the weatherboards down the south side and the front of the house. Then onto the floor holes in the dining area. The stuffed floorboards he pulls up must be original. They have hand forged square nails, made by a blacksmith! I am so excited by them, I will definitely pull them out and keep them. I attack the garden, I pull out all the plants I want to keep that I planted a few months ago. The weeds are out of control, it is easier to start again. Sorry I cannot remember what Rowan did, I need to get better at keeping notes. We ended up seeing Jimmy and Sylvia that afternoon. They are also renovating in Ngapara, a property they plan to leave the kids. I think they will end up living up there and use Herbert as more a getaway. It has incredible views and is very quiet.

Wednesday; After our usual early wake up routine we hang around until Vanessa’s is open. We haven’t been here in years and Jimmy keeps saying they make the best scrambled eggs. We want to go to the dump shop at 9am and we have no Cory today and Fred won’t be coming until the afternoon. It was a great scrambled eggs, well priced too. Once we wore off our welcome there, we headed down to the beach, there we got some paperwork done. After the tip shop we headed back to Herbert to get organised. We are meeting Brenda at 11.30am. Last night we had a brainwave, do we add an ensuite into the house for Plamerston? After our meeting with Brenda we quickly head to Till, Fred starts at 1pm. Fred removes the wall between the kitchen and the bathroom, more accurately makes a doorway. On advice from Brenda, Rowan and I pin down Tama and ask a few questions. We run around the rest of the afternoon, trying to figure out what an extra bathroom will costs us. Rowan and I discuss, how easy it is to get out of control. I can see why building blows up and costs double. It is all the “oh it is only an extra $5k.” But you do that several times and the costs go crazy. We come back and Fred is packing up. I am not sure he did enough for his time sheet but it is hard to know. Back at Placemakers again, we pick up a heat transfer for Till for a grand total of $50. There is also two letterboxes that are on clearance. These are $300 letterboxes for $30. Yay, more than happy with those. We hang around a bit longer as Dave the plumber is coming at 5pm. We get some guidance from him then head back to Herbert.

Thursday; The usual morning start, we head straight into the office to do some paperwork. We end up at Mitre10 talking kitchens for Till. I really want a good second hand one, it is much better value for the money. No Fred today but Cory is here. The weather is a bit pants. Cory finishes pulling off the ceiling. In the kitchen area there is great boards under the crappy coverings. I am going to leave them exposed and paint them up. With that gone the place feels much bigger and lighter. Now I need to work out what the layout of the kitchen should be. There is a kitchen in Nelson that will work, but is very far away. I don’t remember what Rowan and I did for the day. I do remember going to the supermarket and heading back to Herbert after Cory was done. Danny is coming for burgers on Mt Misery. We meet at Herbert. I take the opportunity to shower at Herbert. It is bloody freezing today. A definite cold front and it makes it rather windy and cold. We go up further so we have more shelter. I packed extra blankets to keep us warm.

Friday; Feeling tired with our early morning start and late night last night. We do our mandatory walk and go back to bed. We end up dozing until 7am. Cory and Presley are on demolition this morning. I stopped faffing and said take the walls off. I got a coat of Gonville on the bath tub. It is a very pretty aqua teal colour that works with the pedestal basin. I bite the bullet and buy the kitchen in Nelson. Mmm now to go get it? Will need to be in a week or two. Rowan is the plumber today, he turns off the water and caps off the various fittings so Cory can pull off the walls. I roll on some undercoat, I want to see how far I get in an hour. Ian next door is going to finish it off for me. We will be doing two undercoats, this first one will show up bits I have missed. the second coat will double seal it all and then we will do some top coats. Presley has a meltdown about his shoes, so ends up going off the job. Cory continues and I get him up high doing no more gaps. Then he finishes off screwing down the roof of the shed. Laura finally has a fridge and washing machine. We pick that up and I set a load on for early morning. We have done two underwear washes but let everything else pile up. I must have 5 loads to do.

Saturday; We have neglected paperwork for a few days. There are emails I need to reply to. First Till to put another load of washing on. Ian is starting around 9.30am and I want to get a few loads done. I also get a second coat on the bath tub. We leave Ian to it and head off to Herbert. I do a bit of organising by removing summer clothes that I don’t want in the camper and adding warm woolies. I thought we had too much clothing but it has been very handy using it all while having no washing machine. We hang up our overalls at Herbert and really don’t achieve much for the rest of the day. Definitely looking forward to some down time.

Sunday; A week away before I go for my learners motorcycle license. I am feeling comfortable enough that I hope it won’t be too tough. We have gone on a ride most days to make it feel more natural. The best part about that is I get various weather and conditions to practice in. Today we achieve sweet fuck all. (Sorry Nan). It is really good, I am hoping to go for our building consent soon. Which is making my brain hurt with all the paperwork and work at Till. A million jobs and a million decisions to make. I am surprised my head hasn’t exploded. Plus we have WOF stuff to think about for Noodly (ute). No today is to try quiet the mind. Which does but also doesn’t work.

