Author Archives: Kiwihobos

Tuesday; This week we are ignoring Till as much as possible. Herbie needs some attention and we have grand plans for what we want to do. But the land needs some attention in order to get there. The council berm has a lot of convovulous that is taking over our fences and growing happily nearly everywhere. I want to get it under control before planting. I spray all the areas I have to but I avoid spraying on our actual land as this stuff is designed to stay in the soil for months. Which means if I try to plant a fruit tree where I have sprayed I will most likely kill it. Rowan takes back all the macrocarpa hedging so we can park the camper close and we can build a little side shelter on the container. The rubber seal on the main door of Camele is coming off so we fix that in place and we fix the rear window brake light that has been swinging for quite some time. Jimmy and Sylvia tell me they are going to uncover their water main on the berm we can look at getting water to site. Jim then ends up mowing along the berm and mows our fields for us. Thanks Jim. We end the day with a few beers.

Wednesday; Today there is a list, a list we have been distracted from. This is getting Palmerston moving. Till has taken up so much head space and physical time that we have neglected some important jobs. I am not coping, I can barely string a sentence together, we are taking on too much at once. These are all self imposed deadlines and it is time to take a breath, get back on track but do it in a very achievable manner. Big on the list is seeing the council, we have a few questions about how does changes effect building consent and what causes major changes and delays. While we were there we chatted to the rates team about our rates, we can get quite a rebate as we now have 5 sets of rates in the Waitaki area. We also want to use to occupy and pay rates for a section next door and needed advice on how to do that. We had small errands to do like the pharmacy and picking up tool parts. We got in front of a few window manufacturers and asked them questions about costs and how to keep things to a minimum. Windows are quite an expense when building. After that we got chatting to the bathroom and kitchen team at Mitre10. We also looked at pole shed designs. While I was there I got some pumice and potting mix. Back at Till I planted some Microgreens and lots of herbs. I really have missed having plants and looking after a garden. At the local dump Rowan found a chair and a cupboard he wants for storage at Herbert. We will need to come back for the cupboard with the trailer.

Thursday; I finally tried out our new espresso maker for Camele. This one is different to our large one and Rowan found it in Dunedin on Monday. I have a lot of Demitasse cups in storage which is no good to me, but these sweet Hornsea spice jars work. It took a bit of searching but these are called a Maggiolina Espresso Machine. I love it so much! Off into town, we haven’t had a breakfast at mcds in months and it was about time to just do it. I wanted to come in and get some dessert for this afternoon as we have been invited to Jim and Sylvia’s for a barbie. Sylvia has a few dietary restrictions so I wanted to make sure I got something that she can eat. We picked up our ladders at Till and our washing that is now dry. Then we went to the dump to pick up the cabinet before heading back to Till. Rowan dug three holes and put posts in. I used rust converter then painted the container. It looks much tidier, I can’t wait to do the whole thing. Before we knew it, three o’clock hit. Off to cut some trees for the neighbours and have a bbq. We ended up no doing any cutting and just ate a lot. Haha

Friday; I finally got the motivation by 8.30am to get out and paint. Gee today is cold and cloudy, this will be interesting. I get a third of the way through and a misty rain is upon me. I decide to carry on as it really doesn’t matter if it drips a bit. Delayed by gross weather we decide to do a little explore and head out to Hampden for brunch. We go down some back roads that I have wanted to explore for a while. When we get back to Herbert I have a message from neighbour Jim that the motorbike is here. Rowan wants it, I am dubious about learning on it. It appears to be a great bike but I can only just touch the ground. We take Jim up to Ngapara where he picked the bike up from. He has a new place up there which is a bit of a bolt hole and will be for all his family.

I am a bit worried about going on it in the wet. Rowan takes me for a small ride around the block. Some of it I enjoy the rest I was anxious haha. Jim says use it for the weekend and let him know if we want it. I am sure Rowan is sold. It easily handles both of us, which is great.

Saturday; The weather is better today, I get a quick second coat of paint on and Rowan starts making the shelter. I clear out Camele as there are lots of things we don’t need and plenty of annoying things getting in the way. I help Rowan with attaching the first bit to the container, the rest he does on his own. The convovulous is really dying down which is great, let’s hope I only have to hit it once or twice more. Once Rowan had the iron on the weather threatened more rain. We managed to get the heavy cupboard in and clear up before it really hit. The cupboard was awkward but we got it in okay. Some of the wood Rowan used for the iron to attach to is the bent stuff from Mitre10. It looks like I have taken a bad panorama. I took each of the three bicycles up to the Herbert Hall and washed them. Then I took them back down to the block and oiled them. I took all the stuff off my bike I wanted and put it on Joanne’s bike. Rowan has a school friend who has just moved to NZ so he can have my old bike.