Monday; I want to check out a few open homes in Palmerston so we make a day of it. A lovely breakfast of scrambled eggs at Vanessa’s starts our trip off. We head off on a tiki tour and go down some roads we have t been down yet. The weather is okay but hasn’t held us back. Out the back roads of Moeraki there are some cool cribs and beaches. Looks like they are owned by the iwi and are all leased properties. In Palmerston we pick the brains of a few agents. There is a brand new house that is 3 bed 1 bath and they are asking $595k. It is a new subdivision and it will have 6 neighbours. Which makes it piggy in the middle. I was curious to see what the feedback had been so far. The agent kept his cards close and didn’t give away much. I will call in a few weeks and see how it is going. I think the price point may be a little high but it will be great news for us if they get a price like that. We got back in the afternoon and relaxed before dinner. This week is going to be busy with lots of contractors on site!

Tuesday; 4am, now to conquer Herbert Hill. It takes 20min, google said 24min. We took two breaks to catch our breath. I feel unfit but I also am glad I haven’t lost all our fitness from the past year. Cory starts on the framing of the garage. Once he has completed that he can replace the roof iron. More paperwork, I won’t bore you with the details. Finally the Otago Regional Council has acknowledged our consent and will send us an invoice soon. I got a few house plants on clearance at Mitre10 for $5 each which I am stoked about. Leona has an early dinner with us as we finish of paperwork. We get her attention to ask about plywood kitchens, gas heating/cooking and polished concrete. It is a no to all three, plywood is not cool, people don’t like it. They want a shitty MDF kitchen that blows out if it gets wet. Looks like the people of Waitaki hate gas too. polished concrete, no, way to futuristic. I think we are too modern for the area. The buyers hate the idea of all the cool things we want to do. Oh but not the rainfall shower head, that is a feature they can get behind haha

Wednesday; No Cory today, we make the most of it by tracking down window companies and making them explain a better understanding of glazing. Vantage Oamaru has been the most helpful and they have also come in the cheapest. We have made all our bedroom windows bigger and we have gone for a great long feature window in the kitchen. Mmm I think I better show you some preliminary plans soon. Finally window shape and sizes and confirmed. Council sends us a bill which we pay straight away. Our morning walk was missed but we made up for it by heading down to the beach for a walk. A stunning day, heaps of seals around. Back at Herbert with a list of jobs to do. I completed painting the container and I did some more rust work on the trailer. Rowan sorted out the water container that Doug (neighbour) gave us. He water blasted it and tanked it. We end up at Jim & Sylvias for a few drinks in the late afternoon. This makes it a bit later than I want for dinner and bed time. Oh well, it is hard to be social and have a 7pm bedtime.

Thursday; A really full on day. Cory finished framing the garage, yay! I worked on the exterior prep work. Rowan helped me remove a few of the windows so I can fix them up. We didn’t notice damage on the inside of the frame and all the hinges had horrible screws. Which is annoying as the hinges themselves are brass and in good condition but the screws have failed. Rowan got onto some framing work. The jobs don’t seem to end. The light at the end of the tunnel cannot be seen. Rowan did a major overhaul inside, there was so much mess and stuff dumped in various spots. He did well putting it all back. Leona calls me to ask if I can help a client of hers with a laundry tub. Turns out the two we have are not quite right. Which is very unfortunate as she has been hunting for 18 months. I will keep an eye out for her while we are out at various tip shops. Talking of tip shops, the lovely Danny (works at Oamaru dump) eyed up a hay feeder, we want one and he wanted the other. So we made a deal, delivery for dinner. Tonight we pick them up and we take one to Danny’s place. He has a container home, fully off grid in Deborah, not far out of Oamaru. A late night, asleep by 11.30pm.

Friday; Oh, we feel that. Lack of sleep not so good. I drag myself out of bed, Herbert hill is very daunting. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. We planned to get into town to do some paperwork. Leona’s office is a lifesaver. We do a bunch of work then decide to hunt down some help at Placemakers. Well, this incredible sunrise distracts us and we head down to Holmes Wharf to watch. At pacemakers we are after weatherboards, not enough there. Off to Mitre10 and we ask if they are open on Monday (Otago Anniversary), yes they are. Perfect we will get them Monday. The young guns we are wanting to use for the bathroom reno are coming to help on Monday to do the weatherboards. Which I am very happy about. Cory is on the roof today, he is replacing all the iron. It is with second hand iron, the garage just needs to not leak. It really isn’t a long term solution. We would have yanked it down but if you wanted to build it again the council wouldn’t allow you to be that close to the boundary. After midday Fred arrives on our doorstep. Fred is a local handyman who said he was too busy to help us. A complete shame as he does all the renovation work for Sam and Luke who was bidding against us for this house. He is a carpenter and is very experienced in older homes. He was visiting Leona and asking if we still wanted help and she sent him to us. “I have two weeks available, do you still want help?” I tell him annoyingly we have asked for help with the weatherboards and they are coming Monday. However there are still heaps of jobs we want done. Rowan was a bit hesitant and I said wouldn’t you pay a few thousand right now to get some jobs off our plate? Once Fred left I started making a list for him to tackle. Not long after I get a message from the boys saying a friend has passed away so can the reschedule to Wednesday. I put them on hold because I would like to see how Fred gets on, on Monday.

Saturday; A Herbie day. Rowan attacks the water tank Doug (neighbour) gave us. It needs water blasting and tanking. I finish off painting the container and do the last bit of rust repairs to the trailer. I also give Camele a good clean. By 3pm I had had enough. We ended up over at Jimmy & Sylvia’s place and Rowan had quite a few drinks. I was adamant that I didn’t want to stay in Herbert and we talked about going away. So after I worked out where all the column shift gears are on Camele we were off! It was a stupid idea, but I am pig headed and I wanted to get away. We ended up getting pizza in town for dinner and ended up in Duntroon down on the Waitaki river side for the night. It was really late and the rain finally eased. Rowan wasn’t impressed by my late night push to go away haha

Sunday; Up for our morning walk as usual. We had a cuppa and got driving. We ended up watching the sunrise as we came through Omarama. We are heading past the turn off to Lake Oahu and going to get Salmon and dinner supplies. We go to the supermarket first in Twizel, then we go to both salmon shops. On the way Rowan notices a deer on the side of the road. We turn around to take a look. It has obviously been hit, must has been a truck as any normal car would be in a ditch. It is pretty fresh, so it can’t have happened long ago. Rowan took photos pretending he shot it with an air gun and sent it to his hunting friends to stir the pot. We ended up taking the antlers by sawing them off. When we arrived at Ohau we found a spot on the lakeside to camp up. We both ended up for a cold swim in the lake and then had a good hot shower to warm up. The lake was freezing, it took me ages to get in and I didn’t stay long. The wind picked up and it got quite nasty in the late afternoon and evening. I am glad we got in when we did. We both really enjoyed being away.

Monday; Up at 4am, the weather rocked us all night. We took a short walk and got ready to leave. our coffee to go this morning, we will drink as we drive. We have plenty of time to get to Till but we are actually heading to Herbert so we can swap cars and take the trailer in. Fred is working today, which is actually a public holiday for Otago. We get him onto the windows first. The hardware needs moving around and he is better off with the fiddly jobs. After that we get him to do the trim in the living area. There are several bits missing, which he easily fixes up and does a bloody good job of it. Then onto weatherboards. Rowan starts the demo in the bathroom area. Looks like when the roof was replaced they insulated the ceiling. Awesome, that is great! I am on more exterior prep. The day goes quick and I feel we have achieved a good amount of work. I am really happy to have the weatherboards done.

Tuesday; 9am plumber it is all go! Then Cory arrived and not longer after Laura saying she has her key. A few more loads and we get away to get some more paperwork done. It is good getting this all off our plate, we like the balls to be in other peoples courts otherwise we are the ones holding up progress! We set off to the Waitaki District Council to ask what we need to do for Till Street. Sounds like we may get away with a discretionary consent rather than a full building consent. At the St John’s op shop I found a very arty piece. Didn’t buy it, thought it would suit someone else more, haha. I honestly don’t know what we got done for the rest of the day, this week has turned into a blur. I do remember heading back to Laura’s to help her put her bed frame up. She needed our drill. Some ladies from the church and her mum came to pray and we quickly scampered with Nina so we didn’t get in the way.

Wednesday; Oh look, more paperwork!

We tried to track down Dave from Placemakers as we had a question about roofing types. We have gotten a lot of conflicting information. Looks like he won’t be around until tomorrow. We then hunt down Eugene at Mitre10 and ask the same question, he is unsure and says he will get back to us. Next we make an appointment to see Brenda our designer, she should be able to answer the question after all. We are not going to get any major answers today. Next on the firm up list is windows, no one wants to give us the hand holding we need. I think windows are a license to print money, I think they all decide this is what it costs me and I think these guys can afford this price. The lowest quotes have been around the $10k mark and the highest around $22k. Rowan fires off an email to all quotes we have received asking for a price breakdown. It is really hard to make decisions about size and design when we have no clue what makes double glazing cost x amount. Our windows need argon gas so they are low E and they also need to be thermally broken. They need a certain thermal rating, which is great. It gets cold here, there needs to be more efficient buildings. We are only 30 years behind places like the UK.