Sunday; I got more fiddle jobs completed on the camper. The back lockers both had stuffed catches so those were replaced and the door one too. This random rubber jiblit that we found on a plane went over one of the old holes. Rowan attached the bike rack and put the bikes back on Camele. I rust converted the trailer base and gave it a coat of paint. I know this won’t hold for 20years but it means it will slow the pace down while we own it. Rowan attached a plywood base. We went into Ōamaru to put a battery on charge, power tools have run out. While that was charging we emptied and filled up Camele, had some lunch and got some more stuff from Mitre10. Of course we went to the dump shop and got some LPG too. My Microgreens are already starting to sprout! I checked on all the plants making sure they have enough water.

Monday; We came into town to get some paperwork done. The day ended up a bit of a miss. Our neighbour Laura came around so we invited her to have lunch with us. We had a lot of running around to do so we just went to the bakery. I washed Rowan’s dungarees as they are falling apart and handed them clean and dry to Laura and she said she will patch them up quick. We didn’t achieve as much as I hoped but that is fine. There is always tomorrow. When we got back to Herbert we went for a ride to chase a fire. One of the neighbours burning off their fields.

Tuesday; We come into Till after dropping off the trailer, oooh there is a new lock! Tama came yesterday and installed our pin code lock. Rowan quickly realises that the code part is not working. He pulls it apart and Tama element through the wires when he screwed it on 🤦‍♀️. It takes Rowan an hour to rewire it and get it working. Well hey we have a locked house. Now we can put the glass panel back in the back door and have a fully lockable home. We set off on a mission looking for Seal and Peel, it is a special paint on liquid masking tape. Designed to not stick to glass but stick on putty and wood. Meaning I can paint the windows, Rowan can spray the weatherboards and we don’t have to worry about the glass. It just peels off like a plastic wrap when you’re done. Our mission was a bit of a fail. I got some designed for walls but won’t work on windows. We end up ordering some from Christchurch. Cory cracked on with tidying the hedge up, not sure if we will fence down there or not. We can’t make our minds up. I attacked the living room cleaning and removing old wallpaper. I can’t wait till we start painting inside. Rowan pottered but he is pretty stuffed from yesterday’s drive. A day off on the horizon? So far no.

Wednesday; Our Peel and Seal arrived I got to cleaning the windows ready to apply. I got most of the way before our neighbour Laura from across the road invited for lunch. It was really nice, Laura got us sushi and she was celebrating having the kids back at school. We hung out for a few good hours. It is really nice getting to know all the neighbours around us. Back at work, I really want the prep to the glass done so I can prime the putty. This new putty I got only takes a few days before you can paint it. I think the neighbours thought I was crazy painting the windows. I even had a lady walking her dogs ask why I was. I told her nosy neighbours haha. Maybe we can grow some weed while I have all this protection on the glass. Now I can’t do this on the three lead light windows as the paint will stick on the lead, so I will have to cut in nicely and cover them up the old fashioned way when Rowan sprays. Tomorrow we head back to Christchurch to do the next 150 fence posts.

Thursday; Cory starts out on our planer tool. It works like a charm. I wish we had this tool when we did the weatherboards in Bluff and Herbert. Today we are heading up to Christchurch. The original plan was to go after work and arrive late. But for the sake of a half a day hire we can take our time heading up and to be frank we aren’t getting much done as we both need a day off. So we head out of Ōamaru at 11.30am! We op shop in Timaru and shop all the way up to Brooklands. We go straight to our container to load up some of our belongings and attempt to find our tools. Annoyingly we have buried them inside a cabinet behind a cabinet and below a cabinet haha. We load a small amount into the front so the fence posts are more central this time. Then we will load a bit behind the posts. We had a late dinner at Rick & Liz’s house. Unfortunately not much time to catch up.

Friday; We have three errands to do this morning before we end up meeting Marty at 9am. So we head into town at 7am ready to go to the Tool Shed. Cory has already gone through a set of blades so we need to order more. Then we go to my salon supplier for conditioner for Rowan and some treatment for me. As we are there we get a call to say he is early. So we have to head back to Brooklands pick up the trailer and meet him near the boat ramp in Brooklands. It doesn’t take us long to load up. We were on the next side and were nearly done with the front stack when the trailer tilted. I didn’t click what happened and Rowan asked if it is a tilt trailer. No, it isn’t. It has snapped right where the draw bar meets the trailer tray. Well there is no way to get this back to Kaikōura as it is. Luckily he has AA plus membership. Rowan talks him through it, he has used AA numerous times. Luckily he didn’t appear to phased about it. We left him to it but told him to call us if he needs to as we will be in the area loading up for the next few hours. We get back to Liz and have a cuppa with her. There is a bunch of stuff we left in the garage on the agreement that they are welcome to give it away, use it, basically do what they like with it. I checked that Liz was happy with us taking a bunch of it back. This really does save us a lot of money as it is stuff we would need to buy again. We load up the trailer and car from the storage place. We get to the tools and find the all important paint sprayer attachments. We get quite a lot in. Marty calls to tell us he is all sorted and we head out of Christchurch after lunch. We mooch our way back. After Timaru we hit the bad weather and we miss the rain, but the edge of the storm gets us. The wind slows us right down to 50km/60km. We arrive in Ōamaru around 5pm. Unload as much as we can at Till and then head to Herbert to get rid of the posts and the last bits. This is much more civilised, all done by 7pm. Definitely worth the extra cost. We will return the trailer tomorrow and we have left to posts in there so they can repair their fence.