Thursday; A box covered by a black bag is sitting on our doorstep. At first I thought it was from Laura but then also thought she can’t afford to be giving thank you gifts. There is a box of beer, some chocolate and a card. It is from Alistair, Laura’s ex husband. A very long card offering payment for helping Laura and so on. Rowan and I wanted to give it all back with a card to say thank you for the gesture but it is completely unnecessary. We talked to Laura about it first to make sure we do as she wishes. She tells us to accept it but do not acknowledge it. Off to Placemakers to see if we can get the roof shape pinned down. Dave thinks our cheaper option will be hip. Which is rather annoying because when we asked this question back in December everyone said go monopitch. After a few emails we leave Leona’s office to meet Cory at the house. Cory is on sanding the weather boards. We set him up and head out to meet Brenda the designer. Brenda helps us with the roofline design, it turns out monopitch or skillion as some people call it is most costly. Then gable, then hip. Rowan and I are adamant to have a monopitch, this house is rather small and the height will make a huge difference to the feel of it. We have settled on flat ceilings in the bedrooms and bathroom, with traditional trusses. In the living/kitchen area there is an 8 degree pitch, giving us the height we desire. Before we lock it all in, let’s make sure we are not adding a huge amount of cost. We have said with each decision that we will take the most economical option. This often means the cheapest, however if it is a small extra cost to make it more liveable we will make that choice. We have given the green light for Brenda to move ahead, get this designed so we can apply for consent and get proper quotes for materials. There was an insulation check done by some company to see if our home complies. There is no room for underfloor insulation, but there is batts in the higher part of the house. Cory has finally completed the sanding.

Friday; Feeling exhausted, brain has turned into mush. It takes a lot of time and energy working out all of these small details. More paperwork, at least it feels rather good as each step we take makes it a lot closer to getting the consent done. Off to Placemakers to get an idea on what this roof design is going to cost. The cladding is a cost but not that large, of course the plaster board on the inside too, but not so bad that we are going to say no. I think our best option for cladding is Hardie cement weather boards. They are easy to install, come with a good warranty and reasonably priced. because we are going over 3 metres there is now a need for stronger walls, which costs about an extra $500 of wood. They will just double up the 2×4. There is need for special venting for the roof so moisture doesn’t get trapped and make the insulation damp. The roofing lady scares us at first with a, “oh, that is going to cost you.” Turns out it will cost us but not as much as you would think. An extra $1,500k, which is not bad. Sure if you were building a big home I can see how these costs could spiral out of control. By the time the day is complete, I am ready to switch my brain off house materials.

Saturday; Herbie day, well more of a day off. We read our books for most of the day and ignore our phones as much as possible. Cleared out the ute and put back only what we want in there. I started to go through some jewellery. I am torn between putting some effort in and selling it or just put it in a large box in the back of the container and worry about it in 10 years time. No conclusion yet! Part of me regrets getting our little place in Till Street. It is a cute cottage and I love it a lot, but it really is on the back burner which makes me feel a bit guilty. I am sure once we have the consent lodged it will get the attention it deserves.

Sunday; A hop, skip and a jump to Dunedin. A copper cistern came up on trademe for $100. Well worth it and some gorgeous lead light doors, six in fact. More than we need, but these never come up for sale. You see small amounts in doors but not a full door like these. While we are here we go to the op shops. Obviously not all of them but three are open today. We get lunch on our way out of town. Leaving at a reasonable hour and easily go to the two dump shops on the way back. We pick up a nice mid century chair for $2. Probably shouldn’t have got it as it is not something we need, but for the price who can complain. I will drop it off to an op shop if it is not useful.

Monday; New week, new start. To be clear 4am starts. Rowan suggested we go back to early mornings like we used to do. Brilliant idea, we will achieve a lot more and it will give us a much needed routine. Our first job at the pre crack of dawn is going for a walk. Not too far or long, but up the Herbert Hill to the cemetery. Or if we are somewhere else whatever we can find. Like today, we are up Mt Misery so we walk a bit further up and back. We got into leona’s office bright and early, 6.30am. I notice my first grey hair today, I have been wanting some white hairs for a long time. My sisters got them a decade or more ago and finally I join them. Is Rowan really stressing me out so much I am going grey? HAHA. Another day of paperwork, we have a bunch of responses about the breakdowns from glaziers. Only two have actually broken the quote down. The other 8 are telling me why they can’t do that. It shouldn’t be this hard but they sure don’t make it easy! Tama comes around after Cory has left for the day. We have a bunch of questions that we need to ask him. We also get an idea on what he is charging for labour $20k – $25k.