Saturday; Trailer dropped off and I spend the day organising stuff we dumped last night. There is a lot to go through but I quite enjoy pottering. Rowan gets a couple of annoying jobs done so he is happy. Our neighbour directly opposite is selling her house. We go be nosy neighbours and attend the open home. It is the first one and the place is rather busy. Apparently the market is heating up, which is a good sign if you’re wanting to sell. Cory is working, he works on tidying up around the outside and strengthening the garage.

Sunday; As we head into Till we get a message to say Cory won’t be working today. Bugger, we would have planned our day a bit different. Oh well. I get making some to do lists and Rowan puts away some of the tools I have sorted. We don’t bother hanging around long, we wait for our washing to be done and head in to town. We load up the car with tools for Tuesday as we want to spend a day in Herbert getting some jobs done. We go to Mitre10 to pick up some wood and head to Herbert. The plan is to get started now but it is incredibly hot. I get one job done and I just can’t do anymore. I go through my jewellery I got out of storage as it is way more fun haha.

Monday; We have an oven to pick up in Dunedin. Annoyingly she can’t do it. So we go in for a large mirror and then see some friends. On our way in we drop off sheep netting that we found amongst the crap in Till Street. A neighbour down there has a use for it so we promised we would drop it off next time we were coming past. After our mirror pick up we headed to pick up our friends. Mairi & Daniel are from Scotland and we became friends when we stayed in Haast on our journey nearly a year ago. We went out for breakfast and had a great catch up. They are incredibly lovely and are easy going. Hopefully we will get a chance to see each other in a few weeks. They are going to the Caitlins, I am sure they will love it. We used up the rest of the day op shopping around Dunedin. It was really good just having a day off no real goals and it was quite relaxing.

Tuesday; Cory arrived with Presley in tow. First job on his list is removing the rotten kitchen floor. I was completely astonished to see hard wood flooring underneath it all. We got him to remove all the damaged bits so we can strengthen and replace it. From there he got stuck into the garden. It was a very interrupted day so I felt like I didn’t achieve much. I stopped and started the same job all day, getting the rest of the plants into the bank. We had a lady come get a table and chairs off us, the modern one we got for staging last year thinking we will use it in Palmy. I thought it may be too big, well it is. He has been getting rid of all the extra stuff so we don’t clutter up the space. I can’t remember exactly what Rowan did today apart from removal of tree stumps. We are both slowing down and need a day off, but we have help and there is too much to do.

When we saw the council yesterday we mentioned we had a leaking water toby and South Roads turned up and fixed it in no time. The water was just pouring out, no wonder we had a wet garage.

I find an old fireplace hearth in the garden!

Wednesday; A busy start to the day, our neighbour Ian came over to putty our windows. He is retired now but was a painter. Not long after we arrived we headed out to a meeting with South Roads. They are council approved contractors to do the driveways and all the services for Palmerston. While there we ran into Shane the contractor who fixed our water toby. He told us to tell Luke to give us a good price, say Shane said so. We got back to the house and then Cory arrived with Presley. They were sorting out the backyard and came across a blanket and a fairly shallow hole. I told them to cover it back up as I am sure it is a fairly recent pet grave. I think I will plant a tree on top of it so I know not to dig there again. Ian did 4 hours of putty and he will be back tomorrow to do more. Presley and Cory began deconstruction of the weird lean to, storage thing on the garage. Rowan worked on the bathroom floor and added sister joists to strengthen and worked on the replacing it with plywood. I will seal the edges of ply before he screws it down tomorrow. I uncovered more paths and planted a free grass plant that a lady gave me on Facebook. It is a lot bigger than I expected, but I love it. Hopefully it lives!

We have an epic sunset, see the photos! The sun is actually setting directly behind us, but the clouds are making incredible patterns.

Thursday; Today we get better indoor outdoor flow, Rowan pulls off the rotten wall to the toilet. He starts muddling his way through framing it and gets thoroughly stuck. I call Tama and beg him to come give us some guidance. He turns up after work and gives Rowan a run down on how to do it. Thank you Tama! A box of beer later we have him coming back to put in a door lock for the front door on Monday. We have been bolting the front door lock and keeping the key in the back door and reaching through the broken window pane to lock and unlock the house.