Tuesday; Feeling a bit one handed, I thought I would tackle cleaning the clawfoot bath up ready for painting. I started rust converting the feet then went on to the tub. As I attacked it with a wire brush and then started painting on the rust converter I noticed a label. Ooo fancy, this is a Royal Doulton bath, how cool. The lovely Leona comes around to chat about house layouts. I wanted to put an internal door into the toilet, making it an inside loo instead of outside. We ended up scrapping that idea. But now after another few weeks of feedback from everyone, looks like an exterior loo is not a good idea and we would be stupid not to change it. So we will add a toilet to the bathroom giving us two toilets. My poor Rowan has never dealt with extreme changes very well ends up a bit of a zombie for the rest of the day. He agrees it is for the best but it hits him like a ton of bricks. Cory is working on the shed fixing up any rotten bits and replacing them. Rowan is helping a bit. I also am a bit lost as what do we do next? Obviously plumbers and builders are now needed. I call around then end up sorting screws and tools out with my limited hand uses. That afternoon we contact the Otago Regional Council to see what we need to do for a resource consent for our earthworks. I point out that there are definitely homes in the area built close to the stormwater drain. Fingers crossed it isn’t as scary as our surveyor thinks it can be. The silliest thing is this is a pre application application, to determine if it is going to be easy or not. It will cost us for them to give us advice. The cheapest employee at the council is an admin at $150 per hour. It is a bit ridiculous, but it needs to be done. You may get a giggle out of our email subject line!

Wednesday; We are spending the day at Herbert and Cory is coming out. Cory has the task of clearing around the fence line which takes a long time. It probably hasn’t been done in a few decades. Rowan helps me take the door cards off the ute, so I can treat some rust. It didn’t come up in our last warrant but I noticed it. So it has been on my list for 6 months! I convert the rust do a small amount of bogging and then paint it all. I don’t get the last lot of clear coat on before the day ends. I also get a good start on the last three sides of the container. First up is rust converting them. There is quite a lot of rust in the door area, which I want done really well. I have a small amount of time to start painting. I get one coat on the rear. Rowan works on calling more plumbers and builders to help with Till. Everyone is so busy it really is hard to find tradies. We go up Mt Misery for the night and get a spectacular show! What a wonderful sunset.

Thursday; The sun rises and puts on another good show. We are off to Herbert today and we hope to hear back from the Otago Regional Council (ORC). I want to get the painting completed. But also my Camele is so dirty, I can’t see out of the windows. When we fill up water at the hall, I give her a good scrub. Much better! Rowan gets our two concrete troughs and puts them in place. When I get back down I put a clear coat on the ute. Rowan waits for it to dry before putting the door cards back on. We hear from ORC and it looks like the application should be pretty simple. No need to inform iwi, shouldn’t need lots of fancy expensive consultants. Yay for good news! While I paint the container Rowan gets the twin axel trailer and fixes the wiring so it can pass a WOF. Today is so hot, I am having to paint quickly. Rowan gets the wheel bearings off before I get a chance to finish the first coat on the doors. Off to town to get some new bearings and some lunch. In town I tell Rowan let’s take our time, then the heat of the day may pass before I continue to paint. We owe Jimmy a lot of beer, he has a brand new shower we can use for Till Street. We load up the back with eight cases. Once back I get as far as putting the second coat on two sides before I run out of steam. “I am over it,” I say, beer and done. The container looks a lot tidier all painted up.

Friday; A very special Nana is 93 today! Happy Birthday Nana! My Nan is amazing at 93, she drives (even long distances), she emails, she has good health, she loves independently, she has all her marbles, she is always there for everyone in the family. Nan you are one amazing Nana! Now I hear she is going to get on a plane to Australia which she hasn’t done in a long time.

On a mission to get started on the resource consent. We need to do a sediment plan, or do we get someone to make one? Questions for our surveyor. At Till Street, I get some washing on and water our plants. There is quite a few bits of paperwork I would like done today. Our neighbour comes in and checks we are still on to be support while she looks at a rental. She is going through a separation and needs a home for her and the three kids. We make plans to have lunch together before we go to the open home. Washing now on the line we head to Leona’s office to do some paperwork. We don’t get far with chatty Linda distracting us. Then off to lunch, we have subway down at the waterfront park. As we head off to the open home, we stop in at Leona’s and she has a friend who has a short term rental. The house is not suitable and she is feeling desperate. So I look into the short term for her and we do a drive by to check it out. It will be good for her to be able to get out and gives her time to shop around for a more suitable rental rather than just taking any old thing. I know the owner Maree and I chat on the phone and let her know the situation. I pass on their details to my neighbour so she can take it from there. Back at the office to get some work done, Rowan helps Leona with a spreadsheet. We need to be back at Till by 4pm for a plumber who is taking a look at the house. We do that and pack up to go home. We end up at our neighbours place chatting and have dinner with her and the kids. I decided we are not working tomorrow, tomorrow is a day off!

Saturday; Day off and I am in the container organising clothing. We both have so much clothing. More than necessary. I must have at least 20 items of merino alone. Today is not the day to get rid of it, I will just collate it and we will leave that mission for another time. We hadn’t planned food wise how we are having a day off so we jump on Rowan’s bike and head into town. We go to The Galley Cafe, which is on the waterfront. Haven’t been there before, being a Saturday it is pretty busy. From there we go to the supermarket for supplies for dinner. Tomorrow we will be getting stuck into paperwork. When we get back to Herbert I go for my ride and then we take Camele up Mt Misery. The container still needs more paint and eventually I would like to paint flowers on there, but let’s see if I can find the time. The rest of the day was exactly that, restful. I had a chance to hundreds and thousands Rowan’s feet!