Friday; Cory gets the fun job of getting the cladding off the garage. As you can see most of the weird lean thing is now gone, the pretty sure it’s illegal and quite dangerous. The roof hasn’t come up yet, it may be able to be replaced or added to. I spent most of Thursday continuing the putty on the windows that Ian started. I finally finished the job today. Over 1kg of putty and I am sure I will use the second kilo or more doing the studio/shed and the garage. Now that Rowan has guidance he works on the toilet wall, I have had to tell everyone every time I want to mimi (urinate), so I am looking forward to a wall and door going back on. However when I don’t have to announce my business it is quite nice peeing so freely. I hope none of the neighbours mind.

Saturday; With a plan of attack today nothing can go wrong. Well by the time we got rid of our metal at the Hampden Dump and got back to Herbert loaded the trailer with corrugated iron and got into Till Street it was already 10.30am. We unpacked the car and headed off to Mitre10 for supplies. We need more 2×4 and building paper among other things. Just after 12pm we were finally ready to do some work. I sprayed all around the house with that stuff for bugs. The flies here are ridiculous, we have either disturbed them or it is just because this house has had a feast in its yard for so many years. Those little automatic sprayers is not keeping up. I feel like we have achieved nothing today. Exhausted and needing a break. However we will push through, tomorrow is a new day and we have a list to get through.

Sunday; The list is really working, we are getting lots of little jobs off the list. The most important on the list is doing a bit more of a tidy, the place has stuff everywhere. There is more rubbish and lots of bones to pick up. I start by giving Camele a vacuum or should I say luxing this far south? We have some candelabras to pick up and we need Camele to do it in so I can easily hold them all the way to Till St. I work on bog and filler any bits Rowan used the epoxy in the other day. Rowan got lots of annoying small jobs completed, the barge board replaced, fixing exterior window frames, finishing off the toilet wall. We hung the toilet door. I put out the garden sprinklers and put them on a timer. Now I don’t need to worry about them. Lots of annoying jobs that just needed to be done.

Monday; Today we head to Christchurch. First we pick up trailer locally, we are on the road by 7am. We are meeting Marty, a guy we got half round 2.4m posts off trademe. They are $4 each and for the extra $1 he will deliver them from Blenheim. We got 300! However this trip is just for 150, we will need to come up again. The furniture trailer we hired so we can load up with extras from our storage. We get the posts first, who knows how much room we will have until we load up first. It takes the two of us 45min to load them. We then head to Rick and Liz’s place to pick up a couple of wire baskets. Finally off to our storage, as we pull in Rowan realised we don’t have the key. It is in Camele at Herbert. Shit, we borrow some bolt cutters and consider using them. We come to the conclusion we don’t want in that bad, let’s go back and load more baskets. On Facebook marketplace there are $1 sinks and they are just down the road. We end up with 13 sinks for $12. What a bargain! We load up with them and finally leave Christchurch after 5pm. A slow trip back to Herbert. The baskets come off quickly. Once in a rhythm it takes us 30min to unload the posts. It is nearly full dark when we finish. Absolutely shattered we go home for a beer. A late night and an early start to drop the trailer off tomorrow.

Tuesday; Back to work we go. Today is pretty busy. Not long after we sit down with our surveyor to talk about our land in Palmerston. The pegs show the neighbours fence is not right. It is out by quite a lot at one spot. We are not worried, we will most likely leave it where it is unless we need to build some new fences. We get some supplies from mitre10 and say hello to Leona. Then we have the sparky come take a look and give us an idea on cost to put a new switchboard in. The rest of the afternoon is spent taking a load to the dump and other various tidying.

Wednesday; with our load of stuff to drop off at the Hampden Tip we head there first. A cheap $40 mower in Moeraki will do the trick at Till. I return 3 of the fans and loads of other goodies too good to put in the skip. We pick up lots of glass. It costs a good couple of hundred to get someone to cut you glass to size. It was something Rowan really got good at when we renovated in Bluff.

At Tilly I focus on a top to toe in the smaller bedroom to turn it into our break room. I will continue this throughout the house. We just need the next few days to really get organised and make a place for everything so we know where it all belongs and where to get it from when we need it! At 1pm Tama our builder pays a visit. He will help with jobs we just can’t be bothered with. Weatherboards, flooring etc. We also have a roofer turn up to take a look at the place. Sounds like it is in good knick and we shouldn’t do anything to it.

Thursday; Rowan and I attempted to get the Clawfoot cast iron bath sorted. Unfortunately it only has three legs. I will have to start looking for another one or a complete different set. We are soaking the old bolts in some WD40, it is now a tomorrow problem. We have two more sparkys come to look at the house. I think we finally have our man. We will probably use him for Palmerston too. I have tried to use paint stripper to help prepare the windows but it really is taking way too long. Not to mention it is expensive. So we go out to the tool shed and acquire a specialised tool. It is designed for weatherboards. Basically it is a plane and it cuts out a small amount as you run it along. Hopefully this is a clever next move. Note to self watch a video before trying. We get to knock off a little early today, we are heading to Glenavy to see Kelvin, Paula and the girls. They have just been south so we headed up to them and had fish and chips for dinner. It was great catching up with them.

Friday; Rowan started his glass cutting and I followed behind with some putty. I got some putty I have never tried before. Not the usual linseed based one. I made a mess at the start as I went to knead it but with this stuff you make a mess doing that. It is best to not work it. Also it has the benefit of a few days to set before painting rather than weeks. Rowan is doing really well with his cutting of the glass. I am up the ladder when I hear a “Katie.” I find his attempting to move the bath on his own. I am going to paint this bath. I am just not sure what colour yet. I really need to choose colours soon. As the day comes near an end I find a lot of shattered glass on the ground. Ah yes, of course some of this glass is safety glass. Haha thanks tip shop. I make the decision to leave that as Cory’s first job and put it in the too hard pile. We head off and see an amazing sunset tonight. The way the clouds are formed gives us an amazing effect.

Saturday; We had a few morning errands but we busied ourselves while waiting for Cory to arrive. Eventually I send Rowan off as he is now late to see Dave (Leona’s husband) to see if he has any potential claw feet for us. We also have a lunch date with our neighbours. However that gets a rain check. I potter in the house and busy myself easily. Finally I give up and message Cory. Whoops we have communicated wrong and he isn’t coming today he is coming tomorrow. Oh well. When Rowan gets back we head up the road to get some free native grasses and thyme. The lovely Lyn tells me I can come back for more if I like. So I pull out a lot of them and when we get back I put them in water as I won’t have time to plant them yet. We then go to Resene, I am after some wallpaper. Well deary me it is expensive! Nope it is way more costly than paint. I am gutted as I really want to go for wallpaper. I am going to have to come up with a new idea. We also get a few other jobs done while we are out. Today is near 30 degrees it is just too hot. We also would have taken the day off if we knew we weren’t obligated anywhere. So we make the great decision to go back to Herbert and relax the rest of the day.

Sunday; I spent all day in the garden. It wasn’t as hot as yesterday. I aimed to get the free plants into the ground. This task won’t take long… well it took all day. I found three walls that I rebuilt. There were dog bones and litter throughout. Plus a few piles of ashes to remove, one was full of nails. There were loads of sticks and grassy bits to remove. finally once I did all that I could plant all the lovely grasses and thyme. Rowan had the task of hardening the wood. There is a special two pack epoxy designed for boats that hardens rotten wood. It is quite a process with you need to remove most of the rot first. That preoccupied Rowan for the day. We had our man Cory back, he was straight onto cleaning up the safety glass. Then he pulled the cardboard down out of the studio and cleared up the crap in the corner. After that we had him removing stumps. This was good for me as it was the last job before I could plant. Rowan and Cory took out the old dog house out. I wanted to list it for free but as soon as they started to move it, it fell apart. Cory dismantled it for his last job of the day.

Monday; Today I woke up super early 3.30am and couldn’t sleep. Rowan also woke up early 5.30am so we were at till by 7am. We picked up some more plants from lovely Lyn and I got another carex from another lady on Facebook. So I spent the morning planting more of the same area. We had a Dave and a Harry come over. Dave looked at the building stuff and Harry got his chainsaw out and chopped up the macrocarpa more. Rowan is a little annoyed as he broke a window and Rowan said to be careful. Argh another job on the list. We also have wee Presley here helping out. Cory gets the trailer loaded with rubbish to take to the tip. It is mostly the stuff inside the small tool shed and other crap from the garden. We get some more stumps removed today and finally get the one next to the house gone. Rowan works on replacing a window in the main bedroom. We also take the time to see the building team at the council about Palmerston. The PIM (pre building consent), came back and we just had one question. All looks pretty good. Yay, first step done, now to finalise plans then apply for consent. I also noted water in our garage that hasn’t disappeared all week, if anything has gotten worse. I thought it must have rained while we are away. Alas the water Toby needs fixing. Rowan let the council know, which they will fix in the next few days.

We sold a washing machine which was doing the ticket but we upgraded at the tip shop. Twenty bucks and it is a front loader. We sold the old $10 washer for $30. I didn’t get as much done as I wanted today. There was a lot of interruptions, however tomorrow is a new day!

A sneaky preview of some online shopping!