Sunday; Paperwork day, three forms, one cover letter and a sediment and erosion plan. Luckily our surveyor gave us an example of a sediment plan. Talk about lost! We filled out as much as possible and asked him to check it out for us before we try finish it up and send it through to the regional council.

Monday; Dirk who we met in Paihia when we were hiking the Te Araroa sent me a message, he has his photos in the NZ Geographic. They are quite beautiful. We got into Leona’s office and did some more paperwork. Then headed to meet Cory at the house. The roses we cut right down are already starting to bloom again! A bit after 10am Laura came over and said she was ready to start moving. It must have been about 5 ute and trailer loads as well as her car. We are just putting it all in the garage and tomorrow when she has the keys we will bring stuff like beds. We had her friend Nina also helping, who sounds like has helped her move several times. Near 2pm we stopped to get some Subway for lunch. Then did one last load. Cory finished Sanding at 2pm. The day has gone so well set off to do paperwork at Leona’s. We finally completed our resource consent application and sent it off to be checked. We stopped to meet a builder and a plumber in the late afternoon before going back to the office. We ended up having pizza with Leona for dinner and didn’t get out of the office until 8pm. It is going to be a big week!

Tuesday; We took our time packing up to drive back to Herbert. Our stay did not feel long enough in some ways but felt like it was in others. I definitely feel more relaxed. On our way out of town we lay down the wild flowers plus a lot of tiger lilies we got on the roadside on Leona’s family graves. Both graves were in good tidy condition, but it is nice to add some flowers for them. Looks like my flu was a quick 24hr one and now I just have a blocked nose. Our first stop at Gore op shops and then Balclutha. We arrived at Taieri Mouth around lunchtime. We had a few things to pick up from a trademe seller. We ended up with quite a few things. The main reason was I got a cool old butlers sink which I hope to use in the kitchen at Till Street. I got it for a whopping $100, what a bargain. Rowan also got a whole lot of building supplies from him and a sturdy stainless steel shelf for $40. I got a few decorative iron items for a song too. When we finally hit the road again it was pretty late. Herbert arrival around 6pm and still had to unpack. By the time we had dinner got organised we were pretty tuckered. Tomorrow Cory will be working and we plan to be at Till all day.

Wednesday; Off plan we go. Cory didn’t end up working as he had a few jobs he wanted to tick off first. I checked on my plants and watered them etc. At 11am Rowan and I had a meeting with James and Ryan from Survey Waitaki. First a quick stop at Placemakers to talk kitchens with Shannon. Our quote from them is cheaper than Mitre10 plus they are built for you. No fafing with flat pack is always a bonus. I still can’t believe we pay so much for kitchens when they are made out of crap that doesn’t last. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the old solid wood kitchens of the past.

We got a few questions answered by Ryan and James, they are helping us with the Otago Regional Council, seeing if we need any extra consents. Ryan is going to draw up a couple of quick 3D rendering to make it easier to explain. Rowan and I lost our stamina after that. It is pointless trying to work through as you won’t achieve anything. We ended up back at Herbert where we went for a motorbike ride and got more organised for tomorrow. I have been taking my bike for a spin each day. I still let the clutch out too fast. My brain can’t compute hand is clutch haha.

Thursday; I got a job done today I have wanted to do for weeks. I shined up the copper cistern, it was incredibly thick with patina and it took such a long time. My hands absolutely ached. It is full of dings and is in no way brand new, I didn’t want to get it all the way back just in case it looked stupid. I like it so far, once it is installed I may shine it further. Rowan tackled the toilet and put GIB up on the inside. We have decided to get the toilet done, wow a large room completed haha. But we shall see, it is a secondary job. Rowan also tackled the windows, we made the decision to not bother for the shed and just use polycarbonate. The studio and workshop also need a lot of window or glass replacement. Outside is more important right now. The weather has already gotten colder and who knows how many paint days are in our future. Cory attacked the outside with the paint stripper the whole south wall is now complete. The neighbour popped over to ask if they can put a sign on our lawn as they are selling their house. Well we have across the street, two doors down and now behind us for sale. Maybe we are scarring them off. The one down the hill sold in a matter of weeks so that is a good sign for our neighbours behind us and I hope they get a fast sale. They put an offer on another house subject to sale of their house. Now what to do with my garden, the weeds have taken over and I feel like they won’t stop. I have painted on some weed killer and tried to avoid my plants. I guess we will see how that goes.

Friday; huge achievement from Cory, he got the front completed. Our house looks like a naked baby animal. Rowan and I worked as a team today, we fixed the GIB in place (we had no screws yesterday). We found some old wood around the place and did the frame on the inside of the window. We haven’t got a clue what to put on the edge of the GIB as the door gets in the way but we will work it out. We installed the main bedroom lead light window. That has been a big job we have avoided. Rowan picked up some roof flashing new from Placemakers. It worked perfectly, together the roof is now looking flash. Ba dom domp. We finally dropped our washing machine off to get repaired, it has been a job we have needed to do for weeks now. All in all we got a good amount achieved. Our new goal each week is to spend at least two days at Till one day at Herbert and the rest of the week is a mix of a day off and paperwork. I am hoping this balances us out a bit better. Jim popped in at Till and wants to borrow our trailer to get his digger to Ngapara. Not a problem but there is a bunch of iron on it. Rowan gives him the key and he says he will get the iron off wherever we want. I think he is doing us a favour not the other way around.

Saturday; Our day is to be at Herbert and it started off quite well. We headed into the Hampden dump shop and got quite a bit of building materials. We got back and had another coffee when Gerry and Margaret arrived. I think they thought we were still in bed. Well I had jumped back into bed to read my book and drink my coffee. Also we are in the habit of taking off our dirty dungarees so we don’t make our house dirty haha. It was really nice to see them both. Margaret had some veges for a community swap at Maheno. Unfortunately the date was wrong, but also fortunately because we got the veges haha. I divided them up with Sylvia and Jim next door. Rowan found an awesome Catherine Holm preserving pot on Facebook but we will get it next week. Our neighbour Laura called me for a favour to pick up a bed for her. So we came into Ōamaru to help her out and ended up picking up the large pot too. Rowan said our day at Herbert hasn’t really happened so we should spend tomorrow there too. So I spent the rest of the day sorting jewellery and reading my book. It was wonderful haha. Rowan made us a table out of stuff we got for free! Perfect for us to use. The chairs were also free! Here is a funny for you. Rowan went to cook dinner and ended up with half frozen mince all over the bed. Luckily it was his side of the bed haha. It was so funny, I had just begun to chop the lovely beans Margaret had left us, and plonk! It was everywhere. I guess the sheets need changing. I don’t care if they are stained, it is not a big deal at all. Kind of annoying having to change the sheets though haha

Sunday; a slow and easy start today. Rowan definitely did more than me around the property yesterday so today I should pick my game up. I planted a whole heap of tiger lily bulbis and bulbs. Apparently they can take a few years to come out but hopefully they do. I really wanted to sort out Camele a bit more. I have dumped stuff in her that doesn’t belong so I got to taking all that out. Then I attacked the container. Now that we have those wardrobe shelves and drawers I may as well use them. I put all our extra woolies in there and then I methodically took all the crap we dumped and put it in its rightful place. It took some time but now we have heaps of room in the container. I hope to actually organise the shelves properly next day at Herbert. Rowan loaded up all the building materials into the trailer and he cleared a whole heap of space. Then he took it to the other side of the land where we want to keep it easy to access, but well out of the way. All packed for Monday, we headed off in Camele for a late lunch at Kiwiana Kai. We ate at the beach then headed up the hill to our favourite spot and stayed there the night. We sat and talked about tomorrow’s game plan and I wrote us a list. I am feeling all relaxed and ready for tomorrow.

Monday; Cory started on the back, two small walls and she is all stripped! He got that done and started on fixing up the garage walls. I started working on the bathroom, removing fixtures and I found that the hinges were all rusted out. As I looked through our stock pile I found someone used the bible or something like that to pack out their windows. I have heard of people using the bible for insulation. I got all organised and I went to plug in the orbital sander and it was turned on. It started falling and my instincts was to catch it. Ouch! Rowan came to my rescue pretty fast. It cut quite deep in between my pinky finger. Rowan said we should go to the hospital. So I quickly wrapped it up in the cleanest cloth I could find. The adrenaline ran through me and I struggled to breathe for a while and felt very light headed. I am surprised I didn’t lose my stomach. A nurse cleaned it all up and ended up giving me a tetanus shot. I can’t remember the last time I had one, maybe as a kid? Nearly two hours later we were out of there. What an idiot I am, I think Rowan doesn’t trust me with power tools anymore. Back at the house it is pack up and home time. We pick up some free ornate trim that a fella is giving away. Then I get a message from a carpet layer that he can come now. So we head back to the house to meet him. Then another guy says between 6pm and 6.30pm. I guess we are here for a bit longer. We fill in our time by going to Leona’s office to do paperwork. Instead we chat and redesign our bathroom and kitchen at Till Street. I think we need a plumber now. By the time we meet the next tradie who is late and have dinner in town we get home near 9pm. What a day! My hand aches a little bit it really isn’t too bad.

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!

Tuesday; Sorry fans no exciting renovations happening this week.