Tuesday we get up really early and drive straight down to Invercargill with the ute and the trailer. Our mission today is to pick up a load of Axminster carpet. I got this lot off trademe which is more than enough to carpet Tilly. The weather looks good we have no rain on the horizon. Once we have loaded it up and begin to strap it down it spits. Typical! Oh well it isn’t enough to really matter. We do a bit of op shopping and we op shop all the way back to Herbert. We get in around 7pm, we are incredibly tired. We check the forecast, a chance of a few showers in the morning. Sweet, let’s sleep and worry about unloading tomorrow.

Waking up to rain, proper rain at 2am, serves us right for being lazy! Well our Wednesday just got more interesting. We head to the Hampden Tip, let’s buy all the fans we can. We score 8 fans, 1 dehumidifier for $25. They give them super cheap as we promise them they will be coming back as soon as we are done. We unload these long heavy rolls into the house. We spread them out and turn everything on. They take up three rooms.

We take off to the Ōamaru tip to look for building materials and perhaps some more fans. I come across this amazing shelf, it hasn’t been priced so I ask how much? $45. Sold! instead of recessing it in I am going to paint the edge behind and add led lights! Our Wednesday looking up, we head back to Herbert and start organising.

I get a call from the principal of the school next to our blocks. Oh the fence we have planned actually goes through your property. Is it okay if I give your number to the project manager? Absolutely, no worries I am sure we will work something out.

Thursday, oh wow really hot. 36 degrees! Not a great day to be inside a hot container and trying to re organise it. When we came back from Christchurch we just put everything in there no order whatsoever. Today is the day to change that. I have to take several breaks and drink a lot of water. In the end we gave up, got in the camper and waited for it to get shady enough that we could carry on. It all finally got done.

Friday morning, we are hitting the road. First let’s check on our carpet. The fans and dehumidifier are doing a good job, we empty it and leave it all on. From there we head south to Palmerston. First to sort the Camele’s tanks then we go to look at the new survey pegs. Eek, it looks like one goes quite far onto the neighbours property. Oh well worry about that later. From Palmerston we head to Lake Dunstan. We stop many times along the way, Ranfurly, Alexander etc.

Saturday morning we carry on towards Queenstown and go out to Glenorchy. Not without a mandatory stop at Fergburger and the op shops. We try to make it all the way out to Chinamans Bluff, but the fords get the better of us. Camele is not a 4wd so let’s not push it! We come back and check out the start of the Routeburn track. On the last ford which was the deepest we found a couple who had taken off a lot of the plastic underside of their rental car. Oops. The ford was quite murky now and they didn’t know there was a huge rock in the middle of it. Which of course we had seen and avoided both ways. In the end we stay that night on the banks at the Rees River.

Sunday, we head back in towards the Routeburn but head past to the Greenstone and Caples Track. First we reach Kinloch then we are back on small track roads. There are three fords to cross and it is raining. We decide we won’t hang around long just in case they get deeper! We make it to the end of the road. Looks like a good walk, we will come back and do it sometime! Tonight we wait for Wānaka. Heading back in to Queenstown the weather gets a lot better. We go up over the Crown Range and end up finding a freedom camping spot at the top. That’s it we shall stay here. Well Queenstown has a lack of spaces you can stay. 22 other campers were up there too. We found a spot high up which meant we really didn’t have neighbours.

Monday, time to head home. We op shop in Wānaka before heading to Ōmarama. At Ōmarama we take a quick detour to the salmon shop near Twizel. Yumm real wasabi and a load of fish later that is our lunch. However we don’t stop and actually eat till way after 3pm. In Duntroon we go down to the domain and find a shady spot to eat. On the way to Ōamaru we stop at Maerewhenua rock drawing site. This one we missed on our alps to ocean cycle as we were on a fenced part of the ride. We climbed the stairs to take a look. Before heading back, we stopped in Elderslie to see Pete & Bev. Pete was home but not Bev. Finally at 6pm we were back in Herbert. It felt like a long day but I am glad we had a chance to go away before cracking on.

Before we can even think about or know exactly what needs to be done to the house we need to clear it. The property is a jungle of weeds, plants and rubbish!

Wednesday; the plan is to get rid of those smelly freezers and remove the oven and washing machine. We barely get started and the lid opens slightly which makes Rowan sick in the garden. I suggest we get Cory for two hours to help. While we wait we finish clearing around the side and back so the heap of rubbish at the back door can be removed easily. Tomorrow we have a much needed 7.5m3 skip coming.

We strap the lid down before attempting to move the freezer again. Unfortunately it has to go up on its end to get through the narrow passage. Only a small about of mucky juice comes out. I bleach it and water it down to help remove the smell. We get all of the gross stuff into the trailer and ute. I have a go at cleaning the sink so we can fill water bottles. It is encrusted with rat shit and cardboard food boxes. I try not to think too hard about what it all is. I then get onto the toilet, which is not too bad. It is really dusty and dirty but I am focusing on the actual toilet for now. Cory focuses on bagging up all the crap left in the house ready for the skip, around 15 black sacks. We also get the two beds onto the trailer. When time is up for Cory I ask if he is coming back tomorrow? Yes he says (phew). Rowan and I head out to the dump to get rid of the stuff. It weighs more than we expected. To get the large freezer off we had to flip the bin and run. Super gross!

We have a lovely visit from Gerry and Margaret our ex neighbours at Herbert.

Thursday; Yay skip day is here!

I load up all of the bagged stuff from yesterday and give the dining room a quick sweep before Cory arrives. Cory gets straight into the huge pile of rubbish at the back door. One pile is about 5 feet high. You can’t even see outside the dining window!

Pete & Bev come visit to see if our apple tree is able to be saved. It was covered in convolvulus. Looks like we can save it after all!

It nearly fills the skip, by lunchtime Cory has it filled and I am asking for another bigger skip. Gee I hope we don’t need more than two! Cory also rips up the carpet adds that into the skip and the small amount of scrim which is just in the wardrobe. Pretty lucky we don’t have more.

Friday; new day, new skip.

Cory attacks the garage rubbish. The pit of despair nearly fills the 9m3 skip. It is so much deeper than I expected. There is a lawnmower in there.

Rowan works of clearing more of the garden and I attempt to clean the bathroom.

Saturday; today we plan to burn a load of green waste. We have been taking loads to Herbert at the end of every day. There is already a large pile that needs to be burned made from the neighbours. Cory works on clearing the studio and the tool shed. Rowan continues in the garden and I help hold ladders and load up the green waste.

Sunday; more the same!

We keep clearing the land, Cory keeps finding more rubbish for the skip. I have a bumblebee nest in the shed I have to deal with because both of these two are too chicken. We have extra hands today. Lucy, who is our local postie. She is here to clean for today and tomorrow. It takes her all day but she gets the kitchen to a more reasonable standard.

For such a small section of land we sure get a lot of biomass out of it.

Monday; final day with extra help.

Lucy cleans the bathroom. Then onto the windows. It doesn’t sound like much but it makes a difference. Cory gets water blasting but our machine isn’t cutting the mustard. It probably needs a full service after years of no use. Rowan and I race down to TK hire and grab there one with the paint stripping nozel. We need time for the house to dry out and it makes sense to do it now.

When Cory has to leave, I get on the water blaster and do all the fence and a bit of the pathways. We will need another hire of this as we only did a half day! Looks like our wee house was yellow once.

Not quite a week but here are some drone pictures! Not a bad week at all. We are absolutely stuffed!

Kia ora whanau, we are back on the land of the long white cloud. We arrived back just before the end of the year. We packed up both vehicles full to the roof, got up early and headed to Ōamaru.

For those who know me well, I freeze in a manual when I get to traffic lights or stop signs when there is another vehicle behind me. Our ute doesn’t have a great handbrake and she rolls back. Rowan has it to a fine art but I don’t drive enough to get the knack. I am a bit nervous of driving all the way on my own but once we had been going for a bit in Christchurch it all just came naturally. Rowan stayed behind me which made me feel more confident. When we finally got out of Christchurch I put my music on and sang the rest of the way. With all the stops to check on each other it took 4 hours to get to Ōamaru. We stopped at the dump station at the north end of town. Barely back in town and our neighbour Jimmy pulled over to say hi and wished us a happy new year. Small towns!

We unloaded all our stuff into the container. Parked up the ute and headed up Mt Misery. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, chatting away.

Bright eyed and bushy tailed, off to town we go. We let ourselves into Leona’s office and pick up our keys for Till. We get to the house and have a good look around, we just want to measure up and make a mud map. We come across the notorious chest freezer, it doesn’t smell like the stuff has frozen in the time we have been away. I bravely open it. It smells really bad, mostly rotten vegetables. The freezer obviously doesn’t freeze anymore, at least it appears to keep things a bit colder. Rowan leaves the house almost immediately. I don’t think we will be going back inside today. What we really need is a skip, there is not much we can do without first getting rid of the rubbish to get a blank slate. I have the bright idea to hire someone to help us.

I ask a few friends if they know anyone who would like some work. No one knows anyone, so we get on Facebook and ask. Within a small time there are heaps of messages. I reply to all of them with photos of the work so they are not fooled into the job. We have a few people coming to check out the job tomorrow. Maybe $30 per hour was too much but I would rather a hard worker and it is messy work. It is not easy choosing someone but if they don’t work out we can say thank you and try someone else. Leona sees my post and tells me there are a few people that should be alright because she has sold a house to them. Cory is one of her recommendations.