Today we convoyed into Till, I took the ute and Rowan came in on the motorbike. We had a load of things to take back and I wanted to get some washing on before we headed out to Waimate. Rowan found a cheap helmet for me that had barely been used. The helmet the neighbour had lent me is unfortunately giving me a huge allergic reaction. It started on my forehead and then down the sides of my face. We drop in to the two op shops on our way in and on our way out we go to the Waimate Bakery. It is more like a fancy bakery come cafe, heaps of seating inside and out. They are finally doing some work to the old arcade in Waimate. I can’t wait to see it all done, I have had dreams of owning it. I think I want to collect cool buildings next instead of antiques haha. We had a few jobs in Ōamaru to do, by the time we went to do some work at Leona’s office it was the afternoon. We came in to work and ended up chatting for a few hours haha. With a bit more warmth left in the day we raced back to Herbert and I got up on the container to paint. Rowan finished the flashing. It was after 6pm when I finished up there.

Rowan and I got a message from Shirley, our friend we met in Paihia. By the time we decided to have dinner with her and meet up it was past 7pm. I started looking for fish and chips, everywhere is closed of course haha. So we ask her where she is staying and I tell her not to set up for the night but to stay put we will come to her. We get to All Day Bay a freedom camping spot and it is packed! Which is a bit insane as you can freedom camp all along this coastline, but everyone stays packed in like sardines in this one spot! I give her a quick hug and tell her quietly to follow us, we don’t need everyone following. Our favourite spot is available. We park up have a drink or two. Rowan makes a pasta dish and we sit outside and eat while the sun goes down. It is about 11pm before we all go off to bed.

Wednesday; An early start to the day. We picked up the oven we couldn’t get last week Monday and decided it was worth an op shop around. I got a new hair trimmer thing, I haven’t had anyone cut my hair since my mum last did it. I have done it myself since then, I may need to get Rowan onto it soon. From there we did an op shop around but was done rather early. We wanted to hit the Waikouaiti and Palmerston Dumps. We were really early so we took the scenic back route to Waikouaiti. I found lots of picture frames which I have been on the hunt for. There is a bit of a special project in mind for Till. We caught up with our friend Liz and Palmerston. We meet her years ago when she was in Ōamaru. I ended up on the phone to another friend Robyn from around the same time who had a place in Hampden. From there we went to see our new neighbours Dianne and Trevor and exchange phone numbers. We haven’t had a chance to tell them our plans for the land yet. It is a really hot day and we got back to Herbert around 5pm. An early night tonight!

Thursday; A rather boring day to write about. Not much excitement to report. We did work on our house plans and spent a lot of time with Mitre10 talking about layouts.

Friday; More paperwork but we got some good progress, we have locked in our bathroom design and are at 80% for our kitchen design. Building a new house takes up a lot more mental space than renovations. We got on top of our tradies and tried to lockdown some more quotes. Jimmy came over with his big tractor and lifted up the trailer for me. Now I can paint the bottom of it with ease. Also an entertaining photo of some bad parking hehe

Saturday; Jim wants his tractor back this afternoon so I got onto rust converting and painting it. Rowan puts up a couple of yacht sails to give us more shelter. We make room in our container for another load from Christchurch. We want to pick up the large cabinets we used to have in our walk in wardrobe. I plant some Māori potatoes that Robin at the tip shop gave me to try.

Sunday; An early drive to Christchurch, we leave by 6am and first stop at a guys place who is giving away a bunch of stuff. He is doing up a hoarders house too. I feel much better about ours after I hear he has removed 29 large skip bins and still has more to go! From there we went to a market that happens once a month. I ended up with a few house plants and Rowan found a few trinkets. We took it easy coming up but arrived at lunchtime. We headed straight into Edgewater to pick up my second motorbike. I don’t like the first one he got me so I asked for another one haha. This one will be much much easier for me to learn on. First of all it is light, I can touch the ground and it is a moped so I can drive it on my car license. I will get my motorbike license though. I am much happier with this one. After we went to fill up all the leftover space from the storage unit. We got to Rick and Liz’s by 5pm. Liz cooked an awesome dinner per usual. It was really nice seeing them. It sounds like they had a nice holiday.

Monday; We got up early to head to where our gypsy truck is stored. I hoped to give Billy some money but he wasn’t there. We grabbed a few more things to make the baskets full. From there we headed out towards the airport to pick up Shirley, she is getting a WOF on her car. We had a lovely breakfast at the Raeward Cafe and Shirley was very kind to shout us. I came across a well carved whale tale with a koru in it. I thought of Shirley and gifted it to her. It is nice to have a wee souvenir. Next time we see her we will most likely be in Scotland! On our way back we op shopped in Ashburton but in Timaru we went back to the house with the free stuff and chatted to the owner. We wanted to make sure whatever we wanted he is okay with it going. We chatted to Bill for some time and plan to come back tomorrow as our load is pretty full already! Back at Herbert at a reasonable hour but with a lot to do. It doesn’t take us that long to unload it all. That will be our last load until we get more storage.