One guy comes but he doesn’t appear to be enthusiastic about the job. Then a couple come who also want their son to help, now we are at $90ph! Not just that they are cleaners, I really need more a labourer than a cleaner. So we end up giving Cory a shot first, we need a skip but everyone is shut at the moment. Rowan and I decide we need to clear a space so the rubbish at the back of the house can come down beside the house. We get the Hilux into position tie a strop around the tree and drive. Works a treat on the pittosporums.

We will put up a cute picket fence instead. The pittosporums are a bit rotten and not in good knick.

Hello all, I hope you are all having a nice Christmas.

We are in Sydney, we came over about 2 weeks ago. Bette has been missing us and we have been missing her. It made good sense to see her before we got knee deep in cleaning up Till Street. Rowan said it is silly to go back just before Christmas Day. We are flying back on the 28th.

I have been baking up a storm since being here, making sure I fill the freezer before I leave. Bette’s friends came over for an early Christmas lunch which gave me an excuse to do pavlova!

We have ended spending Christmas Day alone, as Rowan’s sister didn’t invite us to her place, and his mother took Bette there for the day, but it’s nice to have some time to relax! They will be back some time this evening.

Wishing you a happy Christmas x

Well, well, well. This Facebook section for sale is bigger, flatter, pricier. Two hundred thousand to be exact, but that was a price we were happy to pay for Dunback. We just didn’t go that high because why pay more if no one else is willing to.

This land is simple, no crazy old unconsented buildings to remove. Just a stormwater drain exceptionally close or on some of the land. 3 titles instead of two and double the size of land. The good thing is we have done a lot of the due diligence on the Dunback property we can easily transfer a lot of that to this one. So we get on our bikes (so to speak) and visit their home to sign up. We go through all the frustrating moments of a private sale. Trying to act cool but also wanting to know what on earth is happening. It takes a few days for us to have it under contract. The race was on at this point as we didn’t want to dump Dunback without having this one in place and being sure. We exhausted all of our resources and asked millions of questions. Placemakers team have been a real gem in us getting our build costs. They really made life a lot easier for us.

Once we crashed the Dunback contract we knew with 90% certainty that we would go ahead with Brough St. The best thing to do was to continue our due diligence and keep digging to see if we had missed any important information we may need. We chatted to local council and regional. Finally we ran out of time and we went unconditional and settled. There was no real time between the two as lawyers are closing down for the holidays. We held back a few thousand for a surveyor to put pegs in the boundaries in the new year, but it is now in Rowan’s name. Not a bad ending for 2023!

It is all coming along nicely, touch wood, it all appears to be falling into place. I can finally tell you all, I will do it in two parts. Two sections we were considering on purchasing. 133 Dunback Road, Palmerston. The properties have two old school rooms that were located in the late 90s. These were put on the land, consent granted but they never got past the piles being dug. We hoped to save the buildings and we played a bit of cat and mouse to get them under contract. After we viewed the properties we attempted to get them under contract before the deadline sale. We offered $165k, which we hoped would entice them to take it. It ended up being a mistake as we gave the vendors high price expectations. When they didn’t take the offer we took it off the table and stayed quiet for a week.

The day before the deadline sale we got a call from the agent to see if we were still interested. I was very noncommittal and stayed very vague, a proud moment because that is not a strong point of mine. I overshare when I shouldn’t haha. This is the same day we did the phone bidding for the Waimate auction. That was in the morning and we stayed around Oamaru area to complete some errands. Once all our jobs were done, we headed south. We stayed near Shag Point waiting for the agent to call us. Those who blink first loose. We finally get a call about 3.30pm and we go to meet her at the property. We find there is one other offer, it is conditional on a lot of things including lending. Let’s face it, it is not worth the price of fish and it will never get over the line. As the only offer on the table we went in at $150k. Which we expected would be a bit of a blow to them. From there we headed to Dunedin for a much needed day off from property. The agent asked us to go up in price, we said no take it or leave it. They took it but wanted a 5 day sunset clause if an unconditional offer came to the table. I thought rather silly since we only did a 10 day due diligence but I texted back and said we are okay with that. 

We enjoyed the day off and op shopped all of Dunedin. We had a cool Atomic coffee machine to pick up. On our way back to Kakanui we dropped into Palmerston to sign the changes on the contract. Much to our despair the added clause was completely different to what the agent told us it was. They put 2 days instead of 5 and the wording meant any offer could invoke the clause. Rowan put his foot down and said it is 5 days or nothing. The agent tried to tell us we can’t pull the contract. Well lady until we agree and sign it there is no contract in place. After a bit of back and fourth we finally had an agreement signed. Now to start our due diligence. 

Here are some photos of the project. Our builder said we could save the two buildings but it will cost a lot of money. These are not exactly an architectural gem.

Just as our i’s got dotted and our t’s got crossed we came across a private sale on Facebook that changed our direction.